Plan B

The main concern with a Northern California wedding in the early spring is the weather. Seeing as Mr. SB & I are very inspired by the natural beauty of the area and hope to have the ceremony outside, this is an extra big concern. At each place we visited, I made sure to go over (very specifically) what the Plan B would be.

Our Ceremony Plan A. On the beautiful winery lawn, under the setting sun.

Our winery also has a beautiful fountain courtyard which, sadly, we won't be using for the reception. Way too risky weather & temperature-wise.

I was pretty sure tents were out of our budget. And I only like the look of really fancy tents (fancy lighting, flooring, etc., not just a covering over your tables or chairs), which I *KNEW* was out of our budget.

So I asked the site director what she suggested. The room that I already had planned to have the reception in has a beautiful fireplace at one end, flanked by tall doors that look out on a balcony and stunning view of the area. Even in bad weather, I'm sure the view is gorgeous.

All pictures from Nicholson Ranch.

She explained to use that we could set up for the ceremony in here (sans tables), sweep the guests off to the wine caves for the cocktail hour while the caterers flip the room, and then we'd come back up to a fully re-decorated room for dinner. We were a little nervous about asking the caterer to do such an important (and quick) turn over. But she highly recommended a local company and when we met with them, they assured us that they were very familiar with the site and had done the flip before and it would be no problem. So, with a deep breath and fingers crossed for good weather... we signed up for both the site.. & the caterer!!

Image source.

Side note: the site director told us that last year, only three weddings were rained on... and two ended up with rainbows. What a nice bright side.

What back up plans were an important part of your wedding plans?

Plan A

The beautiful weather is one of the main reasons I am now a Northern Californian. And a main reason people avoid weddings in March. I'll show you some pics of our "Plan A" and what the "Plan B" is later.

Ceremony

This hillside will be green. Provided the ground is dry enough, we will get married here, with the grapevines on the right... (all pics from Nicholson Ranch's website)

And the lake to the left. (Great for pictures.)


Cocktail hour

After leaving the ceremony site, you walk through their wine production area (neater than it sounds) and head 5 stories underground to their wine caves. There is a beautiful hallway and a BEAUTIFUL formal dining area where we will have our cocktail hour. Since all of our guests are from out of town, we wanted to limit down time and travel for them (and not organizing transportation is one less thing on my to-do list).


Reception

Back above ground, this room has beautiful high ceilings and a fireplace and amazing views of the surrounding wine country. It only seats about 75, so we're basically the max wedding they can support indoors. In fact, we'll have to break down tables to have a dance floor. We won't have a big partying/dancing crowd, so I think we'll be fine.


We are so thankful that this site has so many beautiful areas for us to enjoy (I haven't even show you the space that I'll be getting ready or the photo opportunity spots). Are you using multiple areas of your wedding site for different parts of your day or changing locations throughout?

THE place

Nicholson Ranch Winery sits on a hill between Napa & Sonoma Counties. It is gorgeous. I *may* have even told my mom that it was where I was going to get married... a full 12 months before I was engaged! (That's a picture of mom SB & Uncle SB in their tasting room.)

So anyway, the reply to my inquiry was a very reasonable, discounted quote within our budget... and for a Saturday evening event!! As much as I had convinced myself that I was fine with no dancing and a short-ish reception... if I was honest, I wanted a full party for all of our guests who would be traveling so far to be with us. Mr. SB & I went for an official tour and were blown. a. way. by the beautiful venue. We had visited the winery several times before, but the private areas are even more special than the public ones (as would be expected). Ramona (the owner) was a delight to work with and the sample albums of prior weddings were stunning.

I headed home with stars in my eyes that we might. actually. get. married. there. and sat down to crunch some numbers. They worked out. So I double and triple checked. And hand delivered my deposit with a big fat grin on my face.

Did anything you think "was not an option" end up working out?

Who gets married in March?

One of the first questions when planning a wedding is obviously WHEN the big day will happen. Since we wanted to get married in Wine Country ($$$), off season (Nov.-Mar.) immediately looked very appealing. We attended an off-season Sunday lunch wedding in Napa last year which was beautiful and I was using that as my template for a wine country wedding with charm on a budget. And our dating anniversary is mid-March, so it all made sense. The main problems with this time of year are a lack of greenery on the grape vines & a possibility of rain. I'll take my chances... *crosses fingers*
With the date decided, I spent H-O-U-R-S online and built an impressive Excel spreadsheet that listed every wedding site (mostly wineries) with a website and the corresponding costs, restrictions, location, contacts, and onnnn and onnnn.... I was amazed at how much pricing varied at baseline and off season rates. Some sites gave significant discounts for being off season. Others did not. At all.

Ultimately, we visited four locations: a bargain basement golf course, two resorts, and one winery. The golf course visit was pretty much a disaster, it definitely didn't meet the "charm" requirement. When we visited the resorts, we were still thinking that we would have a Sunday afternoon wedding. There was a clear front runner that we were very happy with in Sonoma, one that we could never have afforded during the high season or Saturday evening for that matter. As I debating sending in our deposit, Mr. SB convinced me I should contact one more winery (most had been way out of our budget), the one that was my dream location. I had avoided doing so, because I didn't want to be disappointed... but I sent the email and awaited the reply...

Did you consider "alternative" days or times for your wedding?