Venue guide · Preferred vendor
Beauport Hotel Wedding Guide (2027)
Updated · Photos by Benoit & McCarthy Photography
The Beauport Hotel is a seaside hotel on Gloucester Harbor, built in 2016 on the site of the old Birdseye plant, with a ceremony deck right over Pavilion Beach. It is a great venue with a wonderful staff and the water in almost every photo. We have played more than 60 weddings here and have been a preferred vendor since the hotel opened. Here's everything you need to know before you book.
Beauport Hotel at a glance
- Address
- 55 Commercial Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
- Guests
- 100 to 230 seated
- Ceremony
- The oceanside deck, or the ballroom in rain
- Cocktails
- The Pavilion Room and a private part of the lobby
- Dinner and dancing
- The Grand Ballroom
- Catering
- In house, the hotel
- Rooms
- 94 on site
- Uplighting
- 18 for full coverage
Where can you get married at the Beauport Hotel?
Most venues make you choose between the water and the ballroom. The Beauport gives you both, on one level and a short walk apart. The night uses four spaces.
The deck over the beach. The Oceanside Terrace hangs right over Pavilion Beach, with Gloucester Harbor stretched out behind the couple. This is where the ceremony happens on a nice day. It is the reason most couples book the Beauport.
The Grand Ballroom. A bright, open room with chandeliers, a wood floor and tall glass doors along the water side. Dinner and dancing both happen here. It is also the backup for the ceremony when the weather turns.
The Pavilion Room and the lobby. Cocktail hour happens in the Pavilion Room next to the ballroom and in a part of the lobby the hotel closes off for the wedding, so your guests are not mingling with hotel guests.
The porch and the beach. A covered porch runs along the building and the beach is right below it. Both are favorite spots for photos between the ceremony and dinner.
How guests flow through the night
The usual Beauport wedding runs in three steps. The ceremony is out on the deck. Cocktails move inside, to the Pavilion Room and the private part of the lobby. Then everyone walks straight into the Grand Ballroom for dinner and stays there for the rest of the night.
Many couples book live music for the outdoor part: a string trio, a guitar or a sax on the deck, then a jazz combo or a soloist for cocktail hour, then the DJ for the reception. Facing the ocean, we set up in the back right corner of the deck. That makes it a quick, easy move just inside for the piano, the strings or the sax once the ceremony ends.
Put the officiant on a microphone
Even if live musicians play the processional, book the DJ for the ceremony too. The reason is the microphones. You are right on the harbor, so there is always some ambient noise: the wind, the waves on the beach, boats in the harbor and sometimes a plane overhead. Put the officiant and the readers on microphones so the words carry to the back row.
If it rains, the ceremony moves to the ballroom
In bad weather the ceremony comes inside to the Grand Ballroom. Guests head to the Pavilion Room and the lobby while the staff flip the ballroom for dinner, then everyone comes back in for the reception. It is the same flow as a dry day, one room over. In winter it is the plan from the start.
Plan on eighteen uplights
The Grand Ballroom needs uplighting to look its best at night. Eighteen fixtures is the magic number for full coverage around the room. For dinner we suggest neutral colors like soft white, candle glow, pale blush or amber, followed by color changes during the dance set.
Lighting recommendation
- 18
- uplights for full coverage
- Soft white
- Candle glow
- Pale blush
- Amber
Tell your vendors about the loading dock
This one is for your planner and your vendors. Load-in is at the loading dock at the back of the building. Drive past the main entrance and it is on the right, at the rear. Everything goes up on the dock, onto carts and into the elevator, then up one floor to the ballroom level.
Then the cars have to move. The hotel is strict about it. The guest garage is off limits to vendors, so we park in the municipal lot about a three-minute walk down the street. On a busy night that lot fills up, so build the extra time into your vendors' load-in schedule.
What a Beauport Hotel wedding costs
Prices are as of October 2026 and subject to change. The Beauport Hotel quotes on request, so treat this as a planning range and confirm it with the events team. What the public listings show:
- Site fee, May to October: $7,500 Friday, $9,500 Saturday, $6,500 Sunday.
- Site fee, November, December and April: $5,500 to $7,900.
- Site fee, January to March: $2,750 to $3,750, with 20% off selected entrées.
- Ceremony: $1,500.
- Food: about $101 to $146 a guest, with no food and beverage minimum.
- Bar: from $59 a guest.
- Catering: in house.
For 150 guests on a summer Saturday, the room, ceremony, food and bar come to roughly $35,000 to $42,000 before tax and the service charge. Entertainment, flowers, photography and attire are on top.
