Searching for a wedding venue that combines natural beauty with modern amenities while retaining an affordable price tag? Saratoga Springs in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California should definitely be on your radar!
Nestled among majestic trees and serene landscapes, this venue offers a rustic yet refined experience. In this blog post, I’m going to dive into what this beautiful Bay Area redwood wedding venue has to offer. I’m also going to reflect on and share a wedding I had the pleasure of photographing there in June 2023.
Table of Contents
About Saratoga Springs for weddings
Saratoga Springs is located on Big Basin Way in Saratoga CA. It offers a wedding experience that’s both naturally beautiful and full of well-designed details. Minutes from San Jose, this 5th-generation family-owned venue is set in a lush forest, creating a tranquil and immersive setting for your big day.
I love the fact that is a family-owned, private property – the staff there really care about each client. In fact, Saratoga Springs is the oldest continuously operating picnic facility in the Bay Area. They are definitely doing something right!
Saratoga Springs truly feels off the beaten path! It will give guests the feeling of getting away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
The venue’s towering redwoods, peaceful streams, and serene atmosphere make it feel like a secluded getaway.
Key Features of Saratoga Springs
- It’s an outdoor venue (for ceremony and reception). Saratoga Springs allows for tent setups as a weather contingency, offering flexibility in case of rain. April through October provides the best weather for a wedding here.
- It’s a full-service venue. Saratoga Springs requires couples to select one of their food and beverage packages. The venue includes an in-house team to manage the details. Their services include a wedding coordinator, parking attendants, and grounds crew.
- Plenty of amenities are included. Packages feature a wooden ceremony arch, twinkle and bistro lighting, a china package for dining, a bonfire site, rustic redwood tables, and a dressing room for pre-ceremony preparations. Many of the add-ons are options extras, so pay close attention to what your booking includes. It’s highly customizable.
With its natural beauty, dedicated team, and thoughtful amenities, Saratoga Springs offers everything you need to create a magical yet affordable wedding day in the heart of California’s redwood forest.
Other Add-Ons and Unique Extras
Saratoga Springs provides many other additional touches for weddings, including:
- Décor and rentals like farm tables, Chiavari chairs, rustic cross-back chairs, and picnic table runners are available.
- Interactive activities and lawn games for guests to enjoy like Giant Jenga, Connect 4, cornhole, or dual-shot basketball.
- Ambiance enhancers such as a bonfire (included at no additional cost); a champagne tower, marquee letters, and s’mores stations (available for an extra fee).
Other services include bartenders, cake cutting, and lounge furniture rentals to elevate the experience.
Next, let’s explore the various areas of the property available for rentals.
Rental spaces within Saratoga Springs
There are three main areas to choose from for weddings at Saratoga Springs.
Longbridge
- 125 guest food & beverage minimum
- Seats up to 500 guests
- Built in 1902, it’s one of the highest points on the property and offers incredible panoramic views.
- Features a historic stone bridge, a hillside dance floor, surrounded by trees and natural rock formations and a bonfire site
- Its open layout makes it highly customizable for both ceremonies and receptions.
Cathedral Grove
- 125 guest food & beverage minimum
- Seats up to 180 guests with the Hilltop available as an add-on to increase capacity to 300
- Surrounded by towering redwoods and box elder trees, giving an ethereal forest vibe
- The grove’s natural canopy gives the area a cathedral-like feel. There’s also a path and a bridge over a brook which leads guests into this peaceful enclave.
Redwood Grove
- 75 guests food & beverage minimum
- Seats up to 125 guests with Saratoga Cove Available as an add-on to increase capacity to 150
- This space offers limited availability, making it a coveted choice for couples seeking exclusivity.
All three outdoor spaces within Saratoga Springs come with built-in bistro lights, picnic tables, and rustic features like wooden arches, creating a charming and cohesive aesthetic. The spaces are well-suited for dancing & a DJ! Seating is at long family-style tables, where the buffet-style dinner is served.
The wedding I’ve featured in this blog post took place in the Redwood Grove location.
Creekside Room
For an indoor space suitable for intimate weddings, there’s also the Creekside Room. This seats up to 50 guests and has lower food & beverage minimums and facility fees.
Saratoga Springs rental times and prices
Saratoga Springs offers pricing tiers to suit various budgets and schedules, and they can offer some flexibility.
To avoid giving information that will become outdated over time, please reach out directly to the venue for up-to-date information.
Generally speaking, there’s tiered pricing based on whether you’re having an evening or daytime wedding.
For evening weddings, the price is considerably lower for Monday – Wednesday events, with a small increase for Thursday events. Friday, Saturday morning, or Sunday events are a small increment higher. Saturday evenings are the most sought-after, with a price tag several thousand dollars higher.
Evening weddings begin around 5pm depending on the day you choose. You’ll also get a couple of additional hours for setup and teardown.
Daytime weddings run from 10am to 3pm.
Catering options at Saratoga Springs
Their buffet-style dinner includes house beer/wine, soft drinks, coffee/tea, three salads, one side, and garlic bread. Pricing ranges around the $100 mark. Current options include:
- Vegetarian Penne Pasta
- Santa Maria Steak with Chicken Milano
- Salmon and Santa Maria Steak combinations
For those who prefer to bring in their own caterer, Saratoga Springs allows outside catering. However, there is a significant cost per guest. There’s also a modestly-priced dessert bar.
For bar service, every package includes hour beers & wines, soft drinks and tea & coffee.
Pro tips for planning your wedding at Saratoga Springs
- Book well in advance, especially for Redwood Grove, which has limited availability.
- Being a largely outdoor venue albeit one with a natural canopy, you may need to think about guests’ comfort. Consider adding umbrella heaters, blankets, bug control, water misters or renting a tent depending on the time of year/day. Inform guests of the all-outdoor setting.
- Consider a weekday wedding for significant savings – you could save several thousand dollars compared to a Saturday evening.
- Be strategic about your guest list, as each area within the property has specific minimums and maximums.
- To save your budget, think about leveraging natural beauty vs decor.
- Consider a morning wedding for better rates, and opt for fewer appetizer selections to allocate budget elsewhere.
- Book vendors familiar with outdoor venues and ensure they know the venue’s power capabilities and setup times. Consider setup and breakdown times in vendor contracts.
- That said, to optimize for golden hour – and instantly-elevated photos – schedule time for magical lighting and a route that incorporates various backdrops. Though there won’t necessarily be a ‘sunset’ moment in the dense redwoods, natural, even light is always the best. A first look is pretty much essential here to maximize daylight photo opportunities.
Other points to note
Due to the multiple distinct spaces, the venue has the ability to host multiple weddings simultaneously. However, they’ve designed the space to maintain privacy and minimize interference during both the ceremony and reception. There are multiple reviews online that attest to not being able to hear the other weddings. Where any spillover sound was heard, it was only very minimally and for short periods.
For the wedding I shot here, we ran into the other couple but it was by design. It’s common to switch locations so each couple can get photos in other spots, not just their own rental area. It was a very cordial exchange!
Due to how the timeline is run, typically, you may only get an hour to complete all your posed photos. This includes your first look, family formals, wedding party formals, and all the romantics. There likely won’t be an opportunity for a second ‘sunset’ romantics session later, as I’ve mentioned. This can feel rushed. Especially with the added complexity of obtaining photos in different areas and coordinating the ‘location switch’ with the other couple.
About the wedding couple
I was involved in their wedding planning journey from an early stage! Wedding planning wasn’t as straightforward for them as it is for many couples. They initially envisaged a San Francisco City Hall ceremony which is actually how they found me! Sharon then shared she’d prefer a venue that holds that ‘warm, friendly feeling’ her family is all about. Especially with a summer date, an outdoor venue with a family felt more up her street. And I couldn’t agree more – a City Hall wedding isn’t for everyone.
After reviewing a couple of other venues such as Wrights Station and Rengstorf House, Sharon settled on Saratoga Springs. Other venues on her shortlist required a lot of outside planning, had amplified music restrictions, or limited vendor sourcing. Either that or they felt a little stuffy compared with the intimate, outdoorsy feel best complimented the couple’s values.
Planning from afar wasn’t easy. Sharon, Jason, and their 6 grown-kids-blended family drove 11 hours from Eagle, Idaho to celebrate in the gorgeous Bay Area. To make the most of the rare occasion of having all the kids together, we arranged a photo session. Part family photos, part pre-wedding or ‘engagement’ photos with just Sharon & Jason. We were able to do this at Saratoga Springs the evening before the wedding. It was great to meet everyone and get the lay of the land in preparation for the following day.
Everything went off so incredibly well for this marvelous wedding day. The couple didn’t have an external planner or coordinator. The venue event staff were a huge help both for me and the videography team. Some highlights included Marianne’s ice cream cart, the converted VW camper photo bus, special moments of prayer to honor the couple’s Christian faith, and the super fun dancefloor! We ended with a sparkler exit, which is always super fun (if a bit nerve-wracking!) to photograph!
The iconic bridge photo spot was closed for renovations at the time of this wedding. Shame, because it’s one of the highlights of this venue! For future weddings, it would be a must to photograph there!
Photos from Saratoga Springs wedding
Vendor Credits
Photography: Zoe Larkin Photography
Venue & catering: Saratoga Springs Weddings
Floral design: Annie & Evelyn
Dress: Baltic Born
Suit: Men’s Wearhouse
Wedding party attire: Birdy Grey & Men’s Wearhouse
Engagement ring: Shane Co
Officiant: Heartfelt Weddings
Ice cream: Marianne’s, Santa Cruz
DJ: DJ Big Cali
Videographer: Last Light Pictures
Photo booth: Bay Area Photo Bus
Similar venues
For similar venues, check out the following posts:
In conclusion
Saratoga Springs captures the magic of an outdoor wedding while delivering the amenities of a premium venue. This venue isn’t just a pretty backdrop. It’s a place where every detail feels intentional. The layout of the spaces is really well done, and the ambiance will make everyone feel right at home.
The setting pairs natural beauty with thoughtfully customizable packages – from catering selections and bar service to entertainment add-ons and décor options. Each element can be tailored, from table settings and lighting to ceremony layouts and reception styling.
Whether an intimate gathering of 50 or a grand celebration for 500, you can craft your perfect day. Saratoga Springs shines in its versatility. It would work well for a boho forest celebration or a classic, more formal wedding – or anything in between. Its blend of practical amenities and forest backdrop creates a gorgeous setting for couples seeking both natural beauty and seamless event execution.
About Zoe Larkin Photography
Looking for a South Bay wedding photographer? You can learn more about my services at the links below:
I’m hoping I’ll be back at Saratoga Springs, CA, soon, shooting your lovely wedding! To stay connected, be sure to follow along on Instagram! Reach out via the form when you’re ready to book your date.
Zoe Larkin
I’m Zoe, a wedding photographer based in San Francisco! My style is candid, capturing authentic moments for my couples all over the Bay Area and Northern California. Creating content is my passion! Follow along the blog and Insta!