As with everything in my life, I am a little inconsistent...even though I thought I would do this more often. Life kind of happened....
Anyway, a few weekends ago we headed south to look at some venues on the Peninsula. I have to say I was so enchanted with Sonoma (partly because we just had such a lovely weekend) and the places we saw there, that my views of the 3 spots we saw were a bit tainted.
However, after picking up my shiny new ring at the Jewelers' Bench--man does it sparkle! I tried to keep an open mind for round 2--so we headed towards Santa Cruz on some windy highways to our first stop, Nestldown. A private Estate 'nestled' in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
I was really hoping to just love this place and solve our numbers woes. Here are some pluses: We'd get the whole estate to ourselves for the weekend, we can have up to 250 people, and there is a BARN--maybe never was a real barn, but it is really cool on the inside, great place for dancing up a storm. There is also a lovely lawn for dinner and a nice little pond outside the barn and next to the lawn. We'd get married in a redwood grove. Which is cool. I love redwoods. But somehow it's just not as enchanting to me as having vineyards and sloping hillsides as the backdrop to our nuptials. So that brings me to downsides: 1) It's not Sonoma--so that means people are headed to Silicon Valley for a weekend. Yes, Los Gatos is a cute town, but it's just such a different feel. 2) There is no 'view'...I really wanted a vista, something that took your breath away and said, "holy cow this is an amazing place to get married, and of course she lives in California now, who wouldn't with views like this?"...yes, it's gorgeous, but it is truly nestled in the mountains so you are down low, not up high. 3) It just doesn't have the same ranch/country chic feel as the places we saw in Sonoma. It's more woodsy. 4) there is a weird 'make believe' cottage with small furniture. Not that that's bad, it's just weird.
Here are photos:
We also stopped at Fogarty Vineyards...TALK ABOUT A VIEW! You can see vineyards, hills, the Bay and on a clear day, all the way to SF. You get married on this nice little lawn and then have dinner in an overgrown, very cool gazebo. Zack wasn't a huge fan, and it has all the downsides of vineyards--no hard alcohol, only their wine. Not to mention dancing has to be inside this building that is kind of eh...
pics:
Lastly, we stopped in Woodside at Mountain Terrace. This was the first spot I found that I really liked (online)...when we got there we realized we were practically on top of the highway, a highway that is heavily traveled by bikers, and a place where they stop often since this biker restaurant called Annie's is right across the street. The property was pretty, but now that we've done so much looking, it just wasn't what we wanted. So we didn't even stay for the tour. Maybe that's bad business, but why waste someone's time, right?
So now we have to make some decisions...we tried to see if people on our list would not show up--and didn't get too far. I also feel guilty having moved some people to the B list. So now, here's the plan....we talked a planner in Sonoma who has one more spot to show us, we also realized someone (ahem, perhaps yours truly) did not get back to one place in Napa. So on March 18th, we go for round 3, If that doesn't work out, Nestldown it is. And really, I don't think it's a bad choice. I'm warming up to it. And as Zack's dad said, there is actually a ton to do south--people can go to Carmel, Big Sur, Monterey--that's pretty cool! And, Zack and I have done TONS of hikes through the redwoods, why not get married under them?
