Getting Married on the Royal Princess Yacht in Newport Beach, California
There’s something pretty magical about getting married on the water.
Instead of moving from a ceremony venue to cocktail hour to a reception space, imagine spending your wedding day aboard a beautiful yacht, surrounded by your favorite people, with Newport Harbor moving around you as the backdrop.
If you’re dreaming of a wedding that feels elevated, romantic, and a little unexpected, getting married on the Royal Princess Yacht in Newport Beach, California is such a fun option.
The Royal Princess is a private yacht operated by Newport Star Cruises, and offers a completely different experience from a traditional Southern California wedding venue. At over 100 feet long, the yacht features an elegant salon and cocktail lounge, a sweeping curved staircase, and an upper deck designed for dining and dancing with 360-degree bay views and honestly it makes for some pretty incredible wedding photos.
Why Have a Royal Princess Yacht Wedding?
A yacht wedding already feels like an experience from the moment your guests arrive.
Rather than simply showing up at a venue, everyone boards the Royal Princess together and spends the celebration cruising through Newport Harbor. Your ceremony, cocktails, dinner, dancing, and portraits can all become part of the same experience.
Newport Beach is already one of the most beautiful coastal wedding destinations in Southern California, but being out on the water gives you a completely different perspective of it.
You have the harbor, boats, coastline, sky, waterfront homes, and changing light surrounding you throughout the day.
And when the sun starts to set, that’s when things get really magical.
The Royal Princess Yacht as a Wedding Venue
The Royal Princess is designed specifically for private events and weddings, with space for dining, cocktails, dancing, and enjoying the views from the water.
The main salon gives the day an elegant indoor setting, while the upper deck offers panoramic views of Newport Harbor. The yacht is Coast Guard certified for up to 149 passengers, making it an option for everything from an intimate celebration to a larger wedding with family and friends.
Newport Star Cruises also offers full-service wedding planning, with options for catering, beverages, décor, entertainment, florals, and other event details.
That means your wedding day doesn’t have to feel like you’re piecing together a dozen different vendors and locations.
Instead, the yacht becomes the setting for the entire experience.
What Does a Royal Princess Yacht Wedding Look Like?
One of my favorite things about a yacht wedding is that your day naturally has movement built into it.
You can start with getting ready and details before guests board, followed by your ceremony overlooking Newport Harbor.
Afterward, everyone can move into cocktail hour while the yacht cruises through the harbor. You can spend this time enjoying your guests while we sneak away for portraits around the boat.
Then comes dinner, speeches, your first dance, and a night of dancing surrounded by the lights of Newport Beach.
It creates a wedding gallery that feels like an actual story.
Not just a collection of portraits.
Imagine your gallery looking something like this:
Getting ready:
The dress hanging in the cabin, your jewelry and invitations, your favorite people helping you get ready, and those quiet moments before the day officially begins.
The ceremony:
You walking down the aisle with Newport Harbor behind you, your guests watching from the deck, and all those little emotional moments that happen between the two of you.
Cocktail hour:
Champagne, hugs, candid conversations, and portraits on the deck while the harbor changes around you.
Couple portraits:
The two of you on the bow of the yacht, walking the deck together, leaning into each other while the California coastline stretches behind you.
Reception:
Beautiful tables, dinner with your favorite people, champagne toasts, your first dance, and a packed dance floor.
After dark:
Newport Harbor glowing around you, a little flash photography, black-and-white dance floor images, and the two of you sneaking away for a final portrait under the night sky.
It has so much visual variety without ever leaving the yacht.
Royal Princess Yacht Wedding Photos
As a wedding photographer, this is one of the biggest reasons I love the idea of a Newport Beach yacht wedding.
The environment is constantly changing.
You might have soft, natural light during your ceremony, bright California sunshine during cocktail hour, golden-hour portraits on the deck, and dramatic nighttime images once the sun goes down.
The yacht itself also gives us plenty of variety.
The curved staircase is beautiful for portraits, the salon gives us a more editorial indoor setting, and the upper deck gives us those wide-open Newport Harbor views.
I would also absolutely make time for portraits on the bow.
There’s something about stepping away from the party for a few minutes, being surrounded by water, and having a little moment together while your guests enjoy cocktail hour that feels incredibly special.
And because you’re on a yacht, your wedding photos don’t have to look like every other Orange County wedding gallery.
When Should You Get Married on the Royal Princess?
If photographs are important to you, I would think about your timeline around the light.
Golden hour can be especially beautiful on the water, so I love the idea of planning your couple portraits around sunset.
Instead of rushing through portraits at the beginning of the day, you can enjoy your ceremony and cocktail hour, spend time with your guests, and then step away for a few minutes when the light is at its prettiest.
Your photographer and planner can work together to build this into the timeline so it feels natural rather than like you’re disappearing from your own wedding.
And don’t forget about the photos after sunset.
A yacht wedding gives you the opportunity to create a completely different set of images once Newport Harbor starts glowing at night.
Planning a Newport Beach Yacht Wedding
One of the best things about having your wedding on a yacht is that so much of the celebration happens in one place.
Newport Star Cruises offers wedding planning support and customizable event details, including food and beverage options, décor, entertainment, and other elements of the celebration.
When planning your Royal Princess wedding, I’d recommend thinking about:
- Your total guest count
- Ceremony location on the yacht
- Indoor vs. outdoor spaces
- Sunset timing
- Your portrait timeline
- Florals and tablescape design
- Music and entertainment
- Guest parking and arrival
- Where you’ll get ready before boarding
- How much time you want for couple portraits
- Whether you want a private moment together during the cruise
The yacht departs from Newport Beach, and Newport Star Cruises currently lists its waterfront location at 2901 W Coast Highway.
Making Your Royal Princess Wedding Feel Personal
Just because you’re getting married on a yacht doesn’t mean your wedding has to feel overly nautical.
In fact, I think the Royal Princess would be beautiful with a much more elevated, editorial approach.
Think:
Black tie attire.
Sculptural white and green florals.
Long tables.
Beautiful linens.
Candlelight.
Simple stationery.
Champagne.
Classic black and white details.
You could lean into the coastal setting without making your wedding feel themed around it.
Let Newport Harbor be the backdrop and keep the design intentional.
That combination of elegant details + relaxed California atmosphere would be absolutely beautiful.
Why Newport Beach Is Such a Great Wedding Destination
Newport Beach gives your wedding weekend so much more than just a venue.
Your guests can turn the wedding into a little Southern California getaway, with beaches, restaurants, shopping, harbor cruises, and plenty of places to stay nearby.
And because everything is centered around Newport Harbor, you can create a full weekend experience instead of having the wedding exist as one isolated day.
You could have a welcome dinner by the water, spend the next day at the beach, and then celebrate your wedding aboard the Royal Princess.
For couples traveling from outside Southern California, it’s an especially fun way to make the wedding feel like a destination without requiring everyone to travel internationally.
Your Royal Princess Yacht Wedding Photographer
If you’re planning a wedding on the Royal Princess Yacht, I want your photographs to feel like more than a record of what happened.
I want them to bring you back to the feeling of the day.
The way your dress moved in the California breeze.
Your friends laughing together during cocktail hour.
The look on your partner’s face when you walked down the aisle.
Champagne glasses clinking as the sun went down.
The two of you standing on the bow with Newport Harbor behind you.
Your grandparents dancing.
Your favorite people crowded around the dinner table.
And then, later that night, the two of you laughing on the deck while the lights of Newport Beach shimmer across the water.
I photograph weddings on both digital and 35mm film, blending the two together to create galleries that feel true to the color, emotion, and atmosphere of the day.
Because your wedding doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s.
It should feel like you.
And a Royal Princess Yacht wedding in Newport Beach gives you one incredible setting to create a celebration that feels elegant, personal, and completely unforgettable.
Planning a Royal Princess Yacht Wedding in Newport Beach?
If you’re dreaming of a Newport Beach yacht wedding, an elegant coastal celebration, or an intimate California wedding on the water, I’d love to photograph it.
I’m a Utah-based wedding photographer available for weddings throughout California and destination weddings beyond. Whether you’re planning a black-tie yacht wedding with your closest people or a larger celebration on the water, I’m here to help you create photographs that feel timeless, true-to-color, and completely personal.
Let’s make some magic on the water.
Check out my work and inquire here.
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