So Many Places So Little Time

Since Mr. Starfish and I moved from Southern California to the Bay Area and plan to settle here for the next 5-10 years at the very least, we thought it would be appropriate to find a venue in the Bay Area. We wanted something intimate because we only plan on having 100 guests – closest friends and family. It was very difficult narrowing that list down, but somehow, we did it! Knowing the budget and the number of guest early on, was really helpful because most venues will have a max or min guest count so having a somewhat accurate count can give you a realistic idea of which venues will actually work.

The second thing Mr. Starfish and I wanted was a scenic place. We both LOVE the ocean, but realized early on, that the beaches in Northern California are cold and not what we expected since we are used to Southern California sun! We decided that since we love nature and all things scenic we wanted our wedding to be held at a vineyard/winery. We thought that instead of having the blue sea, we could have a sea of grape vines in our photos.

Though we got engaged in October we wanted to get married in the Fall of 2008, which meant that I had limited time to find and reserve a place! I basically spent my christmas holiday scouting out places throughout Northern California. Normally, when people think vineyard—they think of Napa or Sonoma, but after looking at some of the prices just to book those venues, I set out to find vineyards in central Northern California. I found that Pleasanton/Livermore vineyards and wineries and other Central California vineyards and wineries are just as beautiful and developed as the Napa/Sonoma ones (though they are not as famous).

I did have one bad experience. Initially, I fell in love with a vineyard/winery in Livermore called the Palm Event Center. It’s gorgeous and has a HUGE hall. I thought I had found ‘the place’ because initially the sales girl seemed very excited and ready to custom-make a package for us. We told her ahead of time that we wanted to be married on a Sunday to save cost and to give myself more time to prepare. I made it clear that my initial concern was the budget. I wanted an intimate wedding because I only had 100 people on my guestlist, so that I could do more for each guest, etc..

Unfortunately, when I started asking for a breakdown of the costs the third time I met with her, she came back with something that was outrageous. They wanted to charge me an alcohol package of ~$27.00/person even though I had told her that over 50% of the people would not be drinking. She said that the drinkers would make up for the non-drinkers. She didn’t give me options to buy the wine from them (so that whatever the guest don’t finish we could save) and they didn’t allow us to bring in our own alcohol. In addition, the breakdown of the costs showed items like: extra light for $400, etc.. and that really turned me off from the place. I knew I wasn’t on the same page as the salesperson and even though the site was gorgeous, I felt good walking away.

I have a co-worker that did get married there and had a good experience last year, so I think circumstances would have been better if I had family and friends who would really enjoy the alcohol and such because then I wouldn’t mind spending the money on these items since we would be getting value for the alcohol package.