This place was the reason we decided on Napa. We had originally wanted to get married in the wine area outside of Santa Barbara. I looked for a ceremony / reception dual location for many, many hours. I decided I really didn’t want to hassle with a caterer and equipment rental. I wanted a really fabulous meal and a great view. And, I wanted a place that had done this before and supplied a coordinator for that day.
Then I visited Auberge. It was fantastic. Everything about it was beautiful. It was very much our style – contemporary but rustic. Classy but not over the top. An entire floor of the property for the event. A great outdoor deck with an incredible view for the ceremony and cocktail hour. A well-known kitchen and super wine menu. I knew our guests would love the full experience of the place.
Here were the pros:
Gorgeous property - Ability to take photos pre-wedding with just the two of us on the scenic property grounds.
Fabulous room for the first night of our honeymoon – when we got back, the hotel had a fire going, candles on, a delicious cake and champagne waiting for us.
Incredible service – strong attention to detail, great bartender, good wait
staff, strong attention from our coordinator.
View - amazing view of the valley from the deck for the ceremony and cocktail reception.
Table settings / lighting – Beautiful lighting, impeccable tables with great silverware, glasses and dishes.
Here were the cons:
Outdoor diners – above your ceremony location is the outdoor seating for the restaurant and to the right it is outdoor seating for the bar. It was hard for people to hear in the back as our ceremony was competing with the noise from the restaurant. And, at the beginning, there was a drunk, loud girl at the bar who was slightly disturbing. Our minister couldn’t use a microphone as the property doesn’t want to disturb their restaurant diners, either. It’s tricky and a known risk that many people will not be able to hear the ceremony (and you could get a rogue bar person).
Dining area layout – There are two rooms. There are doors that open and it does help with the space but, ideally, these would be walls that can open completely into one large dining area. I think some people felt weird about getting tables in the other room where it was hard to see the action / hear speeches. I think the dinner itself would have felt better had we all been in the same room.
Dinner timing management – Huge con – dinner took over 3 hours. Now, yes – we wanted a multi-course, slow meal. Unfortunately, it was taking so long for the food to come out that people were getting up between courses to walk around! And, dinner didn’t finish until almost 10:30 so people were tired and we only had the music until 11pm so not much dancing occurred. It was definitely the biggest issue with the entire wedding - people were frustrated and we never really got the dance party / engagement we had hoped for. It was okay – it was still a beautiful night; however, it was really frustrating. It turns out that our coordinator left after everyone was seated and left the dinner up to the banquet captain. She had no idea until we told her about it when we got back. She was apologetic about it but didn’t offer any kind of discount or other compensation. With the quality of the location, I would have thought they would have been much more upset about that kind of thing. My suggestion would definitely be to hire a coordinator for the day – making sure they are there for every bit so you don’t have to worry about any of those details.
Rehearsal – Due to how many weddings they squeeze in, often the space is not available the day before for a rehearsal. We were able to squeeze one in but only had 30 minutes and it was hectic. I think it would be better to skip the rehearsal there and just do a walk through in an open spot at your hotel / at a park. It’s not exactly the space it will do.
