A Gorgeous Ballroom for Weddings, Galas, and Special Events in downtown Long Beach

Looking for a ballroom for a larger or elegant event? 440 Elm's Sanctuary will blow you and your guests away! 

440 Elm offers a beautiful historic landmark building with elegant finishes as a backdrop for your wedding, corporate, or social event. It's not your standard hotel ballroom with the crazy carpet. Built in a Renaissance Revival style, we offer the classic elegance of large columns, numerous arches, gorgeous stained glass, black and white tile, and other picture-worthy elements suited to a high end corporate event or luxury wedding. We offer a private facility that services one event at a time, which creates flexibility and privacy for your guests.

Our combination of a large ballroom in our Sanctuary and a large outdoor event space in our Plaza provides a rare urban venue that can handle large weddings, galas, and red carpet affairs.

Our Capacity

We have 20K sq ft of indoor/ outdoor event space we can offer across the venue and can host up to 1167.

• For weddings in our Sanctuary we can host up to ~400 at rounds and rectangles with a dance floor
• For events with sit-down dining we can host up to 500 in our Sanctuary at rounds (and additional in a multi-room format)
• For corporate events with a presentation, we can host up to 300 classroom style or ~450 at rounds in our Sanctuary (additional in a multi-room format)

Our Approach to Hosting Corporate, Wedding, and Social Events

440 Elm works well for events seeking a beautiful space with incredible hospitality and great food. As a venue owned by a custom caterer, you will find a woman-owned, chef run business that wants to help you host a memorable and warm event.

We are detail-oriented and focused on ensuring that guests feel like your event day has a clear vision, is well organized, flows in ways that make sense and provide a good experience, and meets them with great hospitality every step of the way. We are here to help with ideas, questions, the ability to listen, and the experience to translate your ideas into a beautifully presented event that can occur at multiple levels.

We are a single-event at a time facility, so there will not be onsite guests staying on property or other events mixing with your event.

A Historic Landmark Event Venue

440 Elm is an architectural gem built by renowned architect Elmer Grey in 1913 as the First Church of Christ Scientist. It was immediately recognized by the architectural community for as a significant example of Renaissance Revival architecture in a monumental church building. It was part of a burgeoning Christian Science congregation in Long Beach that filled the facility with 1200 worshippers upstairs and 1000 Sunday school participants downstairs on Sundays as soon as it opened. It changed hands in 1989 as it transitioned to the First Christian Church due to the demolition of their historic church building.

As one of the few large church structures that survived the 1933 earthquake in Long Beach, it was recognized as a historic landmark by ordinance of the city council in 1990.

As of 2022, Bite Catering Couture has embarked on an adaptive reuse of the building as a banquet hall and event space for weddings, corporate and social events. As one of the largest such historic spaces in Southern California, 440 Elm looks to continue a > 100 year role in convening the community around important events and celebrating life's milestones with family and friends.

Amenities

440 Elm offers a glamorous newly renovated historic venue for a single event at a time (generally up to 500 for events with seated dining or 900 in folding chairs or standing). We have multiple spaces:

• a large ballroom with 30' ceilings and light streaming through three stories of stained glass
• a outdoor plaza with several configurations of ceremony space or for activations
• a black and white checkered foyer coming off of large dual staircases with large landings
• an exposed brick lounge with a platform well suited to a band, panel, or other highlight
• a grand courtyard within our classic columns
• a beautiful chef's garden filled with flower-covered arbors and the pleasant sound of dual water fountains

Conveniently Located Between Los Angeles and Orange County in Long Beach

We serve the Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Orange County markets as a rare historic non-hotel property with large indoor and outdoor spaces. Located conveniently in the East Village Arts District of downtown Long Beach, we are about a mile from the Long Beach Convention Center and within walking distance to numerous hotels, restaurants, and attractions. We are a quick drive to the Long Beach Aquarium, Shoreline Drive, and the Pike Shopping area in the Downtown District. We are conveniently located about 15 minutes from the Long Beach Airport (LGB) and roughly 30 minutes from both Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John Wayne Airport in Irvine (SNA). Our customers tend to be based in nearby locations including Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills/ Brentwood, Downtown LA, Newport Beach, and Irvine.

Parking options are plentiful nearby and we would be happy to discuss shuttle and valet services relevant to guests coming from a number of potential local destinations.

Booking an Event at 440 Elm

There are a few steps involved in booking an event at 440 Elm.

1) Initial Consultation: A quick “fit” conversation to make sure what we do and the event you're putting together look like they make sense together. This may include a virtual 3D tour.

2) Tour: Tour 440 Elm in-person (we can accommodate destination and out-of-town planners with the virtual tour in greater depth)

3) Secure the Date: We operate on a first-to-book model so we need to reserve the date prior to getting into all the details.

4) Tailor to Suit: We'll work with you in a design-oriented fashion on a detailed timeline to get all the elements put in place at the right level.

5) Enjoy your Event: A well-planned event gives you the chance to enjoy your day and spend time with your clients, family, colleagues, and whomever else was lucky enough to get invited!