The Parker Palm Springs
4200 East Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92264
760-770-5000
View their website
Average Base Cost: $44,000
Average base cost for a wedding at The Parker Palm Springs is calculated by figuring a 125-person guest list for a 5-hour reception on a Saturday night featuring their top-shelf bar options and a three-course seated meal. Transportation to venue, entertainment, additional decor, or tent rentals for the outside area are not included. Price, which includes tax and gratuity, is rounded up to the nearest thousand.
Facility Rental Fee: $3,500 covers the ceremony and ballroom area, white lawn chairs for the ceremony, a sound system with standing microphone, and fresh squeezed lemonade and water for guests displayed on a vintage bike. A standard set-up for weddings would include the croquet lawn for the ceremony, the moroccan lawn and foyer for the cocktail hour, and the ballroom for dinner and dancing.
How it Breaks Down
Price Per Person: $245
What’s Included? All dinner tables, cocktail rounds, hi-boy tables, white floor-length linens, china, glassware, flatware, house dance floor, house daybeds for guests to lounge on outside, valet parking for guests, 5 hour open bar with top-shelf liquor (Patron Silver, Bombay Sapphire, etc.), 4 trays of passed hors d’oeuvres, a signature cocktail, three course plated meal, house red and white wine with dinner, a sweets table customized by the pastry chef, and a complimentary Junior Suite for the bridal couple on their wedding night.
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More Stats
Space Type: Inside and Outside (because of Palm Springs desert weather, the need for a tent would be unlikely)
Size: Up to 200 guests comfortably
Food Service Type: Buffet or Seated (whichever you prefer)
Party On! Events taking place in the outside area have to be moved inside at 10 p.m. However, if you’re using the ballroom for dinner/dancing, you wouldn’t have to worry. If you wanted to have a longer reception (say, 6 hours…a good amount of time I think so you don’t feel rushed if your guests are having a good time), you can expect to pay an extra $15 per person per hour (so, for the non-math geniuses out there, that would be an additional $1,875 for 125 people). After 6 hours you would incur labor fees of $28 per hour per sever, and $150 per bartender.
How Will Grandma Get There? Guests are encouraged to stay on-site at the hotel (their sister hotel is Le Parker Meridian in NYC, as an FYI). In fact, you have to guarantee 10 rooms in order to have the wedding there. The average group rate is $265/night with a 2-night minimum. For guests who don’t have that kind of budget, there is a good selection of less expensive hotels in town. Out-of-town guests would fly into the Palm Springs International Airport, which is a short 5-10 minute cab ride to the hotel, so guests would not have to rent cars (and you wouldn’t have to provide transportation to the venue).
The Report
The Parker Palm Springs was designed by home accessories designer Jonathan Adler. He says he designed the resort to resemble your imaginary “great aunt’s estate.” “She’s an Auntie Mame type who traveled the world and had innate panache,” says Adler, who decorated the rooms and the grounds with 60’s throwbacks and other vintage-y, wordly decor. It has a spa and a gym, and was apparently funky enough to have it’s own reality T.V. show on Bravo (who DOESN’T have one these days?!), “Welcome to the Parker,” from 2007-2008.
Woman Getting Married Says
I really love the 60’s/colonial vibe of this place. The grounds are beautiful, and you have the convenience of having your wedding in a hotel (aka the ability to stumble back to your room) without the usual hotel cheesiness. I love their options for the day-before/day-of wedding activities for you and your guests (croquet,anyone?) and their easy rehearsal dinner options (they have two restaurants, a more casual Norma’s and the fancier Mister Parker’s).
As with all venues I research, I speak to the weddings coordinator as if I was a bride-to-be, and let me tell you that this specific coordinator was extremely helpful and knowledgeable (and got back to me right away!). That stuff is VERY important. I think for the quality of food, lodging, and potential for fun activities you’ll get here, the price is not overly-inflated. However, since we all know there’s room for negotiation, one area I would definitely try to negotiate is the extra $1,875 that’s listed for the extra hour of booze. I would try to get them to throw that in for you.
I would also try to negotiate the room rate down to somewhere around the $240/night range if you’re planning on using more than 20 rooms. Check out this great wedding at The Parker over at Green Wedding Shoes.
