Andrew Ghenender
5/5
My wife and I just got married at Paradise Springs last week (5/24/19) and it was more than we could have ever dreamed for. We were specifically looking for a place with these things:
1. In the forest for multiple days.
2. Some cabins onsite with ability to camp/RV
3. Affordable.
4. No noise curfew.
5. BYOB and ability to use vendors of our choice.
I will go into each of these points in more detail below, but first let me start off talking about Debby and Greg.
Debby is your point of contact - and basically ended up being almost a free wedding coordinator for us. Debby is the sweetest woman ever and really on top of her $&^%. She was always available with any questions, responded to emails within hours, and was always reachable by phone. She did so much stuff behind the scenes that I'm sure I don't even know the half of it. We had the largest number of campers/RVers on site in their history (I think), and she talked to every single one of them and got them squared away. Without even asking her to, she contacted our food vendors and the RV companies to make sure everyone was on the same page and good to go. I can't emphasize enough how amazing she is...which is why so many of the reviews online talk about her.
Greg was the onsite manager and also awesome. I saw him covertly driving around the grounds, picking up our trash bags and driving them to the dumpsters - something I assumed we would have had to do ourselves. He hung out behind the scenes during our ceremony making sure all the electrical was working. Like Debby, I'm sure he did a ton of stuff I don't even know about. Super nice guy, I ended up talking to him multiple times and always enjoyed the interesting conversations. Greg was also a lifesaver when, on the morning of checkout, we had a freak snowstorm hit out of nowhere. No one was prepared with tire chains but he plowed the roads for us and helped get some stuck cars down the hill!
Now, onto my previous 5 points above:
1. Forest Wedding - We wanted a secluded forest wedding and boy did we get it. We rented the entire property out, which I highly recommend you do if possible. We had about 100 people staying onsite between the cabins and camping, and it was totally like our own summer camp. The forest was super lush due to rain for basically two weeks straight that stopped right before we got there! You are very secluded, and the place is gorgeous. FYI we rented the property our for Thursday/Friday/Saturday night.
2. Cabins & Camping - All of the cabins and indoor event spaces were perfect. Everyone said the cabins they stayed in were cozy, clean, and comfortable. We used The Villa for our welcome dinner and farewell dinner - super comfy ski lodge vibes and everyone loved it. Yosemite RVs were super awesome to work with, they dropped off like 10 RVs on site before we got there so that people could just show up and the RV was already there. They also picked up the RVs at checkout.
3. Affordable - I didn't think this would really be possible in California, but this place is affordable. We looked at a couple other similar options in California and they were either WAYYYY more expensive, or had lots of rules and requirements to use their approved food/DJ/bartending services. For 3 days with multiple food trucks, self-prepped meals, wedding DJ, photographer, our own booze, etc, I bet we paid less than a lot of couples spend at a fancy hotel for a 6 hour wedding. The beautiful thing is that you can totally customize this wedding however you want to fit your budget because you don't have to use their approved vendors. Now, was our wedding cheap? That's subjective, it was a lot of money for us, but well worth it.
4. No Curfew or Noise Restrictions - self explanatory.
5. We hired several food trucks to come onsite and cooked a couple meals ourselves in their awesome huge kitchen and BBQs. We brought our own beer, wine, and liquor, and hired a local bartender in oakhurst to work the wedding night.
I've reached the character limit, oh no! Thank you Debby & Greg!
