New Westminster's Best Wedding & Event Venues

01The short answer

For weddings, Queen's Park is the centre of gravity — the Rose Garden for the ceremony, Centennial Lodge next door for the reception. For larger outdoor gatherings, Westminster Pier Park brings the Fraser River waterfront and a festival lawn. For company and family picnics, the shelters at Queen's Park, Hume Park, and Port Royal Park in Queensborough do the job. And for photos or smaller affairs, the Friendship Gardens at City Hall and the indoor Anvil Centre round it out.

New West is the easiest permit desk of the three Burnaby-Richmond-New West cities to read, because the City publishes its event package and its insurance and tent rules plainly. The one thing to internalize early: like Richmond, New West doesn't allow staking in its parks, so every tent here is a weighted install.

02The New West permit path

Single events — a wedding, a private party — you can often book directly with the facility (the Rose Garden and Centennial Lodge both go through Parks & Recreation at 604-777-5111). Anything more public or complex runs through the Community Events Office: you submit an Outdoor Event Space Request to tentatively hold a date (the City replies within about seven business days), then complete the full event package. Lead times scale with complexity — roughly 30 days for a simple event, 60 days once food, beverage, or liquor is involved, and up to six months for the biggest gatherings.

Insurance is published and firm: $5 million in commercial general liability, naming the City of New Westminster as additional insured, with the certificate due at least 30 days out. Crucially, that requirement extends to vendors — tenting, staging, sound, food — so we'll send our certificate to the events office as part of your file.

03Queen's Park — the Rose Garden

Queen's Park dates to 1887 and is the city's horticultural showpiece. Its Rose Garden — over 600 floribunda and hybrid roses, a gazebo, and decorative trellises after a 2010 renovation — is a designated, bookable ceremony site; the City itself describes it as "the perfect venue for your wedding ceremony and photos." It's the single best ceremony spot in New West.

Steps away, Centennial Lodge is the reception room that pairs with it: indoors, up to 110 guests, with wood beams, a gas fireplace, and a warming kitchen. Both book through the same Parks & Recreation line. One current caveat: the Queen's Park Bandshell is unavailable for bookings, so if you'd pictured a bandstand ceremony, confirm the status first.

04Westminster Pier Park — the waterfront

Westminster Pier Park is the city's modern showpiece — an award-winning waterfront park built partly over the Fraser on 3,600 pilings, with a 325-metre boardwalk, a festival lawn, gardens, and elevated river viewpoints. For a large outdoor celebration or a corporate gathering with a skyline-and-river backdrop, it's the standout.

Because it's a flagship civic space, event use routes through the City's booking process rather than a simple facility rental, and the waterfront setting means wind and a weighted tent install both factor in. If you're considering the festival lawn, start with the events office to confirm what's bookable and at what capacity, then bring us the footprint.

05Picnics & family gatherings

For company picnics and big family days, New West's bookable picnic shelters are at Queen's Park (its larger shelter seats 112, up to 150), Lower Hume Park on the Brunette-Fraser riverfront (seats 96, up to 150), and Port Royal Park in Queensborough (up to 70). Resident booking windows open in the late fall for the next year, so popular summer dates go early.

A useful detail if alcohol's on the menu: in the picnic context, the City allows it only in designated zones at the Queen's Park shelters and Port Royal Park — and amplified sound, generators, and bouncy castles all need prior authorization (bouncy castles are limited to Lower Hume Park). Tell us what you're planning and we'll match the gear to what the site allows.

06Photo spots & indoor options

For wedding photos, the Friendship Gardens and Tipperary Park beside City Hall — ponds, stepping stones, and public art — are a long-time favourite the City notes is "popular with wedding photographers." It's a photo-and-small-gathering spot rather than a programmed event venue.

When the weather won't cooperate, the City-owned Anvil Centre by the SkyTrain offers indoor cultural studios and meeting rooms, and the Samson V Maritime Museum can host small wedding parties and photo groups. Indoor rooms shift the rental scope toward the finishing touches — chiavari chairs, cocktail tables, linens — rather than tents and floors.

07Tents, sound & alcohol — the rental rules

New West publishes its rules clearly, which makes planning easy. Three to know.

Tents. In the parks, tents are allowed with no staking into the ground — weighted ballast only, same as Richmond. Cooking tents must use fire-rated fabric (CAN/ULC-S109), and there's no open-flame cooking under any canopy or tent, so keep BBQs and grills out in the open.

Amplified sound. Music and sound equipment in parks need prior authorization and fall under the City's noise bylaw — in picnic shelters, amplified sound and generators aren't allowed without sign-off.

Alcohol. Serving requires a provincial Special Event Permit (selling adds a business licence), within a beverage garden, patio extension, or — only for established events — a site-wide model. The permit has to be in the organizer's name, not a third party's. Confirm alcohol is allowed at your specific park before you apply.

08A sample rental order

Concrete example: an 80-guest wedding with the ceremony in the Queen's Park Rose Garden and the reception in Centennial Lodge — a classic New West pairing.

• 80 white chiavari chairs (ceremony, then flipped into the Lodge)
• 8 5ft round tables
• 4 cocktail tables for the cocktail hour
• Linens and place settings
• Crew for delivery, the ceremony-to-reception flip, and teardown

Because the Lodge supplies the room and a kitchen, this is a furniture-and-finishing order rather than a tent build — one of the reasons the Rose-Garden-plus-Lodge combination is such a clean, affordable New West wedding. If your guest count outgrows the Lodge's 110, that's the point where a tented reception (and ballast) enters the picture.

09Next steps

New West is one of the most straightforward cities to plan a wedding in: a designated ceremony garden, a matching reception room next door, clearly published rules. Just remember the no-staking constant if your event moves outdoors onto open parkland.

Text or email 778-990-7983 or welcome@foreverpartyrentals.com with your venue and date. We deliver across New Westminster and can tell you what tent, ballast, insurance, and access details your specific site will need.

"New West makes it easy: the City literally calls the Rose Garden the perfect ceremony spot, and Centennial Lodge is right next door. Pair them and most of the planning is done." — Forever Party Rentals Team

We deliver to: New Westminster · Burnaby · Coquitlam · Surrey