Booking hotel rooms

Hey, good news! We have information on booking hotel rooms. Slightly more info on each hotel can be found in the post directly below this one, or by visiting the hotel website.

Best Western Sonoma Valley - 220 2nd St West, Sonoma

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Call the hotel at 707-938-9200. (Yes, technophiles, you should use the telephone.) When you ask for reservations, mention the Richards/Sutton room block. Easy peasy. Extra good news about this one, if any locals need/want a hotel - you don't have to book both nights. You can just get Friday night.

They have a variety of room configurations, and prices that go along with that. The basics are one king-sized bed or two queen-sized beds. King bed rooms are $160-$170 on Thursday night, $200-$220 on Friday night. The price difference depends on if you want a fireplace or not. Queen bed rooms are $190 on Thursday, $240 on Friday. They all have a fireplace. Prices don't include tax. You must make a reservation here by February 8 to get these rates.


The Lodge at Sonoma - 1325 Broadway, Sonoma.

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This one can be reserved over the phone by calling 888-710-8008 and ask for the Richards/Sutton room block. Or you can go online. The link isn't working right now, but I'll put it in when it is back up and running.

The rooms here are a two-night minimum (Thursday the 25th and Friday the 26th). $149 per night, not including taxes and fees and whatever else they're tacking on these days. You must reserve it by March 5 to get this rate.

I highly encourage room sharing. If you're looking for someone to share a room with and don't know who to ask, leave a comment and we'll try to help out.

Hotel Info

So much useful information to post these days! I'll be back to rambly recountings of my day and non-sequiters soon.

We* are working on hotel blocks for Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26 in Sonoma. Two-night minimum. You must book both nights to get the special rate. We are looking at
The Best Western Sonoma Valley Inn
and
The Lodge at Sonoma, a Renaissance Marriott Resort

Check back in a month or so for further info on what exactly the rates are and how you can book them. That's the part that's in process.

The Best Western is at 550 2nd St W, two blocks off the square** and six blocks from the wedding venue (which is on 4th St E). This is walking distance, so if you're planning a short stay and don't want a rental car, it may be the way to go. If you do have a car, parking is free. They also rent bicycles. They have a free continental breakfast, free wireless internet, and a pool.

The Lodge at Sonoma is located at 1325 Broadway, a little over a mile to the plaza and a little over 1.5 miles to Sebastiani. This one has an onsite restaurant, bar, and coffee shop, as well as a pool. It also has a full-service day spa. I would drive (or take a cab) from here to the wedding venue, but a hearty soul could walk it pretty easily. There will be a shuttle on the night of the wedding.

Other hotels can be found at the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau, or on www.tripadvisor.com or probably any other hotel sites you like. Have a group (8 or more)? Try Vacation Rentals By Owner for multi-bedroom homes.

*And by "we," I mean "my mother," who is doing all of the phone calls and emails. My sole contribution is to say "so how's that going?" every few weeks.

** I am using "plaza" and "square" interchangeably here. It's a big green space in the center of town - the locals call it "the plaza," but it is square-shaped, so I guess either applies.

Travel Info

In order to get to Sonoma, you'll need to fly into San Francisco or Oakland. Either airport is fine, and pretty much equidistant to wine country, so go with the best airfare deals.

You may want a rental car to get to Sonoma/Wine Country from the Bay Area. If you have a car, you will be able to take yourself wherever you want, whenever you want. Obviously. If you don't have a car, you can arrange for an airport shuttle to take you to Sonoma, where you will then need to walk around town or take cabs.

Sonoma Valley visitors bureau website: click here

If you arrive early, you might want to stay in Oakland or San Francisco for a night or two before heading up. In that case, you probably don't need a car until you're ready to leave the city. Hotels in San Francisco are numerous and varied, depending on what you want to be near. Start with thinking about areas of the city or attractions you want to visit, then choose a hotel based on proximity. In Oakland, there is a hotel just a couple blocks from our apartment:
The Courtyard Marriott, Downtown Oakland

This is close to public transit, the waterfront, Chinatown, and the shops of Old Oakland. There are also a couple good places to stay in Jack London Square which is about eight blocks from where we live.

On Thursday or Friday, you'll need to head north to Sonoma for the wedding. Plan for it to take just over an hour of driving, though if you leave during morning rush hour, or after 3pm, it will take more like 90 minutes.

DIRECTIONS FROM OAKLAND/BERKELEY/EAST BAY:
1. Take 580-West towards San Rafael
2. Cross over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge ($4 toll), and continue on 580-W.
3. Take the exit for 101-North towards Santa Rosa.
4. Take exit 460A to merge onto CA 37-East towards Napa. Go about 7 miles on 37-E.
5. Turn LEFT at CA-121/Arnold Dr. Go approximately 6.5 miles.
6. Turn RIGHT onto Fremont Dr. to continue following CA-121 (Vineyard Inn Hotel will be on your right at this intersection). Stay on Fremont Dr. for about 0.7 miles.
7. Turn LEFT at Broadway/Sonoma Hwy/CA-12. (Signs for Sonoma) Continue for 3.6 miles.
8. Broadway will dead-end into the Sonoma City Park. Turn RIGHT at E. Napa St.
9. Turn LEFT at 4th St E.
10. Sebastiani will be on your right.

DIRECTIONS FROM SAN FRANCISCO:
1. Take 101-North.
2. Cross over the Golden Gate Bridge (no toll in this direction) and continue on 101-N.
3. Continue directions above from #4.

Venue Info

It's probably time to post some useful info about the wedding on here, yes?
Let's start with DATE and VENUE.

We're getting married on March 26, 2010 at Sebastiani Vineyards in Sonoma, CA.
Venue link
Map

We'll post some photos of the location soon - their website doesn't really do it justice. This is our ceremony and reception site.

Sonoma is about an hour north of San Francisco. Fly into SF or Oakland. We don't have hotel blocks lined up yet, but we're working on it. I'll post more when it's been settled. The nice thing about Sebastiani is that it is just a few blocks off the main Sonoma square. You can stay pretty much anywhere in town and be able to easily get to the wedding venue.

Timeline
Thursday, March 25
4:00 - Ceremony rehearsal for wedding party and immediate family

Friday, March 26
5:00 - guests begin arriving at Sebastiani
5:30 - Wedding ceremony
6:00 - Cocktails
7:00 - Reception - dinner and dancing

Saturday, March 27
No scheduled events, but if you're able to hang around in Sonoma, there's plenty to see and do.

dry run

This past weekend was Timo's graduation ceremony. He is now* the proud owner of a BFA in graphic design from CCA. To celebrate, we invited family members out to California to attend the ceremony and meet each other for the FIRST TIME. YIPES.

Attendees were:
My mom
My dad
Timo's mom
Timo's dad
Timo's stepmom
Timo's Aunt Jane
Timo's Aunt Mary
Timo's Uncle Bob
Timo's cousin Liz
Timo's Aunt Alice**
Timo's Uncle Michael**
Our friend Danielle

I'm happy to report, dear readers, that it went very well. Everyone got along, and I'm fairly certain they all had a good time, unless they are much better liars than I give them credit for. Of course, I knew it would all be fine. They're all good people and we like them.

In the days leading up to the weekend family extravaganza, I joked many times [probably always to the same people - sorry Jean-Paul!] that we should just be getting married this weekend and get it over with. I expect that with the amount of planning and logistics that went into it, I have a peek at what a wedding weekend will be like. But with 8 times more guests. We had dinner reservations on Friday night for the nuclear 7, handled transport the next day to the graduation and then to Alice & Michael's house for 12, and cooked brunch for 14 on Sunday morning at our apartment.*** Then we wondered what the heck to do for the rest of the day on Sunday because I hadn't planned any more activities. Turns out that all Timo and I were capable of doing was sitting on the couch, flipping through magazines, not talking because we were too tired. Hopefully, if we plan the wedding weekend right, by the time that exhaustion hits we'll be on a plane to as-yet-to-be-determined exotic honeymoon locations.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that the meeting of parents over a long weekend can be entirely pleasant. It was for us, and I am so glad we did this before the rehearsal dinner. With this accomplished, Danielle safely in town, and apartment fully moved in to, it's time to get back to the main event: figuring out how to post photos on this blog. I'll crack the code soon, I promise.

*Actually, he had this BFA in December, AND the diploma is already on our wall, but they don't do a December ceremony. So we took a break from real-world, full-time employment, and pretended for a weekend that he was just graduating now. Then we laughed at all the poor students who would be starting their job hunt on Monday.

**Bay Area residents, so they had the easiest trip. Though that did mean they had to open their house to us.

***Did I mention that we have a new apartment too?

FOUND IT

Venue hunt over and wedding date secured. You would think with only two posts on this that it was super easy to find, but not so much. In addition to the places in my previous post, we also saw these places in Sonoma:
- Cline Cellars (too big)
- Jacuzzi Vineyards (beautiful but laughably expensive. I don't think they really want to do weddings there)
- Gloria Ferrer (meh. Also, undergoing a renovation at some point in the near future and not booking weddings for 2010)
- Sebastiani Vineyards (nice)
- Paradise Ridge Winery, Santa Rosa (nice, but remote. You have to drive through a suburban neighborhood to get there)

The winner, dear readers, is....Sebastiani Vineyards in Sonoma!
Winning date is....March 26, 2010!

The attempts to decide on a date were nearly as intricate as picking a venue. That probably deserves its own post. Now that we have one set, it seems easy. But as all of you who received multiple emails from me checking dates already know, I may have obsessed.

So what? I want you to be here for it.

Anyway, Sebastiani is lovely. It's just a few blocks off the main square in Sonoma, so there's lots to walk to. They have a couple outdoor spaces we can do the ceremoney: either around a fountain or on the lawn. I like the fountain. If it's raining or cold, we can do the ceremony inside in front of a big ol' fireplace. They have a barrel room for the reception, lounge to hang out in whenever, and changing rooms for bridal party and groomsmen. Also, by getting married on a Friday in March, it turned out to be the cheapest site fee we saw anywhere in wine country.

Website, if you want to visit it:
http://www.sebastiani.com/home.asp

But be forewardned that their website is not so pretty. We'll take pictures next time we're up there and post those.

site scouting

In planning our wedding, the first thing I thought we ought to do is nail down a venue. [Okay, not really. The first thing we did was make phone calls. Then I started actual planning by hoarding wedding magazines. Then we discussed when to put our engagement on Facebook.]

Do you know how many wedding venues are out there in the world? My best guess is fifty bajillion. If one were to narrow it down to wineries/vineyards in Northern California with both indoor and outdoor capacity and a rustic* ambiance, that would leave one with approximately 500 venues. Or so it seems based on the amount of time I have spent looking at websites in the last two months. I am arbitrarily ruling out venues that seem too garden-y, bland, reception hall-ish, Victorian, large, or small before I even pass them on to Timo. And you can forget about places with pools or golf courses. Nuh uh.

That leaves us with some decent contenders. And that means we have already visited the following over the last several weekends:
Byington Winery, Los Gatos (nice except for the family antiques that you can't remove from any of the rooms and the standing-room only backup ceremony spot)
Calistoga Ranch, Calistoga (laughably out of our price range. though I saved the packet if you'd like a hearty chuckle. did you know there were packets? well there are)
Hans Fahden Vineyards, Calistoga (closed when we got there)
Mountain Winery, Saratoga (very nice. in the middle of nowhere. if we were eaten by deer, it might take up to a week for someone to find us)
Testarossa Vineyards, Los Gatos (nice)
V. Sattui, St Helena (nice)

This weekend we're headed to Sonoma County to visit four more spots. Wish us luck! I get bored pretty quickly, so if we need to keep looking after this, I'm in danger of dropping wedding planning in favor of some new diversion like apartment hunting. Yes, that could keep us busy for at least another month or two.

--Jessica

*after seeing so many different places, reception styles, and flower arrangements proudly calling themselves "rustic," the term retains little actual meaning for me.

Testing testing...

First post!