Kath + Matt
Matt and I were married on June 2, 2007 at Hillsborough Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. The reception followed at the Doris Duke Center on the Duke University Campus.
With a green and aqua theme, peppered with coral, orange, and pink, we wanted a bright, summery wedding. I designed all of the paper products myself and hand-made the programs, favor tags, menus, bar menus, signage and more using PaperandMore.com and my handy inkjet. It was all much easier than one would think, and I couldn't have done it without tons of Knottie inspiration! Here's a link to my planning bio:
Kath2226's Planning Bio
Vendor reviews and a review of our honeymoon to Sonoma Wine Country are listed at the bottom of my bio.
Please email me at Kath2226@gmail.com or page me on the North Carolina board with questions!
Thanks for looking :)
All photos are by Acorn Photography. Please credit me if you use them. Thanks!
Vendors
Ceremony Location
:
Hillsborough Presbyterian Church
A+
, HPC was the church I grew up in and my parents still go there. Of course, the church was thrilled to have us marry there. The minister, Bob Brizendine, was wonderful to work with. With wrote our whole ceremony and he gave us ideas along the way and had no objections to anything we chose. It’s a beautiful church!
Reception Location:
:
The Doris Duke Center, Duke Gardens,
A
, Fabulous venue!!! The gardens were beautiful, we loved the tent on the terrace. I also loved having an indoor area in the event of rain (it happened) and extreme heat (I wish it had happened!) Ashley Carmichael was great to work with and very responsive to my questions. Duke’s event rentals place did a great job with the tent. It was well worth getting up at 4:30am to reserve our date and the $2,000 rental fee!!
Day-Of Wedding Coordinator
:
Nancy Congleton, The Wedding Runner
A
, I liked Nancy right away. She seems very professional and organized. We truly couldn’t have done the wedding without her. Her assistant set up ALL of the décor at the reception site while she coordinated the ceremony. She did a fine job organizing the vendors the few days before. One bit of advice I have for brides is to go ahead and hire a wedding
planner
if you can afford it. It was tough for me to download everything in my head for Nancy a few weeks before the wedding – I wished she had been seeing contracts and in the loop throughout the whole year, but it didn’t end up being a problem – just caused me extra stress the few weeks before making sure she knew all the details! Nancy was great, though, and I’d recommend her to anyone. www.theweddingrunner.com
Photographer
:
Acorn Photography, Raleigh
A+
, Jennifer was one of my favorite vendors! She made the wedding day so much fun and I absolutely LOVE the pictures!! She did a great job capturing all of the details, and I can’t believe she was able to get some of the shots she did (the photo of our send-off is unbelievable!). I gave her a handful of “inspiration” photos for both the engagement shoot and the wedding and she did a great job shooting just the style that I wanted. Highly recommended! www.acorn-photo.com.
Catering
:
The Catering Company of Chapel Hill
B-
, We decided on The Catering Company because of their professionalism, creativity, and many positive recommendations from family and friends. My parents had been to an event of theirs and LOVED the food and presentation, and our tasting of the menu and wines was excellent. All of the communications and proposals during our year of planning were well put together and organized, and we had the utmost confidence in them to do a wonderful job with our event. Unfortunately, we were disappointed with a few major aspects of the reception: we ran out of cake despite 30 extra servings, we ran out of food, and the buffet presentation was very disappointing. Although our event planner reports that our event was the first time they’d ever ran out of cake OR food, I find these two things to be so significant, that I cannot recommend them to other brides:
We were very embarrassed that they had to start serving the shrimp and grits on the buffet halfway through the reception because a few of the guests had taken too much and they were running low. I’m not sure if anyone got seconds of anything. To me, running out of food is the ULTIMATE catering mishap and I found this really upsetting. On a positive note, the food
tasted
fabulous and we got lots of compliments on the menu we designed. Many guests raved about the food, but I’m sure those that didn’t get full servings weren’t too happy.
Although I hadn’t discussed the presentation of the buffet, I had been assured it would be “beautifully presented.” The food presentation was fine, however, the buffets were no more than a bunch of platters on white table cloths. The hors d’oeuvres in particular were rather pathetic looking. Had I known that they would not be supplying any table décor (leaves, ferns, etc.) I would have GLADLY supplied more citrus fruit and done my own décor. Perhaps it was just a big miscommunication, but I would have expected better.
Lastly, the cake. We had 172 servings and 150 guests, and at least 10 guests didn’t get cake. I’ve spoken to Cinda on this and she is CLUELESS about what went wrong. We were thinking at one point that maybe they ruined a whole tier somehow! Our event planner has no idea what went wrong other than the claim that they are experienced cake cutters and were cutting a size slice that has worked for them in the past. Again, I find this to be a major embarrassment to us and am glad we at least had groom’s cake to serve an hour later to those guests who didn’t get dessert. Perhaps it was all a huge mistake, but I would have expected better for such an experienced company.
Cake
:
Cinda’s Creative Cakes
A+
, Cinda was perhaps the easiest and most organized vendor we had! She was AWESOME and lived up to all Knot recommendations. After
EIGHT
cake tastings, we thought Cinda rose about the rest in both her cake’s taste and her professionalism. It had just the right density and moistness we were looking for. Our cake was French vanilla with raspberry preserves filling and topped with buttercream, all brushed with Chambord for a twist! When we had the issues with cake at the reception, Cinda happily offered to make us a complimentary cake, even though the mistake was not her fault! Highly recommended!
Florist
:
The Flower Patch
A
, Our minister's wife works here, so she handled most of our order. Although their sample books are very outdated, I came with photos of EXACTLY what I wanted for the flowers, and they exceeded my expectations! I was nervous about it because I hadn’t seen any of their recent work, but the flowers were exactly what I had imagined. The bouquets were absolutely GORGEOUS and the bouts and corsages were perfect. I have zero complaints. My best advice to brides? Bring pictures of exactly what you want!!
Reception Band
:
Charlie Chiklis and the Moonlighters
A
, We had a 7-piece jazz band. They were just what we were looking for – half old American favorites, half beach music. They did a great job during cocktail hour as well as during the dancing. I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re the “bump and grind” type – it was very low-key, but there were plenty dancing by the end of the night. We sent them a copy of Davidson’s alma mater and they learned the whole song to play at the reception – it was great!! I have no complaints
Ceremony Music
:
Brass Quintet from the Raleigh Symphony
A++
, Exceeded my expectations! They were WONDERFUL! We got so many compliments on the brass. Canon in D is my favorite song of all times, and I had requested a special version. Rather than telling me they didn’t have time to learn more versions, I got an email saying the LOVED learning new things and would be happy to learn the song with the exact seconds that I requested it. When I walked down the aisle, Matt said that they played my version exactly. A great vendor!
Hair and Makeup
:
Margo Williams
B+
I really wanted to give Margo my highest recommendation, as she’s so popular on The Knot, however, she was 30 minutes late to my house on wedding day, which caused the whole day timeline to shift back by 30 minutes, and we ended up missing a good chunk of photos. Upon arrival, Margo promised to have me ready by 2:30 and I was, but we were supposed to have the WHOLE wedding party ready then for photos and they weren’t ready until 3:30. This is partly because my bridesmaid decided at the last minute to get her make-up done, but had Margo been on time, we still would have been done by 3, allowing enough time for all the photos. I had asked Margo if she was worried about getting behind at all and should we move the whole day up by 30 minutes, but she said she never gets behind, so this was particularly frustrating to go through. However, despite the timing, Margo did a wonderful job on the hair and make-up – we all looked gorgeous. I would recommend her to other brides with the suggestion to make sure to leave room for getting behind schedule
Transportation
:
A Touch of Class Limo
A
, They had the 14-passenger limo we needed and responded to my emails immediately. I like how it’s a smaller company and I’ve spoke with the owner directly. As far as I know they were on time, and our driver was very helpful and friendly. My only complaint was that the owner of the company gave me a hard time about my schedule (which had 3 different stops) saying that it might be hard for him to be on time. I let him know I’d allotted DOUBLE the normal travel time, and things ended up being fine. I’d definitely use A Touch of Class again!
Wedding Night Accommodations
:
Hilton RTP
A++
, We wanted to stay at the Washington Duke, but I hated to pay $300 to be there from 12-8 and then head to the airport, so we chose the Hilton near the airport – the “mansion on a hill,” as I think it’s called. We were SO IMPRESSED by the Hilton. They upgraded us to a huge suite with a big tub and sitting room. We had a fridge, which was so nice to put our reception leftovers in. The airport shuttle was such a lifesaver, as we left our car there for the honeymoon as part of the “Park and Ride” package for $119. Highly recommended!
Rehearsal Dinner Location
:
The Burwell School, Hillsborough, NC
A
, FMIL planned the whole thing, so I’m not sure of the details, but I don’t think anything went wrong. As far as I know, they were fine to work with. We had a “Blues, Brews & BBQ” themed rehearsal dinner and had a fantastic time doing the laid-back thing the night before. We did a gourmet, Southern-style dinner with BBQ and the traditional sides. FMIL had friends from South Carolina bring a cooker in the night before and roast the BBQ all night – yum!
Dress:
Noble Brides in Pineville, NC
A-
, I had a good experience in general working with this store. The owner gave me a discount on my dress, which was great, and stored my dress in between when it came in and alternations time. My dress came in in ONE WEEK because they had my size in stock! I also bought my wedding day earrings there (though an outside vendor on display). Good service overall. Do not use their alternations person - see below. www.noblebrides.com
Alterations Round 1
:
T. Love Alterations, Pineville
C-
, Note: Tonya's business is located in the Noble Brides house. I had quite a negative experience working with Tonya. Although she is a lovely person, I just don't think she knows very much about fitting dresses to women's bodies. I'll save you all the details of the 5+ things that went wrong (from the hem being altered without being properly measured, to a ripping seam, to her saying "well it's not going to be
perfect
" about a crooked seam, to her blaming me when the dress was too tight at the last fitting). I evenutally told her I was taking my dress to Olga, shed some tears, and left. If you have a simple alteration, she would be fine. But for a complicated project, take your dress elsewhere.
Alterations Round 2
:
Olga in Cary
A-
, I called Olga the night I got home with my broken dress and she assured me that making a dress not fall down was a piece of cake and I need not worry at ALL. Olga truly worked miracles on my dress. She put in a corset back, which solved all of my “falling down” problems and worked wonders on the bustle to get it to match the front of the dress for one seamless look. She also made me a matching simple veil of only $18!! I’d give her an A except she was a little spacey at times and “forgot” to take the seams out at my first fitting as we had discussed. Although everything worked out fine in the end, there were times when I was a little nervous about working. But I’d still recommend her to any and everyone who needs alterations!!
Bridesmaids Dresses
:
Designed by Charsa, Purchased through J Majors in Charlotte, NC
A+
, My girls' dresses were designed by Charsa (www.charsa.com) in the
Sabrina
style in the color
Apple Green
. The dresses were $260 each (when you buy 3+) with additional for shipping if you have it sent to you and not the store. My mom put in $100 for each dress, so that helped a ton with making them more affordable. J Majors was wonderful to work with. They are organized and clearly understand today's brides with a pretty form to distributed to all BM. I was able to pick my own deadline to have their measurements submitted, and the dresses came in on time. One of my BM's said her dress was delayed a week - something about it not being made the right size - so I'm not sure what all went on there because she didn't really consult with me, but with the company directly. But I believe her dress was only a week late. All of my girls needed alterations, as predicted, in the bust and length. As far as I know, they all really liked their dresses, but it was a difficult dress to fit (as most strapless dresses are). But the dresses looked GORGEOUS and I was so happy with my selection. They each wore their own "white summery shoes."
Flower Girl Dress
:
Strasburg Children
A
, My aunt-in-law coordinated trying on and buying the dress, so I don't really have any feedback other than I loved Natalie's dress! I gave her 3 to choose from in varying colors and she chose the "Sleeveless Aqua Blue Dress, H689AB," which is now on sale as of August 2007. I really wanted something she'd be able to wear again and didn't really want her in white, since I didn't want to compete with her color!!! She was the star of the day and the dress was great to add to our bright summery color palate.
Shoes
:
David's Bridal, Pineville, B
B+
, The shoes were $50, way overpriced, but were just what I was looking for. David's had average service.
Tux
:
Joseph Banks, A
A
, Matt got his tux at Joseph Banks. No complaints. They have great sales!
Rings
:
Diamonds Direct SouthPark
A
, Best prices in town and a great store! I love that I get free cleanings and white gold polishing for life. We got both my e-ring and our wedding bands here and have received nothing but great service. I guess my only complaint would be to get my ring cleaned and rhodium dipped while I wait rather than have to leave it there, but I can only be so demanding, right!?
Dance Lessons
:
Queen City Ballroom
A
, We took 2 dance lessons to prepare for our first dance to Moon River, a waltz. The first was complimentary and we learned a ton! Our instructor was great and showed us the step. We caught on quickly, but felt we should schedule a second lesson with her just to be comfortable. She did push their bridal lessons packages on us, but we just said we only needed on lesson (and waiting until 2 weeks before the wedding allowed us to say we didn’t have the
time
for more lessons) and we did a second for $85. We were very happy with the service, however, my one complaint was that we shared a room with other dancers and had to keep taking turns for music. But it wasn’t a huge deal and the dance ended up being perfect!
Save the Dates
:
My Gatsby
A
, We love how they turned out! www.MyGatsby.com.
Paper for Programs, Favor Tags, Menus, and Signs
:
PaperandMore.com
A+
, I ordered all of my paper (warm white linen cardstock and text paper) plus my invite envelopes from them. Their shipping is a flat $3.99, which is nice, and they will cut any paper for you for a small fee, so I didn’t have to worry about cutting it all myself. They even matched the price of another website that had cheaper envelopes. Highly recommended.
Invitations
:
Superior Letterpress, Mike Coughlin
A+
, I LOVE my invitations!!! They might be my favorite part of the whole wedding planning process. Since I designed them myself, I was worried about how to get the fonts and design to a vendor and Mike was a piece of cake to work with. I just sent him black and white printouts scaled to size and the PMS numbers of the colors I wanted. Mike has by far the best prices for letterpress out there. Thanks to other Knotties for recommending him! He was very organized and a pleasure to work with. One of my top vendors.
Centerpiece Candles
:
www.JamaliGarden.com
A-
, I ordered two dozen square candles from them. The prices were unbeatable, and I love the candles, but it was difficult to order. They lost a fax I sent and would only take my order via fax, which was sort of annoying. But the candles came promptly and they were responsive to my emails, so I would recommend them.
Honey Jar Favors
:
www.EMGoldBeekeepers.com
A
, I ordered 125 little jars of honey from Mary at EM Gold Beekeepers. They came promptly and Mary was very nice to talk with on the phone to confirm my order. At $1.39 a jar, they had unbeatable prices!
Coffee Beans for the Centerpieces
:
www.CoffeeBeanDirect.com
A
, My 5 pound bag of French vanilla scented coffee beans came quickly. They were super cheap too. I believe they are the cheapest website out there for whole bulk coffee beans.
Sparklers
:
www.SparklersOnline.com
A
, I ordered 150 of their 20” sparklers (the 2.5 minute ones). The free shipping is awesome and they arrived at my doorstep in just a few days. We had PLENTY of time to run through them, and they were still going when our car drove away.
Honey Jar Favor Labels
:
www.MyWeddingLabels.com
A
, I ordered the honey jar labels through them. I was slightly disappointed in the color of the blue in person, but other than that, they came quickly exactly as I ordered them.
Custom Cocktail Napkins
:
www.ForYourParty.com
A
, Ordered custom napkins here. I liked being able to preview the design, although I had to start from scratch about 5 times because my browser crashed and I wanted to change a color and they don’t let you edit once it’s put in the cart. Otherwise, great service!
Centerpiece Votives
:
www.Cudge.net
A
, I ordered 72 votives in 72 jars from them. They had the cheapest prices I could find online. Shipping was a little high, but all in all just what I was looking for.
Reception Table Decor
:
www.SaveOnCrafts.com
A
, I ordered door letters and green moss balls here. The letters were much smaller than I though, but that was my fault for not breaking out a ruler. The items came promptly.
Custom Postage Stamps
:
www.Zazzle.com
A-
, I ordered both the save the date stamps and the wedding stamps through Zazzle. The company was great and the stamps were easy to design, but my biggest complain is the mark-up. It’s almost 100% more expensive than doing regular USPS stamps. I wanted to do custom for the reply envelopes and the main envelopes, but I decided it wasn’t worth the cost and went with the quilt stamps from USPS.com, which gets an A+ for a speedy delivery!
Custom Self-Inking Stamp
:
www.iPrint.com
A
, Great company. Stamp came quickly. It was very easy to design too.
Honeymoon
Sonoma Wine Country
A++!!
Days 1 & 2: Sonoma
Inn at Sonoma
: While in Sonoma, we stayed at the Inn at Sonoma, a very nice and new inn that’s a cross between a B&B and a hotel. Our room was new and the bathroom was gorgeous – all marble with fancy spa products. The best part of the Inn was the food – they had a gourmet continental breakfast with muffins, granola, fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, 2 hot dishes, hard boiled eggs, and more. It was delicious!!! Later that evening they put out a selection of hors d’oeuvres and wine – cheese and crackers, antipasto, etc., all complimentary. There was internet access in the lobby and also freshly baked cookies out every afternoon! The Inn was in walking distance of the Sonoma Plaza. We got up each morning and went running through the town. It was lovely and every street was lined with roses and jasmine, making the run through town more like a run through a garden. We loved Sonoma! We loved the Inn and would definitely go back!
The Girl and the Fig (Sonoma)
: We went to the Girl and the Fig for dinner on Monday night. It was definitely one of our favorite restaurants on the honeymoon! It was in an older house on the corner of the plaza. The menu was great, and the cocktails were even better! I got a soup and a fig salad, and our strawberry-rhubarb crumble dessert was heavenly! Definitely a recommendation.
Ledson Winery (Kenwood, CA)
: Wow. We’re big wine drinkers and this place was fantastic. The building is a big castle with quite a majestic drive up. They don’t grow their own grapes, but they make over 75 different wines. There are VERY few wineries we’ve been to where we’ve liked so many wines. They were all fabulous! So fabulous that we ordered a case right on the spot. We’ve been drinking them since and plan to order more. There’s also a deli inside with a huge selection of cheeses, meats, breads, salads, drinks and more. We had a great picnic. This was my favorite picnic of the trip!
St. Francis Winery (Kenwood, CA)
: Great wines, beautiful grounds. Worth a stop in! Loved the Chardonnay.
Imagery Winery (Sonoma Valley)
– Meh. I wouldn’t go there. Good wine, but nothing great.
Arrowood Winery (Sonoma Valley)
– A nice new farmhouse-type place up on a hill. The guy was a little strange, but the wines were good!
Lawson Family Winery (South of Sonoma)
– We made the trip here based on a recommendation of a girl we met in a shop. It’s in barn and is rather rustic. Good wines! It’s way down south of Sonoma though, so I don’t think it was really worth the drive down there, unless you’re into dogs and barns!
Days 3: The Coast/Russian River Valley/Forestville
Sightseeing
: We drove from Sonoma to the coast, up highway 1 and back through the Russian River Valley. It was a beautiful drive through CA dairy country, and the ocean views were beautiful. There’s not much to visit along the way, so bring food with you if you’re hungry!! It’s amazing how much the landscape changes from Sonoma to the Coast to the Russian River Valley, which is like the mountains of NC! The whole drive took about an hour to an hour and a half. Worth a short break from wine for a day! We ate lunch in Geyserville at a little deli/wine bar and had excellent soup, panini’s and Pinot Noir! It was the only restaurant we saw, and it was rather laid back, but the perfect stop.
The Farmhouse Inn:
We stayed at the Farmhouse for one night, arriving an hour earlier than check-in. The Farmhouse is nestled in wine countryside, but there are plenty of wineries nearby and Healdsburg and Santa Rosa are about a 15 minute drive for dinner. Upon our early arrival, we were greeted by a very friendly woman who gave us a map of a few local wineries to kill some time. We were also offered some freshly baked cookies and restaurant recommendations in Healdsburg for dinner that night. After tasting some more wine, we came back to check in. The room was beautiful – very cozy and cottage-y. The rooms are all in an out building that’s separate from the main house. They were attached, but each felt like a cottage of its own. When we walked in they had jazz playing, more cookies, and truffles on our bed that says “Congratulations” on the honeymoon. Our room had a big whirlpool tub, a romantic four-poster bed, complimentary water and a sauna that we never used. It was a small room, but just what we needed for one night. The bathrobes were the best I’d ever put on!! We had massages scheduled at the Farmhouse Spa that afternoon. The spa is casual, but very nice and serene. My massage was great – perhaps a little overpriced, but worth it for the honeymoon. We were disappointed that the Farmhouse Restaurant wasn’t open while we were there, but the breakfast was amazing! French toast brioche topped with a strawberry sauce and whipped cream, scones, fruit and coffee. Although it was delicious, it was filling and left me not in the mood to eat and drink more! They also had a DVD library to choose from, although we didn’t have time to watch one, as we’d rather be tasting wine! We’d highly recommend the Farmhouse Inn to all honeymooners!
Cena Luna (Healdsburg, CA)
– Nestled into downtown Healdsburg, a funky town with a lively square and lots of shopping and restaurants, Cena Luna is an Italian restaurant and the only restaurant without an hour wait during the Healdsburg Jazz Festival! We sat at the bar and had a surprisingly delicious Italian meal of calamari, a fru-fru salad (yum!) and delicious pasta. I think we got dessert too, but I can’t remember what it was! Although I wasn’t crazy about the atmosphere (it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary), the food here was great.
Gary Farrell Winery (Russian River)
– Expensive, but very good wines. Up on a hill with nice views. Not sure it’s worth a trip, but we enjoyed it.
Hop Kiln Winery (Russian River)
– A funky “rock and roll” winery. We weren’t really impressed with their wines, but the building is cool and they had great mustards to sample!
Day 4 & 5 – Healdsburg, Dry Creak, Alexander Valley
The Calderwood Inn
– Well, this place was interesting. A few blocks from downtown (and not the most scenic walk) we got here an hour early and were hoping to park our car and walk into town. The innkeeper barked at us when we found ourselves in her parlor “We’re not ready for guests yet; We’re not ready for guests!” We apologized and explained that we only wanted to park our car and didn’t need to get into our room, and promptly went on our way. When we returned an hour later, she was all friendly like she had never seen us before! After giving us a laundry list of “rules” of the house, including that we weren’t allowed to sit down to breakfast until it was plated on the table because she can’t put down hot plates over our shoulders, we headed up to our room. The Calderwood is a very traditional B&B, typical of what you’d find in NC or VA. Lots of antiques and stuff. The room was very nice though, and the bed linens were SO SOFT!!! The breakfasts were delightful – lemon blueberry pancakes, chicken sausage, homemade muffins, sun-dried tomato scrambled eggs, fresh fruit with a liquor drizzle, and more. She’s a very good cook! The evening appetizers weren’t anything special, and she also put out an evening dessert and port, which was a nice tough. We had truffles in our room the second night (I think she forgot it was our honeymoon until talking to us!). She just seemed kind of pissed off the whole time, but the inn was nice enough.
Barndiva
– We had dinner at Barndiva on Wednesday night – the place was actually pretty empty. I had a $12 blueberry cocktail, Matt got beer. We ordered the cheese place (which was amazing), a salad with the California “works” of nuts and fruit and stuff, beer battered shrimp, a vegetable layered salad, and a goat’s cheese cheesecake blob thing for dessert. We thought the food was good, but VERY overpriced. $15 for a fru-fru salad!? $12 for a cocktail!? Had the dinner been half the price we paid, I’d be raving about the place, but I’m not sure why it was so expensive, as none of the other restaurants felt overpriced. The atmosphere was cool, as the restaurant is in a big barn that’s been modernized. We’d only recommend this if you have lots of money.
Alderbrook (Russian River)
– We started our trip up to Healdsburg at Alderbrook, which is at the top of Westside Road, since we had a free tasting coupon. Half and their wines were excellent; the other half were so-so. We did a triple Zinfandel tasting and really enjoyed comparing the three side-by-side. We were able to pull out some interesting flavors too! The tasting room had some fabulous mustards and peanut brittle to sample, all wine flavored of course.
Ferrari-Carano (Dry Creek)
– Known for their white wines, FC exceeded our expectations! The grounds are very well-tailored and the gardens are worth walking through. We liked the wines so much upstairs, we went down to the estate tasting room, which was such a good call! The barrels are beautiful, there are granite countertops – I felt like a VIP, even though anyone can go down there. It felt like a secret cave. The wines, oh my gosh. They were phenomenal! The Tre Terre Chardonnay was out of this world! I highly recommend a visit!
Preston Winery (Dry Creek)
– Hidden down a dirt road, we had several people recommend Preston to us. It’s a very laid back place and has about 10 cats hidden in the nooks and crannies! They were so cute! The wines were good, not great, but the sourdough bread that they bake there was FABULOUS!!! Better than any we had in San Francisco! We had picnic items from deli (smoked salmon, a bleu cheese brie, olives) and had a picnic with the bread out in the midst of their organic vegetable gardens. The place was so unique it was worth a trip.
Unti Vineyards (Dry Creek)
– We stopped at this place at the end of our day and were pretty wined-out by the time we got there. It’s rather small, and the tasting room is more like a corner of the winery than a real tasting room. The wines were good – heavy, bold reds, but nothing to write home about.
La Crema (Downtown Healdsburg)
– We love the La Crema 2003 Pinot Noir (unfortunately I think it’s all sold out!) so this was the #1 winery we wanted to visit while in Sonoma. We had hoped that it would be as impressive as Ferrari-Carano’s grounds, but it’s really just a tasting room in a shop off the Healdsburg Square. The wines were still great though!! The tasting room is cool, and the Pinots and Chardonnay didn’t let us down!
Hanna Winery (Alexander Valley)
– GORGEOUS setting!! The Alexander Valley region is beautiful – a huge, wide valley nestled between distant mountains. Hanna is located up on a hill with spectacular views surrounded by vineyards climbing up mountains. Their wines were pricey, yet good. Worth a trip for the view, and the wines I suppose.
Alexander Valley Vineyards (Alexander Valley)
– Yet another recommended winery. The friends we met at Cena Luna said to stop by, as they work there during the harvest. The tasting room is laid back and informal; the wines were good, but not quite our style. I’m not really sure why – maybe a little less complex than the others in the area?
Trentadue Winery (Alexander Valley)
– Go here for the reds! We had one of their wines in Virginia a few weeks before the honeymoon and loved it, so a stop here was required. The rest didn’t let us down!! We loved almost all of their wines, including a very inky Petite Sirah. They also had a few great ports, including a chocolaty one! The tasting room was modern, young and lively – just how we like our wines! We bought four bottles here – highly recommended!
Thumbprint Cellars (Downtown Healdsburg)
– The Thumbprint wines just didn’t stike a 10, but we might have been a little wined out. They were good, but not fantastic. The tasting room was hip and funky – right in Healdsburg – and they had delicious bleu cheese out for sampling! Worth a stop in because of the convenient location.
Cyrus Restaurant (Healdsburg)
– WOW. Amazing. Worth $400? Definitely! We knew we wanted to dine at Cyrus, Sonoma’s version of The French Laundry. The place exceeded our expectations! We ended up doing 4 courses each, and each with a wine paring. Since we shared everything, it was like 8 courses. Plus, they brought us about 4 complimentary courses from the kitchen, so it was quite a night of good eating! The Pineapple-Rum Foie Gras was absolutely amazing – they brought it over with a flaming alcohol and poured it at the table. I’m not usually a fan of foie gras, but this was amazing. The shot of pea soup with lavender was excellent too – we came home and duplicated it – yum! Other highlights: mussel stew; lemon-crab ravioli (layers of noodles, crab, lemon and olive oil); amazing lamb, wrapped in a layer of fat (yes, I ate it and it was good!) with barley and mushrooms; the most delicious assortment of cheeses (we picked bleu, goat’s and camembert) served with nuts, breads, fruit; and TWO desserts – a “caramel soup” (homemade kettle corn topped with ice cream topped with a chocolate lattice, all smothered in a liquid caramel) and an assortment of mini dishes of cheesecake, crème brulee, and pana cotta. And then we got a complimentary chocolate sampler to end the evening!! All the wine parings were excellent. This dinner was a once-in-a-lifetime and worth every penny, especially for the last night of our honeymoon in wine country!
Day 6: San Francisco
J.W. Marriott (Union Square)
– Highly recommended!! The location was perfect – right in the middle of the shopping district – and we got upgraded to a gorgeous room with views of the city, a huge marble bathroom, a flat-screen TV, a couch, etc. The staff was very friendly, and it was the best room service I’ve ever had – because it was healthy! The only drawback is the $45 per day parking fee, which most of the downtown hotels have. We could have returned our rental car a day early and taken the hotel shuttle from the airport, but we had such little time in SF, we didn’t want to waste time at the airport. Very nice hotel!
Sightseeing
: It took us about an hour to get back down to San Francisco. We checked into the hotel, walked around a bit, and headed out to The Wharf for some sightseeing on the $2 bus since the trolley line was a mile long. We ate at the rather overpriced sourdough bread factory Boudin. Lunch was great (a seafood stew), the beers were good, the bread was good, but it was just a little too expensive for lunch! We breezed through the Wharf and walked the 10 blocks or so to Chinatown. You kind of come upon Chinatown quickly and we later discovered that we weren’t even on the main street, so we missed a lot of it. I had hoped to fine stands serving the fresh Chinese food everyone talks about, but we mostly passed sketchy looking restaurants with dark windows. Maybe that’s where all the good food was, but we’d had lunch and ended up in a bakery for a rather gross Chinese dessert (I think it was made with bean paste – I don’t think they use sugar in China!). We bought a Chinese painted scroll for $15 and headed on our way.
Taverna (Belden Place)
– We got dressed up for our last honeymoon dinner, and headed to Taverna, which is located in this alleyway called Belden Place. There are about 7 restaurants in the alley, all of which had good-looking menus. We had picked Taverna a few months before based on the menu, so we had reservations. This was one of our most delicious dinners yet!! I can’t remember what we had because we drank waaaaaayyyy too much wine, but I just remember it tasted fabulous! We ate on the patio, under a heater, and the atmosphere was great. We had great service (he had no problem splitting all of our courses, which we do often) and he made great menu recommendations. My only complaint was that the inside of the restaurant was small and there was only one bathroom – for men and women – that wasn’t the cleanest. I would recommend going to Belden Place and checking out all the menus.
All in all, we had a fabulous trip!! I think by the end we were just stuffed with food and wine, and although they were delicious, we probably would have done better if we’d controlled our eating a little better towards the end of the trip! Sonoma was the ultimate honeymoon destination – plenty to see and do, romance, great B&B’s (that weren’t too expensive!), and the best food and wine in the country!
Honeymoon Photos!
Kath + Matt
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