Maple Lawn Estate 1312 Mission Avenue • San Rafael • California 94901

A pair of hand-stacked stone pillars mark the entry to Maple Lawn, a rambling Victorian house and grounds that was once the home of one of the area's leading families. Built with 19th-century mining riches, the residence was often the scene for "must attend" social and civic soirées. Happily today, under the current ownership of the San Rafael Elks, this grand estate continues to set a gold standard for gracious events.

Maple Lawn's pièce de résistance is the expansive Magnolia Terrace, an absolute jewel of a garden area off to the side of the blue-and-white mansion. As you enter through an ornate, iron gate, the first thing that greets you is a profusion of colorful blooming hedges. Just ahead is a raised, canopied terrace, and stretching out beyond that is an incredibly lush lawn surrounded on three sides by mature magnolia and camellia trees. Running straight through the center of the grass is a wide brick promenade adorned with two multi-tiered fountains topped dramatically with Greek goddesses.

What a spectacular setting this makes for your ceremony, as friends and family seated on the lawn watch you walk down that center aisle to meet your groom beneath a neoclassical arch. After vows are exchanged, everyone is invited to toast your new life with a glass of bubbly on the terrace. Slightly elevated and separated from the grass by box hedges and flower-filled urns, this shady spot is perfect for enjoying cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Then dinner is served at tables on the lawn, followed by dancing back on the terrace under the twinkle-lit canopy.

Beautiful as the grounds are, there are pleasures to be found inside the house as well. To start with, you'll surely be smitten with a bride's room that's the epitome of femininity. Large enough for all your attendants to gather and relax, its décor includes an antique Victorian vanity table, a carved white marble fireplace, and high ceilings with lots of crown molding. The groomsmen get to play men of leisure in the "old school" Card Room Lounge with its adjacent wood-paneled Billiards Room.

At the front of the house, there's an airy Solarium and cozy porch overlooking pine trees that would make a delightful spot for a bridal shower or bridesmaid's breakfast. And the clubby Drake's Bar, complete with burgundy leather wingback chairs, early American paintings and a vintage mural of Sir Francis Drake arriving in the Bay Area, could be just right for a rehearsal dinner.

If you'd prefer an indoor reception, check out the regal-sized Boyd Banquet Room, which boasts a coved ceiling with the original brass-and-crystal chandeliers that illuminated many historic parties. But even if you don't entertain inside, do take advantage of the polished wooden doors (replete with brass doorknockers), central staircase and porte-cochère as romantic photo backdrops unique to Maple Lawn.