Alta Lakes Observatory

The place is STUNNING and Nicole is very kind and professional. Alta lakes observatory is also not a venue, it’s an Airbnb that is stunning so people choose to get married there. I really hate to leave a subpar review. This place is truly special but I feel obligated to be honest in my experience to help other brides in their wedding panning. If you or your guests are not used to driving on narrow, highly exposed dirt roads with shear cliffs this might not be the place for you. I am used to driving on roads like this but when inviting parents, grandparents and other family to a wedding, potentially out of state, this is just something to consider. I felt a little mislead about the road by the host. She did mentioned that it was a bumpy county road and they recommend 4WD which I was totally prepared for. She said it would easily be driven with a 2wd car too but this is not your average county dirt road! I have been on hundreds of county roads and this was one of the most narrow and exposed dirt roads I have been on. I read other reviews online that many people see the road and just turnaround because they are too afraid to drive on it. My entire wedding party had to leave right after the ceremony because they were all too afraid to drive on the road at night so we did not get to spend any time with them which was really a bummer. Again, this would not have been an issue if this was communicated to me so I could prepare myself and my guests better. Partly my fault for not doing more research, I just went off of how the road was explained to me and assumed it was like most dirt mountain roads. Lastly, we eloped with just 8 people, and the cabin holds 12. Because we mentioned the word wedding they charged us an extra fee of $1500 a night. This was explained to me as weddings use more resources, I can understand and very well may be true but if you only have a few people and don’t have vendors and all that stuff there is no reason to pay an extra $1500. They do not provide anything extra for weddings. You still have to bring tables, chairs, dishware, decor, and really anything you need or want. The dish washer didn't even work when we were there. I understand paying extra at times, but if you want to charge extra it should be for larger parties and they should provide some other resources. Even if you just had 2-3 people, you would still get charged extra just by mouthing the words “wedding” and that just feels wrong to me. My take is, if you hire a shuttle service and think your guests would be okay with the road, DO IT! But it’s not relaxing and could be quite stressful for guests and for you worrying about their safety and enjoying themselves.