Black Pearl On The Columbia — Attraction in Washougal

Black Peral is a nice facility but book it only if you are OK with unwarranted stress just before the event and ready to shell out extra and unplanned thousands of dollars after the event. We booked the upper floor and they agreed months in advance to let us use outside patio during the event for friends get together. Just a day before the event, they told us that they can’t let us use the patio unless we book the main floor as well. They asked us to make alternate arrangements otherwise. They did it on purpose knowing that we have no other choice at the last moment to find another place. Their contract is totally one-sided, and they are ABSOLUTELY INFLEXIBLE. They will use every clause to make extra money from you. We booked the venue from 8am till midnight. We had to assign one person as a day of the coordinator. They charged us $750 just because this person left the venue for a coffee break. It didn’t matter that he had his back up onsite while he was away. By the way their form doesn’t allow you to assign more than one “day of the coordinator” for the whole 16-hour duration. We vacated the venue before mid-night, but they charged us $2,500 for staying beyond midnight. According to them their video recording shows that we didn’t vacate the venue on time. I challenged them and cited many proofs that we handed over the venue before time. I sent them several emails, but they always came back with the same reply using video recording as the evidence. I requested them to either show me the recoding or watch with me, as I was 100% sure we left the venue before time. They never agreed to share or let me watch the recording. The contract states that even of you are late by 1 minute you will forfeit 100% of your $2,500 deposit, which is totally one-sided and legally not valid. However, you would need a lawyer to have it reversed. They will try their best to misuse this clause to forfeit your deposit. I would strongly advise you to seriously think before booking this venue. They will be nice and responsive until a day before the event. They will show their true self and rudeness when you have no option to back out. Their management is very unprofessional. They care least about your happy moments or your guest experience. They are out there to extract every penny that they can.

My response back to Black Peral Response Their lies continue Black Peral gave us the permission to use lower level deck (verbal approval) over a month ago. They came back to us just 2 days before the event to change the venue or rent the whole premises. Day of the coordinator was a close friend of mine. I didn't hire any outside agency and let them go early to save money. Black Peral assertion that I did it to save money is a total lie. Black Peral has still denied us access to video recording because it will prove that we vacated the venue before midnight and prove them wrong. The biggest lie - that I tried to bribe their staff. I came to know about this from their response to this post. They never mentioned it to me before. This is absolute lie.

I would suggest that if Black Peral is really serious about customer service, honest and professional behavior then they should have a check out sheet signed by both parties at the handover to avoid ...

I had my wedding at this beautiful venue. The reason I’m giving this a 2 star review is because they require a day of coordinator and so I viewed their list of recommendations and selected someone on there that is also an employee part time for them. It was an awful experience working with her and I wouldn’t wish it on any other bride.

When I first called her I was very excited. She recommended a package for photography and planning. It seemed great and so I paid her thousands of dollars to be my wedding planner and photographer. She did not give me at all what I paid for. At one point I was so frustrated that I even inquired.. what exactly is included in the planning package, because she was ghosting me the month of my wedding. When she finally responded with the list, she had basically done nothing on it. When I told her this, she said that my wedding is small so she didn’t think it required that much attention. WOW. Way to make a bride feel like trash. She then offered me back a small amount of money for her lack of planning. Small or not, the wedding still needs planning. Thankfully my mother in law was able to help me with a majority of things. I unfortunately had to ask multiple times for anything to get done otherwise. The planner even waited until the day before my wedding to get things we needed for it when I was already busy with family and getting myself prepared. She said she’d send me receipts to possibly return things that she bought that might be unnecessary, but since she waited until the last minute it was better safe than sorry. Never got the receipts.

I played nice with her going into the wedding because she was the only option at that point, as others were booked. Not to mention she still had to take my photos. As the wedding was coming to an end, she came to me and said we didn’t have enough photos because the lighting at the venue was terrible. She offered that we stay for a few hours longer until the light got a little better or that we might have to do a bridal session. At that point, my husband and I just wanted to be done dealing with her, so we declined and ended up with only half of the photos we paid for.

I wish I never would have booked her. If she thought we needed so little, she shouldn’t have recommended the package that she did.

Side note: The venue’s deposit for me was $2,500. It took them 30 days to refund this deposit. Although that is in writing, it still seems like...

TLDR: great view, clean and modern. Poor acoustics. Two level venue splits guests.

Went to a wedding held here. Beautiful view of the waterfront but the docks do take up a lot of space in your photo if you're trying to get a water shot on the balcony. It would be nicer if there was more water to view rather than docks and boats.

The place is very clean and has a very modern feel.

The acoustics were terrible. The entire time we were there, I was shouting to speak and had to lean in each time to speak to anyone. This place is so spacious and little conversations accumulate into a big echoey mess. Pair that with event music, utensils clattering and you get a jumbled mess of sounds. The flooring is also just pure concrete so that didn't help. There was little in the form of sound dampening.

The venue is two levels with restrooms being single room washrooms on the first floor.

Though the view is nice from the second level, my personal opinion is that a single level is best for any venue so that guests (such as myself) don't feel torn from the event and have to choose between mingling between floors.

Ample private...