wedding venues
Hollins House
as i mentioned earlier, marshall and i and my mom and dad headed out sunday to look at a couple of possible venues. the first one we went to was hollins house at the pasatiempo golf club in santa cruz. it's right off highway 17 and easy to get to. there are plenty of accommodation options in the area, including the inn at pasatiempo (located just off the freeway before you get to the golf club) and the hilton in scotts valley, a few miles north off the 17. the hilton for sure offers group rates for pasatiempo event attendees and i'm sure the inn at pasatiempo would offer similar discounts.
marshall and i had eaten at the hollins house, which is a normal restaurant open to the public. while we were there, there was a wedding reception going on and it must've been small because they kept the restaurant open. it's an option to buy out the whole place, so that there is more room to spread, if necessary. i really liked it then and the food was delicious. the setting is definitely homey, as the hollins house is definitely a house, not a club house or banquet facility. the dining room has 2 large fireplaces at each end and plenty of windows that look out to the magnificent view. there are plenty of options with either an outdoor ceremony or indoor ceremony. apparently, there was a wedding in early february last year and it was 70F and perfect outside. they had a wedding just recently and even though it was a little wet, it wasn't too cold or too wet to move the ceremony inside. even so, it's an option to hold the ceremony indoors, if we feel it's necessary. the dining room would have rectangular tables fitting 8-10 people, rather than round. according to the planner, round tables would be a waste of space and make the room seem smaller, yet rectangular tables elongate the room and provide a better setting for socializing and conversation. having a sweetheart table, which is what we want (rather than a head table) is not a problem, either.
their prices weren't half-bad, either, especially for what they're able to provide on-site. they have decent house wines and champagne, both can be provided, along with bottled domestic and import beers (no kegs). they have a full-service bar, which for our purposes would be no-host. if our guests want hard liquor, they can pay for it themselves. i think the majority of our guests will be just fine with wine and beer, anyway. their catering is done on-site and they will provide white-on-white linens (if we want color linens, that would be extra), place settings and flatware. basically, they provide everything minus the flowers, cake and photographer. although we'd love to meet with the cake designer who did liam and paco's wedding, it might be logistically better to meet with a santa cruz baker, if we decide on hollins house. driving a cake from menlo park to santa cruz would be a little too nerve-wracking for me. they have a recommended list of vendors, but they don't force guests to use them. as long as the vendors we use who aren't on the list meet with the coordinator first to discuss logistics, that's fine. live music is not a problem, although they do want to stop at 11pm, since there are private homes on the golf course. i don't think that will be an issue.
i really enjoyed the hollins house. they have plenty of options and their prices are reasonable. the coordinator, margy, was extremely knowledgeable and has been with the hollins house for 25 years. she also provides wedding-day coordination at no extra cost. she will make sure things are on schedule and work with florists, bakers, and photographers to make sure they know where they're going and what they need to do.
Mountain Terrace
the second venue we went to was the mountain terrace in woodside. this place is slightly more difficult to get to than hollins house. the mountain terrace is located at the intersection of skyline (highway 35) and woodside road (highway 84). it's basically in the middle of the woods between the SF bay and halfmoon bay. it's a lovely place, though. it's quaint and smells like a cabin. they have a wine bar, which features local santa cruz mountain wines. they do have their own caterer, which is only available for events (they don't have a restaurant). i remember seeing the photos of this place online and thinking it was a really neat place. they do offer the best services for summer weddings, with the giant lawn with vistas of the san francisco bay, but for winter weddings it's a little small. there really aren't any contingency plans for rain, except to tent the narrow deck for the ceremony. this makes me a little nervous.
the woman we met with was very nice and friendly. she's been with mountain terrace for 5 years and is also their bar manager. she's very knowledgeable about the services they offer. their menu looked great and their prices were just slightly less expensive than hollins house. i think we all agreed that the mountain terrace would be an excellent place for a summer wedding or just the reception, but when it comes to doing both in the middle of february, we have our doubts. we also are concerned about the location. i'm worried about people having some wine with dinner and then attempting to drive home or to their hotel on an unlit mountain road. at night, it's very dark and hard to see. the intersection does not have any stop signs and there is a blind curve at one end. i want guests to be safe and even though this is a beautiful place, i don't think it's the best for an evening winter wedding. even with the slight discount, hollins house is the better choice.
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unfortunately, we haven't found any other places which really fit our personalities and our budgets. many of the local wineries cater to spring, summer and early autumn weddings. some are even closed for events during the winter. it would be nice to have other options to look at, but at this point hollins house is our best choice. we'd like to see if they could maybe decrease their rates a bit, too. i mean, mountain terrace was offering the same deal, even throwing in the cake, and was going to charge us less. if we meet at hollins house again, it might be beneficial to see what they can do for us, considering what's out there. plus, we're looking at a date in february. if we don't have our wedding on that date, they probably wouldn't have anything else going on. they might drop the price a little and if they do, we can definitely snatch that up. :)
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my mom estimates that we can easily have a guest list of 90 people. she looked over our current list, which albeit is missing a few people, and she still believes it won't be difficult to keep it below 90. i'm happy to hear that, because i was getting a little worried.
i'm looking at possibly doing our own invitations and save-the-dates. once we have our venue locked down and guest list sorted, we'll send out save-the-dates. i'm thinking something simple for those. i have a more elaborate idea for the actual invitations, but it's something we can easily do ourselves. favors we can do ourselves, especially if we go with our original idea of large matchboxes filled with m&m's candy. i've also got our color palette pretty much decided for: eggplant, charcoal gray and ivory. i'm concerned about flowers, but apparently at that time of year we can have access to tulips and peonies and other bulb-flowers, both of which would be lovely. but we'll get to that point later on, i think.
marshall's mom is visiting us later this month. she wanted to be involved in the girly things, like looking at wedding dresses. when she comes, we'll also discuss finances and how we want to split up the cost of the wedding. it would also be helpful to really discuss numbers with marshall's dad, who offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner and our honeymoon. especially for the rehearsal dinner, which is to include the wedding party and out-of-town guests and i'm sure will be rather large, it would be helpful to see what their budget would be. anyway, while marshall's mom is visiting, i'm going to make a couple of appointments at a few bridal gown places to look at dresses. i'm kinda nervous looking at dresses. i've never seen myself in a giant dress before. i know sorta what i'm looking for: something ivory, heavy, with no beads, lace or sparkly bits. i want something simple. so yeah, hopefully these people at the bridal shop show me something i like. :)