McMenamins Gearhart Hotel Reviews

When we decided we wanted to get married in Gearhart, we knew the Gearhart Hotel was the only logical choice. Not only is it a beautiful historic building, but it has great energy and amazing food. Everybody at McMenamins was great to work with but especially Kristen. She went above and beyond to make our day fantastic, including hiding a case of rose in her office all summer. She was incredibly quick to answer dozens of questions and made sure every detail was right. McMenamins does so many events, they have great relationships with other vendors and it made it super easy to plan our wedding. Everything about our day was perfect and if anything went wrong, I don’t know about it. All our guests couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful the venue was and how much they liked the tots bar. Do yourself a favor - get married here.

I just got married last weekend at the McMenamins Gearhart Hotel in Gearhart, OR. Our wedding was absolutely amazing and I cannot say enough positives about McMenamins!

We were so impressed from start to finish with McMenamins. We were able to book the venue and a room block easily, and they provided us with free wine-tasting vouchers to Edgefield to select the wines that we wanted for the wedding. They also comped us their best suite for the night of the wedding, which was absolutely amazing and perfect for the night of the wedding. They use a food and drink minimum to cover the cost of the venue space, amenities, and staff, and this was super convenient for us and saved us a LOT of money.

Kristen, the venue coordinator, was a god-send. She was amazingly knowledgeable, and she helped us with so many details prior to the wedding and the day of. She spent so much time making sure that every detail was perfect and to our expectations. The venue was set up and decorated beautifully, the staff were so helpful and polite, and the evening flowed with no hiccups or difficulties. Also, their food was AWESOME! We were so incredibly pleased with the menu and everything was delicious!

My husband and I and our guests had a phenomenal evening, and everyone raved about how beautiful the location was and how amazing the staff were. We are so grateful to McMenamins for making our wedding day an absolute dream and for their wonderful service and expertise! I highly recommend using their wedding services!

Beautiful location, excellent food, great attention to detail and an impeccable staff that goes above and beyond.

We did our rehearsal dinner at the McMenamins Sand Trap and had a wonderful experience. Of all of our vendors related to our wedding, these guys were by far the easiest to work with. Our original rehearsal dinner site fell through a couple of weeks before, so we were scrambling to find a place. We hadn't heard of Sand Trap before, and stumbled across it. We were sure that because it was so nice, it would be out of our budget, but we emailed them anyway. They were incredibly responsive and worked out all of the details with us in just a week. We ended up spending the same amount as we would have at our original location, which was not NEARLY as nice. The food was great (we just did pizza, salads, tots and drinks), the wait staff were very attentive and quick, and the location was beautiful and worked perfectly for our 35-40 people. I cannot say enough great things about our experience and encourage others to use this venue as well!

We selected McMenamin's for our October 2016 wedding due to the all-inclusive nature of their packages, and the excellent value that it is. My brother had gotten married a few years back at a McMenamin's, so we knew that the packages that they offer really streamline the wedding planning process. We chose the Gearhart location for a few reasons: we love the Oregon coast, my husband loves to golf, and their 18 room hotel seemed like a perfect and intimate size for our medium-sized wedding. Initially, the communication with the venue was a little spotty, but then Elisha and Susan came on board and were very professional and accommodating. We knew it was a gamble trying to get married on the coast in October and have an outdoor ceremony, but as we got closer to the wedding date, it was clear the coast was in for a huge storm. Unfortunately, we were not able to get married on the beautiful lawn, but the staff were flexible right up until the very last minute, still leaving an outdoor ceremony as an option in case of a sudden weather change.

The wait-staff and bar-staff were excellent and efficient and kept the night moving along smoothly. Hotel staff were also very accommodating due to the bad weather, and McMenamin's comped our room for the night which was very generous. After the reception shut down at around 11 pm, the Sand Trap pub stayed open until 1 am so it was a nice spot for an after-party for our guests. (We also hung out there with wedding guests after our rehearsal dinner)

We meant to book the entire hotel with our guests, but we had a lot of people book condos across the street as well, as that seemed to work better for families, etc. Unfortunately, there were a few rooms in the hotel that were unbooked by our guests and so got rented out to other people. I saw a review by one of them that weekend that were not very pleased with our loud wedding festivities, but that can only mean we threw a hoppin' party right?!?!

We just had our wedding there in August 2019 and it was wonderful! Kristen was very attentive and helpful through the planning process, making sure it was what we wanted. The staff was very patient and accommodating and made the place look wonderful! The food was also delicious! Only con I have (that wouldn't be a deal breaker for us) is that they had a few desserts and beer items that were no longer available the day of the wedding and they subbed it for other desserts and beer, but didn't notify us of the changes and these changes caused our rehearsal dinner and wedding dinner menus to be more similar than we wanted. Also, dogs are allowed in the lawn area which is great as we brought our dogs and we set up a play pen for them as they were allowed in the banquet room, but other guests brought their dogs and brought them in to the banquet room and I would have appreciated McMenamins being the bad guy and telling them it wasn't allowed instead of us having to.

I loved the sales coordinator whom we worked with to plan our big day, but was disappointed with the rest. Our tent was set up wrong, the servers and set up staff were extremely rude to my guests as well as me, which was really irritating as the bride. I think they were short staffed, so they were grumpy. One of our three pasta entrees was never made, and my bridal bouquet disappeared. I have a hunch one of the staff knew where it went, because when I asked about it another girl started to answer but the other one quickly shut her up. It was bizarre. Again, we loved Melodee, she is fantastic at putting nerves at ease and is super nice and knowledgeable, but other parts were just a mess.

Beautiful location great event space very affordable. The staff that worked our event where very flexible and professional. Our only issue was with the actual event planner/ hotel manager. She had scheduled two wedding plus was running the front desk. She had way more going on then she could handle. Thus she wasn't really available to us throughout the day. She also was very rude and impatient with my wedding planner. All we wanted to do was change the setup of a couple tables. We even moved them so her staff wouldn't have too. It made her mad that I had changed my mind even though it was 8 hours before the wedding. I was not impressed with her at all. She added a bunch of stress to my wedding day that wasn't necessary.

I am torn on this eval. This is a big part of your special day & the budget. This was the beach ceremony & brunch.
We worked through a change of Event Coordinator at the last minute. So here are the gritty details:
The beach set up was perfect.
I saw the Livingstone room for the first time on the day of our event. It was a private venue that had access to the patio and oversaw the golf course as well as plenty of room for our 30+ guests. The room looked nice, it was set up comfortably and as planned. Enjoyed the background music. The decor is mellow, albeit a bit worn.
I was not greeted nor appraised of the venue and contractor details by Kara, the on site coordinator, which I would have appreciated.
The service was accommodating of our updated timeline. Many thanks! Servers were friendly and efficient.
While there was a bread basket at our table with goodies including scones, there were no bread plates! Too much going on to bother to ask for them. Our breakfast was served hot, with generous portions, and delicious. I was grateful for the tea. The cash bar was nice to have available.
*An item to consider when booking this venue!
Unfortunately, the bride & groom could not be accommodated on site at the hotel, which I understand is a customary offering. This required the couple to - not only stay across the street which was inconvenient for primping, changing and gathering luggage etc., but also an extra expense. The gift basket, in exchange for a night stay, was never delivered to the room and was sitting off to the side in the Livingstone room during brunch. It looked like it contained some nice local offerings.
* A direct number & email to be able to reach the event coordinator should be received. Until Susan came on board, I do not believe that I was ever able to call and speak with the event coordinator directly. Susan made an effort to get up to speed quickly and respond in a timely manner.
Sadly, not stress free.