Orange Hill Restaurant

 

Overview

The Orange Hill Restaurant was built in the early 70's. Like a hilltop hideaway, the restaurant sits on top of the hills in Orange. The large but cozy restaurant welcomes you with cascading waterfalls and koi ponds. As you enter the English style lobby with a warm fireplace your eyes can't help but to catch the view overlooking Orange County to Catalina Island.

 

What Type Of Bridal Couple Would Like This Place?

This is one of the few places that I have gone as a photographer and a guest.  So, I've been in both shoes and can write a pretty good evaluation about this place from having seen it from both sides.   This is an upscale restaurant  The view is incredible, the food is out of this world delicious!    . 

Photographic Potential

This is a nice place, there is a little bit of greenery up front before you enter the building.

Possible Distractions/ Work Around

The downside of this place is that there isn't that much room to take portraits and especially group shots.  Your background outside in the daylight is mostly canyons and a few hills dotted with houses, and a possible smog layer between the land and sky.  This is a view that gets much better at sunset and at night.    We can use one of the near by Orange County parks for that purpose and then use this venue for romantics and especially  nice scenic images. 

This is a nice place to have a reception.  The view is great, but there has to be a plan B when using this place for groups portraits.  Others may tell you that this place is fine for doing all your portraits, but we have our places that aren't too far from Orange Hills where you can get all your portraits done without missing a beat.  Most notably is Irvine Lakes which is very close.  Oh, your photographer will need a few things, a $150 annual permit, and liability insurance for over $1 million.  The new guys in wedding photography who want to cut you the great deals usually don't have either.  The park ranger will look very unsympathetic as they tell you to leave their property, regardless of paying admission.   They do this all weekend long.   Here's your plan B in that case.  You go back to the restaurant and take pictures in  the parking lot with those large guard rails in your background.   Nice!

 

Overall Evaluation

Once again it all comes down to tastes.  In North Orange County  it seems like many of the large name venues are close to the ocean.  Sure, there is a the Summit House that is a combination park and restaurant, and nice country clubs like Coyote Hills and Westridge.  However, this place stands out because it is much different, and fairly well hidden in the canyon.  Thankfully today with the Fastrak tollroad the Orange Hills restaurant is easily reachable from the 91, 5 and 405 freeways.   

 

The attraction to this place is the dinning, and the view.  Your guests are really going to like it here.  If you have a photographer who is on the ball and can lay out a good game plan, things will be great.  Once again I cannot emphasize enough that you really should get most of your photography done elsewhere.  Though there are a few nice photographic locations on this property, there isn't enough to give your photographs variety, and the most photogenic parts of the property are also the busiest.

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