Moonstone Beach House — Local services in McKinleyville

We got married on the beach in June 2024, and it was a beautiful day. The chairs were set up just like we wanted. This is still probably one of the best beach venues in Humboldt, but there were also some serious issues.

We weren't allowed to have our event on a Friday or Saturday since we didn't want to pay the all-inclusive price for the beach ceremony and beach house use. This would be fair, except that the beach house kitchen was not functional and was not expected to be repaired. Stacie felt it was more important to keep that weekend open for a potential couple who may want to book both Friday and Saturday for the large wedding package which includes both days (for a rehearsal). Annoying, since we already wanted to book one of those slots, but understandable. We decided to have a Sunday ceremony.

If we wanted to use the beach house at all, including for staging, restroom (it's a single toilet in a small room), etc., it would have been several hundred dollars extra. Fine, we didn't need that, we can use our cars. This would have been nice to know up front, but not a huge deal.

Parking – Stacie offered a discount a few weeks ahead of the date if we wanted to have our guests park up the very steep hill at the restaurant instead of at the lower, beach house parking. The restaurant is closed on Sunday so that would be easier for Stacie. We said that we would be happy to pay our original rate for closer parking, since we knew we would have many guests with mobility needs. However, on the day of the wedding, Stacie directed our guests to park on the public side of the beach and beyond the cordoned off section she had set up. Why was she reserving it if not for our guests? Why would she make them haul oxygen the maximum possible distance?

The arch - when we booked, we requested use of their arch, including set-up and tear-down, as part of our ceremony. This was included with chair set-up and tear-down. However, the arch was not properly secured, and the wind tore it to the ground, breaking it. We are lucky no guests were injured. The only options we were given were to put it back up - broken - when it was likely to fall again, or forgo use.

When we sent a detailed email to provide feedback about our displeasure with the parking and arch issues, we were told that they did nothing wrong. They did not offer to refund any of our money - even though we signed a contract that included a functioning arch and functional parking as part of what we paid for. This is extremely disappointing.

If you're willing to pay over $5k, you might get great customer service. But if you aren't, beware that you might have a poor experience.

I understand that we were a "smaller" event for them, but when you are an event venue, every event matters. This was our only wedding. To quote the Bear, "every day is...

I've coordinated several events and weddings since Stacie purchased the Beach House. I've always loved the venue but Stacie has made it so much nicer with dishes, glassware, and linens provided. They do the set up & breakdown of chairs on the beach for the wedding and the customer service and pricing is fantastic....

Beautiful Venue at a great price, and Melissa Merryman is an absolute pleasure to work with! I've attended many gatherings here over the years. It's always wonderful and I'm so happy we had our wedding...