Venture Retreat Center

My husband and I got married in June 2015 at Venture Retreat Center. We wanted a nontraditional ceremony and a relaxing weekend-long reception that didn't feel fluffed up by the commercial wedding industry. Venture was absolutely perfect for us. The house and the grounds are beautiful: blooming artichokes in the garden, a big fireplace in the living room, ancient trees overhead and songbirds singing all weekend long. We were married in front of a giant, brambly rosebush and afterwards our friends and family walked 50 feet to the porch of the house for champagne, dinner, a live band, and a midnight soak in the hot tub. 40 of our friends stayed in the house and camped on the lawn, which meant that we didn't need any set schedule; people just came and went, enjoying Venture's pool and the nearby hikes and beaches. We cooked most of our meals in the big kitchen (except for the main post-wedding meal, which was catered). There are so many beautiful nooks and crannies on the Venture property! The kids in attendance formed a group and went exploring down the creek trail—we only found out later because they had taken one of our disposable cameras! Bob was incredibly kind and helpful during the planning process and the event itself. He let us visit the property while we were planning, so we could imagine how it would all work, and he connected us with a flower farm down the road, who stocked us with flowers at wholesale. Mainly, he was laid back, friendly and a genuinely nice person to work with. Venture is pretty much a dream place to throw a party: a giant house in the woods, where you can swim and dance and do a lot of nothing with a hundred of your favorite people. If that sounds like a good way to spend your wedding, then Venture is for you.

VRC helped accommodate us and our entire family when our original reception venue cancelled due to wildfires (we were married in September 2020)! We ended up doing an informal wedding ceremony and reception here. They were super flexible and obliging even though our very large group scheduled with them very last minute. We used all of the grounds (stayed the night before our wedding and the night after) and it was so beautiful! The venue is surrounded by nature - some woods and very close to the beach - but still had the comforts of a very spacious kitchen/dining, bathrooms, etc. The only issue we ran into was that there was no cell service - but we wanted an unplugged ceremony anyway. :)

Venture Retreat Center was the ideal venue for our wedding. We had a big vision with a small budget, and Venture was the only place that gave us enough flexibility to realize our vision and not completely break our budget. Other venues had so many rules, restrictions, and added fees - the answer to every question was either "no" or "yeah, but it'll cost you". The answers we got from Venture, on the other hand, tended to be "sure, why not, it's your wedding!" That's all we wanted hear. Venture is not "fancy", but the grounds are lovely, it was very reasonably priced, there was space for many of our guests to spend the night, and the folks running it genuinely wanted us to be able to create the event we dreamed of. And we did. Our wedding at Venture was a beautiful gathering of friends and family, and everyone had a spectacular time.

Venture Retreat Center is a wonderful place to have a wedding. We had our ceremony on the beach and our reception at Venture. Bob was great and very flexible with us about all the logistics. We built an entire lighting rig in the space beside the pool to go over our tables and took it down in plenty of time- the place was transformed and we had everything we needed.
We highly recommend it- its just beautiful. Recommended for a smaller wedding- as parking was just a little tricky but not a problem. This is a rural site and that's why we chose it.
We loved having places for our wedding party to stay on site. Some folks camped. The pool and the hot tub were a great bonus. The kitchen complete with just about all the supplies we needed was awesome.
We love Venture and want to come back for other occasions....we'll be in touch Bob! <3
Thank you Bob!!!
Chandra and Jay

This is a really special, magical place. We truly feel so lucky to found this hidden gem. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Venture and the staff.

This was the perfect venue for us for several reasons:

1) We felt really good about supporting Venture, which is a nonprofit, and Bob who's been running this place for decades. Bob is a really cool guy.

2) It's more affordable than many venues.

3) We wanted a place where our families could both stay and get to know each other. On Fri/Sat we had 18 family and close friends stay in the lodge.

4) We also wanted to give our friends the option of staying so they could party with us all night. On Sat, we had an additional 13 campers.

5) I'm a huge fan of hot tubs, redwoods, and yurts. The hot tub (and pool) is in front of the lodge surrounded by redwoods. We used the yurt as our honeymoon suite. In general, the grounds are beautiful.

6) It was close enough to SF/East Bay for our friends, and SFO for family flying in. We also wanted to give ppl another excuse to visit California - and what perfect enticement than the Northern California coastline?

I'd absolutely recommend this place for your wedding or other event.

Bob and his staff were great in allowing us to set up our reception in any way we wanted. We really went all out. I don't think there was a single corner that wasn't rearranged or decorated by our crew -and we brought in A LOT of stuff. The location was perfect for us in that it is quite secluded. It made it perfect for our djs to keep the dance floor bumping until well after sunrise. The pool and hot tub are great bonuses. A number of guests decided to stay the night and not to drive home just because of them - they were pretty soggy by sunrise. The large industrial kitchen is perfect for caterers to set up in and the following morning we had about 10 'cooks' preparing brunch with plenty of elbow room. For the few that actually slept, there was plenty of room for our 60+ overnight guests. Most stayed in the lodge which has a variety of flexible sleeping arrangements but another bonus was the large meadow for campers. Lastly, the lodge is rustic in appearance which is exactly what we were looking for but everything from lighting to plumbing, gas and heaters all function very well. We can't wait for a good excuse to return.