Customer Reviews

Here Comes the Guide Northern California: Locations & Services for Weddings & Special Events

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just pinned down a wedding venue, and I found this book helpful, with a few caveats. Firstly, brides-to-be should know that every venue in the book must pay "Here Comes the Guide" to be included. This engenders a lack of objectivity for the writers judging these locations. I am a travel writer myself so I felt a litle cheated by not having access to a trustworthy critical eye in the site reviews. Secondly, I was frustrated with the lack of photographs and felt the "Here Comes the Guide" website was much more helpful in this regard. All the locations in the book are online, and it's free there.

I actually found a gorgeous venue in Mendocino that wasn't included in the book or website. Just remember while "Here Comes the Guide" is a good place to start, you can find rare gems and less-travelled venues that aren't in the book. Talk to friends and experts who have gone to a lot of weddings. Another good place to look is the Chamber of Commerce website of the city in which you're planning to get married.

I was given this book as a gift soon after my engagement. At the time, I hadn't given much thought to where I wanted to hold the event. This book was a great help in finding several locations that were ideal. As the wedding market in Northern CA is rather busy, it was very nice to have several choices so that we could find a venue that was availible on our desired date.

This book contains accurate descriptions of venues, with information pertianing to the size, cost, and other key factors. It also contains less important but still useful information on catering options at each venue, music limitations, and other factors which can help a bride and groom say yea or nea to a location that is still site unseen.

I called over 20 phone numbers in this book and all were up to date and correct. I also found the pricing information almost dead on. The black and white pictures also gave an accurate impression of the venues.

This book was essential to my planning of a wine country wedding and I highly recommend it to anyone that is arranging a wedding in the bay area.

I absolutely dreaded planning my wedding and this book was the only thing that saved my fiance and I from spiraling into madness. We are both from the East Coast, relatively new to the Bay area, and had no family here to help us. Neither one of us had ever been married before or helped plan a wedding. Here Comes the Guide was the single most useful tool for planning our wedding, and is reliable enough that we didn't feel the need to interview a ridiculous number of vendors for each service before choosing one. If a vendor we liked was recommended by the book then we knew they had to be good. Here Comes the Guide is concise, recommends cool traditional and non-traditional reception sites, and provides all of the information you need to plan your own wedding without the help of a wedding planner. The only area which was lacking was limousines and transportation. Pretty much everything else, including bands, calligraphy, invitations, cakes, vendors, tuxedos, reception sites, and florists, was there in abundance.

This book is an excellent way to narrow your search for the perfect location for your wedding... especially helpful if you're out of state or across the country, as I am! The site descriptions were very comprehensive, and when I actually visited some of the sites, I found the descriptions to be highly accurate. Basic maps were provided. I strongly suggest using this book in conjunction with By Recommendation Only, so that you can select your location with HCTG and plan everything else with BRO

THE GUIDE was the KEY to our wedding! I had just moved to San Francisco and had a lot to learn...fast! What was available in San Francisco and Napa Valley? Touring the many wonderful sites would have taken weeks and been a challenge since I did not know my way around the Bay Area. The drawings of the sites, descriptive paragraphs and the site profiles in THE GUIDE (ex. size of the banquet rooms, if liquor could be served, caterer requirements, etc.) helped me narrow the list of potential sites. This saved me hours/days I would have otherwise spent on the telephone seeking these numerous details. Details, at this point in wedding planning, that I had not fully considered, but would need to know very soon (ex. dance floor available? candles allowed? live or recorded music allowed?). In a few weeks, I was able to focus on three wonderful sites. We exchanged vows FOUR MONTHS later at the Auberge du Soleil! All THANKS to THE GUIDE!

Not really a useful book. SAVE your money and learn to use Google or just go on-line to their site.

This book definitely opened my eyes to venues available in Northern California BUT ALSO helped me to think 'Out of the box' perse. We noticed some places they suggested were large mansion type buildings.We did some research with a local reality company and are renting an almost century old estate to host the rehearsal dinner and to house the parents and ourselves. We are using the small town's community center for the reception and using the beach coast for the actual wedding (community center has a small church if it rains nearby for plan B). BEST to get the most UP TO DATE version of this book I would have to say and to keep checking their websites for updates that go along in duet with the book. Would recommend easily to other potential California wedding people.

Here Comes the Guide: Northern California: Wedding Locations and Services (Here Comes the Guide Northern California)

Here Comes the Guide, Southern California: Wedding Locations and Services (Here Comes the Guide Southern California)

This book has been extremely helpful for my fiance and me as we look for a location for a wedding in N. California. Some of the locations we visited were a little bit disappointing, but overall the people at these locations were helpful and informative and the descriptions from the book accurate.

This guide has a TON of ideas for weddings in the CA Bay Area/wine country, but VERY slim on any other places in Northern California. Great if you are a SF Bride, but bad if you are above Napa.

I used this guide in 1994 when I was planning our wedding and it was invaluable! It saved me a lot of time, helped me narrow down my choices and in the end helped me find the perfect spot for our wedding. I definitely recommend this book to anyone planning a wedding (or even just a party).