About this vendor
Situated on the Russian River in Guerneville, CA, Dawn Ranch is an upscale and charming wedding venue rich in history. This 22-acre property is home to ancient redwood trees, a 150-year-old apple orchard, picturesque meadow, and scenic gardens. Multiple event spaces are placed throughout the stunning natural landscape and our cabins and cottages can fit up to 184 guests. Here, immersed in nature and surrounded by those you love, you can celebrate your milestone nuptials in a memorable and meaningful way.
Dawn Ranch mainly features outdoor event space that are suitable for all wedding-related parties- rehearsal dinners, welcome BBQ's, ceremonies, receptions, brunches, and more. This rural destination has a capacity for 500 guests for outdoor ceremonies and receptions. You can say “I do” surrounded by tall majestic redwoods before treating guests to an alfresco reception on the grounds. Between lawn games, river activities, and bonfires, there are numerous options to suit your theme and tastes when it comes to planning your dream weekend. Guests will stay in on-site accommodations, including 49 fully-renovated cabins and cottages plus two two-bedroom bungalows. No matter the season, this location provides an idyllic backdrop with colorful blooms in spring and summer to rich leafy shades in autumnal months.
The dedicated team at Dawn Ranch wishes to bring your wedding vision to life at their unique venue. They offer exclusive catering and beverage packages with tabletop rentals and ceremony seating available in specific event spaces. Service staff will provide warm and efficient hospitality for your loved ones from start to finish.
Dawn Ranch is proud to hold a 4 Green Key Eco-Rating, an internationally respected certification recognizing environmental leadership in hospitality. This prestigious honor affirms our op erations meet rigorous, third-party–verified standards in sustainability and corporate responsibility, while delivering the luxury, creativity, and world-class service your team deserves.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Liability Insurance
On-Site Accommodations
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
Covered Outdoors Space
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Settings
- Garden
- Historic Venue
- Hotel
- Restaurant
- Trees
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Destination Weddings
- Food & Catering
- Rentals & Equipment
- Service Staff
Awards and Affiliations
2013 'Best of Weddings'
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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4.4
out of 5.010 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 4
We had a beautiful wedding at Dawn Ranch. The property is something really special, nestled amongst the trees with direct access to the river. Most of our guests were able to stay ...
onsite, making the experience like summer camp. We had a full weekend event: Friday night dinner, Saturday Reception, Saturday Late Night, and Sunday brunch. All of the events went perfectly and our guests had an amazing time. Our ceremony and reception took place in the Orchard, which was the perfect setting. The food all weekend was spectacular. There were a few issues with the billing - Dawn Ranch's invoices for Late Night did not agree with our original proposal, which were corrected. We would recommend Dawn Ranch as an outstanding venue.
We hosted our wedding weekend here and could not have had a more lovely experience. We utilized every part of the resort, floating the river with 100 ppl to their dock, welcome par...
ty at the boathouse, ceremony in the orchard, reception in the meadow, and afterparty (silent disco) in the lodge/bandshell. Alex, our coordinator was a delight to work with, Julie at the front desk made booking a thousand unique guest cabins a breeze, and the GM Teach was always close by with the calmest disposition to set the tone. PLUS, the food is absolutely incredible, we couldn't believe how well they scaled up our small food-tasting experience to catering for 150+ people!!
We may be biased, but in our opinion Dawn Ranch is the best wedding venue out there. Dawn Ranch is a beautifully recently renovated property with modern and updated cabins for all ...
your guests. We were so lucky to find them newly reopened with availability. It was exactly what we were looking for - somewhere were all our family could gather together for the entire weekend. The staff was amazing and went above and beyond - especially Susan their on-site coordinator. They were very responsive and organized and the weekend of, everything went smoothly and was ready and executed to perfection. We felt very special and loved every minute. We will definitely be returning for special events and anniversaries and feel so lucky to have found them!
Dawn Ranch recently hosted my wedding and it was like living in a dream from the moment we stepped on the property on Friday to the moment we left on Sunday. Michael and his team w...
ere incredible hosts with impeccable attention to detail while treating us and our 130 guest like their own family. I couldn't possibly recommend them highly enough. The food was stellar, high quality, farm to table that you'd expect from the best Sonoma restaurants. The grounds among the redwoods and apple trees was gorgeous. The cabins are cute, cozy and a little on the rustic side but, it's clearly a camp and setting your guests expectations leads to a fun weekend for all. I would do it all again at Dawn Ranch in a heart beat!
My husband and I had a fall wedding at Dawn Ranch and loved every aspect of the experience. Michael and his team were wonderful and helpful and kind. The grounds, the food, the co...
ttages... it was like a dream come true.
We got engaged in December 2013 and began our search to find a place to bring our people together for a weekend of celebrating our family formation. We live in Northern California...
, but had a guest list that would be majority out-of-towners. Our goal was to optimize "together time" if people were going to make the journey to be with us. Our Sunday wedding in late summer 2014 at Dawn's Ranch was everything we had hoped. We used one site for our ceremony (on a beautiful lawn in front of huge redwood trees) and another for our celebration. We took lovely pictures in the orchard, on the river banks, in the cutest bridal suite... We got to end our evening with a bonfire and s'mores before an after-party in their lodge. The food was incredible and the staff (we worked primarily with Kristen) took the time to understand and fully execute our vision. For example, she took pictures for us at various locations at precise times of day to help us know how the area would be shaded for our older guests! They provided all of the food and beverage, and served as a great hub for coordinating all other vendors - none of which reported any complication. We mostly let the beauty of the venue and the balanced spirit of Guerneville speak for themselves and our guests had an incredibly memorable weekend. Guests who were looking for something truly unique found it here -- guests who were looking for the comforts they'd expect also found it here. And since all of our people were so happy, we couldn't have been happier ourselves.
I have to say that Stephanie and Dawn Ranch was Amazing!!!! The venue was everything we wanted. Beautiful, relaxing, fun, our guests have all said it was the best wedding they ha...
ve ever been for. The staff was wonderful, they made our big day, perfect!
Do not get married at this venue!
My best friend got married here over the weekend. The entire lodge was booked out for her wedding, every last cabin was filled with someone th...
ere to enjoy the 2 day wedding event. There was an incident on the first night with an overly intoxicated wedding guest who ended up being removed from the property. Problem solved right? WRONG!
The entire next day Micheal, THE OWNER of this property, felt it necessary to verbally attack the bride throughout the day. He screamed in her face telling her that he would pull the plug on the wedding, that he didn't care if her wedding happened, and on multiple occasions to screamed at her to shut up. I was witness to these outburst througout the day, and I was completely flabbergasted by the unprofessional, immature, and repulsive behavior of this man as a business owner and as a person. He sent my poor best friend, who did everything within her power to work with this man, in to tears on multiple occasions, on the day of her wedding. Let's not forget that she had already spent thousands of dollars here.
A few hours before the wedding was to take place Michael left the property and sent apologies through his wedding coordinator. What kind of person is such a man that he cannot apologize in person for his wrong doings?
The wedding ended up going off beautifully, however it makes me so upset to know that my friend's memories of this momentus day will be forever be riddled with Michael's in appropriate behavior.
I would hate for another bride to have to go through such an experience. Please save yourself the trouble and look to another venue, one which knows how to take care of their brides on such an important day!
My Husband and I planned our wedding for about a year. We had been to Dawn Ranch Lodge for Valentine's Day and thought it was a spectacular place, and couldn't believe we could aff...
ord to get married there. The Winter wedding rates at Dawn Ranch Lodge made our dream a reality and thanks to the wonderful staff and the uniqune beauty of the location our dream became a complete fantasy. All of our guests told us what a magical spot we had chosen to showcase our love. I expected the wedding to be the best day of my life as well as my husband's, but it turned out it was the best day of all of our guests lives too! Michael made sure that any details we may have glanced over were taken care of and that all of our guests felt comfortable and important. They really know what they're doing at Dawn Ranch Lodge, from the food to the beauty of the venue itself to the day of schedule, from the care and planning of the staff and communication and presentation: I honestly wish I could give them an ever higher rating. We will forever be grateful to everyone who worked on our wedding weekend and will go back to spend the night or even just grab a meal whenever we get a chance.
The venue is gorgeous. Our wedding was so beautiful and dreamy I couldn't have wished for anything more in a setting. Our overnight guests had their own cabins, and a wonderful tow...
n to explore.
Pros-o-plenty...
great food, helpful and very friendly staff, adorable cabins, beautiful grounds, Dawn Ranch handled all the catering and ordering of equipment, great flow from the welcome, ceremony, cocktail reception, dinner reception and dancing, then after party upstairs in the lodge bar.
cons...
cabins need a little maintenance love (full length mirror in the bathrooms would be great. Especially for people there attending a wedding), dinner ran too long which in effect cut into the dance party time which had a curfew of 10pm (too early), some equipment belonging to my florist went missing at the end of the event.
The event had a pretty large price tag and yes we knew what we were in for. It was all well worth it and EVERYONE had an amazing time!
Contact
16467 Hwy 116, Guerneville, CA
