Category: Wedding Receptions

You and your fiancé have spent practically every free Saturday since he popped the question touring possible wedding locations. In your determination to find “the perfect place,” you’ve braved traffic jams, crazy drivers, exorbitant gas prices, and sticker shock. On the first outing, he was a real trooper, agreeing wholeheartedly when you nixed the place that didn’t offer linens in periwinkle.

Everyone’s talking about InStyle Weddings’ recent report of celebrity-driven wedding trends…but I have my own opinion!

When my friends and Morris dancing teammates, Meg and Kevin, announced their engagement, I immediately sent them a copy of Here Comes The Guide to help them plan their wedding. That’s where Meg found the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club in Oakland, the site they chose for their reception. Her daughter clinched the choice saying, “Lots of places are really elegant, but this one makes me happy.”

I remember the first time I saw Lake Tahoe—I had just moved to San Francisco for graduate school. My then-boyfriend invited me to a summer weekend at his family’s cabin on North Shore. As a city girl, I had precious little experience with life more than 10 minutes from a shopping mall, and was instantly enraptured with Tahoe’s quiet beauty and mountainous grandeur. Six months later, the same boyfriend took me on a spontaneous Tahoe jaunt for another first—my first time skiing. And even though at the end of the day the Bunny Hill still seemed like K2 to me, there were plenty of other joys to be had. I was amazed at how different and yet equally magnificent the blue lake was in its winter setting, and how crisp and clean the rustic terrain appeared with a dusting of snow. Hot chocolate just tasted better in the sweet mountain air, and surely Lake Tahoe had more stars in the sky than anywhere else on earth!

Worried about inviting children to your wedding? My husband and I welcomed children and babies at our wedding. We even asked the religious school kids who had class at the same time as our wedding to join us (in the back of the sanctuary) for the ceremony. None of the single-digit crowd caused any sort of distraction.

I’ll admit I’m a gardening junkie. My favorite part of any outdoor spring wedding is having the chance to explore a new wedding location with amazing gardens or flowers. If you love gardens as much as I do, you might want to think about celebrating this Earth Day in the Tri-Valley wine country (the other Napa).

Are you looking to have your wedding ceremony and reception in beautiful Santa Barbara—without breaking the bank? We’ve got two fabulous finds: The first is Elings Park, a private, estate-like setting sequestered in the forested bluffs above the Pacific Ocean. This non-profit park’s 230 scenic acres includes several special event venues with a breathtaking blend of city, hillside and coastal views. Exchange vows in a stone amphitheater, serve cocktails on an oak-shaded patio, and then let the reception unfold on a vast garden lawn!

On a recent weekend getaway to the Napa and Sonoma Wine Country area, my husband Phil and I decided to explore a different side of this famous wedding region. To me, an ideal wedding locale allows guests plenty of options for exploration, and the towns of Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, and Petaluma certainly kept us happily occupied.