A Custom Watercolor Map for a Newport Beach, California Wedding

There’s something about Newport Beach that just grabs you. The salt air, the golden light, the way a perfect coastal California afternoon makes everything feel easy and timeless all at once. When Angela and Brian reached out about a custom hand painted watercolor map for their Newport Beach wedding, I knew immediately this was going to be one of my favorites!

This is the story of how a laid-back, beachy California wedding came together — and how a custom watercolor wedding map tied all of their favorite places into one meaningful piece of art.

A Newport Beach Wedding with All the Right Vibes

Angela and Brian’s wedding was everything a spring California wedding should be: relaxed, warm, and soaked in coastal charm. They didn’t want anything stuffy or overdone. Their vision was timeless and beachy — the kind of wedding that feels like a long afternoon at the beach with the people you love most.

They chose Newport Beach for a reason. This couple loves the ocean, the community, and yes — a great Irish pub. Newport Beach wasn’t just a backdrop for their wedding day. It’s their place. And that personal connection is exactly what makes a custom watercolor map such a meaningful keepsake.

Their color palette leaned into the natural landscape around them: soft greens, ocean blues, and sandy neutrals that felt right at home along the Southern California coastline.

The Newport Beach Locations Featured on Their Watercolor Map

One of the things I love most about creating a custom watercolor wedding map is capturing the specific places that matter to a couple — not just generic landmarks, but the spots woven into their actual story. For Angela and Brian’s Newport Beach map, we highlighted five locations across their wedding day.

Our Lady Queen of Angels — The Ceremony

Their ceremony was held at Our Lady Queen of Angels, a beautiful church in Newport Beach. For the map, they wanted a rendering that captured the character of the building in warm, daytime light — sunset tones over the architecture, giving it that golden California glow.

Fashion Island — Newport Beach’s Iconic Open-Air Center

Fashion Island made it onto the map for its unmistakable Newport Beach energy — the palms, the open-air atmosphere, the upscale-but-relaxed California vibe. This location didn’t need to be a precise architectural replica; it just needed to feel like Fashion Island, and that’s exactly what watercolor does best.

Corona Del Mar State Beach

Corona Del Mar is one of those places that’s hard to put into words — the rocky jetty, the stretch of sand, the lifeguard tower, and the channel visible from above. For the map, we worked in a bird’s-eye perspective to incorporate both the beach and the channel, capturing the full scope of what makes CDM so special.

Muldoon’s Irish Pub

As a personal love story element, Muldoon’s had to make the cut. The goal here wasn’t photographic accuracy — it was all about the feeling of the place: the red brick, the deep green signage, the warmth of a great neighborhood bar. Watercolor is perfect for this kind of place-based storytelling. We chose two clinking beer glasses to represent the iconic establishment.

VEA Newport Beach — The Wedding Venue

The reception was held at the beautiful VEA Newport Beach, a stunning hotel with a signature waterfall entrance. For their map, we featured the front of the hotel with the waterfall and VEA signage — a moment their guests would recognize immediately as the place where the celebration happened.

What Is a Custom Watercolor Wedding Map?

A hand painted watercolor map is one of the most personal pieces of stationery or art you can commission for your wedding. Unlike a printed graphic or a digital illustration, a custom watercolor map is an original artwork — painted by hand, one-of-a-kind, and designed specifically around your wedding locations and story.

For couples getting married in a place they love — like Newport Beach, California — a watercolor map becomes a keepsake that captures not just what the day looked like, but where it happened and why those places mattered.

Custom watercolor maps work beautifully as:

• Wedding stationery inserts — helping out-of-town guests navigate the day
• Ceremony or cocktail hour signage
• A framed gift for the couple after the wedding
• A detail shot that photographs beautifully for your wedding gallery

Hand Painted, Not Generated

It’s worth saying clearly: this is a hand painted watercolor map — not a digitally-painted image, not an AI-generated work, not a filtered photograph. Every brushstroke is intentional. The loose, impressionistic quality of watercolor is what makes these maps feel warm and personal rather than clinical or cartographic.

When Angela and Brian received their map, their response said it all:

“Thank you, we love it!”

That’s the goal every single time.

If you want to learn more about the process of creating a watercolor wedding map and if you need one for your event, check out my comprehensive guide here.

How Angela & Brian Found Cotton & Bow

Angela and Brian discovered me through Minted, which is one of the platforms where my work is available alongside this website. If you’ve landed here from Minted, welcome!, and if you found me through search, I’m so glad you did.

I work with couples across the United States who are looking for stationery and map artwork that feels personal, elevated, and rooted in the places they actually love.

Planning a Newport Beach Wedding? Let’s Make a Map.

If you’re planning a California wedding — whether in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, or anywhere along the coast — and you want a custom watercolor map that tells the story of your day, I’d love to hear about it.

What I’ll need from you:

• The locations that matter most (ceremony, reception, favorite spots)
• Your color palette and overall vibe
• A sense of how you’ll use the map (stationery, signage, framed art)

From there, I’ll create an original hand painted watercolor map that’s uniquely yours.

Learn more about custom watercolor wedding maps→ here

Or see other maps we’ve created for clients. Like this one for an event in Hawaii or this one for Cabo!