While Ardenwood is our wedding venue, it's also a great place to spend the day! The farm is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays and offers various attractions, including train rides, a Victorian garden, farm animals, and the Patterson House Museum, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Check out their website for additional info & entry prices.

Niles is a historic district in Fremont that has a mix of antique stores (we loved checking out Mantiques), tiny auto shops, and a dash of hole-in-the-wall restaurants housed within worn-out buildings. A century ago, Niles rocketed to fame as America's first Hollywood. Niles was once the home of one of the first West Coast motion picture companies, Essanay Studios. Charlie Chaplin made five films in Niles that cemented his standing as a movie star. One of those was “The Tramp.” You can still visit the places where scenes were shot.

Coyote Hills Regional Park is located very close to our venue along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. The most popular visitor activities are bicycling, walking, bird watching, jogging, nature exploration, and picnicking.

Visiting the Golden Gate Bridge is a must! If you're feeling up to it, we highly recommend driving up Conzelman Road for a gorgeous view of the San Francisco Bay and the bridge. We recommend doing this mid-week, as there can be a lot of traffic & limited parking on the weekends.

Please visit their website for bridge toll information.

We love coming to downtown Mountain View. There are lots of great shops, bars, restaurants, and boba tea places! Please note that the Art & Wine Festival will be happening downtown on September 10th & parking will be extremely limited.

A few of our faves: Red Rock Coffee, Therapy (great gift shop!), Tea Era, & Doppio Zero Pizza

Pacifica State Beach is a 0.75-mile-long crescent-shaped beach located in Pacifica off of State Route 1. It's also home to the prettiest Taco Bell in the world. Seriously, we aren't kidding.

The Bay Area has year-round farmers' markets filled with fresh, local seasonal fruits & veggies, specialty items, and delicious food vendors. We love going to the Mountain View & Sunnyvale farmers markets on the weekends.

Downtown Palo Alto has great restaurants, ice cream shops, boba tea spots, and fun shops. A few of our favorites are Bird Dog (where we had our first date), Salt & Straw Ice Cream, Pizza My Heart, NOLA, Local Union 271, & NOBU.

Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open-air shopping mall located near the Stanford University campus. Some of our favorite places are True Food Kitchen, Lush, & Anthropologie.

We've spent many anniversaries in Carmel. It's such a cute beach town filled with great shops, beautiful art galleries, fantastic food, and adorable architecture. It's located about an hour and a half south. A few spots we'd recommend are Casanova, The Tuck Box, Carmel State Beach, and Carmel Bakery. Plus, you can do a self-guided walking tour of fairy tale cottages in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown!

Berkeley is full of great restaurants, and unique shops, and is home to the University of California Berkeley.

Whenever we are in Berkeley, we love going to Jupiter Pizza. Their wood-fired pizzas are delicious and they have an awesome beer selection.

The road leading to the park's 2,800 acres drops from a ridgetop into a deeply shaded redwood forest, offering a hushed getaway from the suburban bustle of nearby Silicon Valley and the South Bay Area. The visitor center, with its couches and fireplace, feels like a wilderness lodge. Eighteen miles of trails follow meandering creeks, where moisture-loving coast redwoods stand tall among ferns and huckleberries.

Please note that there is no cell phone reception within the park and the surrounding area. Due to this, ridesharing services are not recommended.

Half Moon Bay is a small city on the California coast, south of San Francisco. A string of beaches along the bay includes Half Moon Bay State Beach.

We highly recommend going to Sam's Chowder House for their famous clam chowder & lobster rolls, or stopping at their food truck, Sam's Chowder Mobile.

Filoli, also known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, is a country house set in 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate, located in Woodside, California, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Even though her dad went to UC Berkeley (Stanford's rival), Michelle highly recommends checking out the Cantor Arts Center. The Rodin Sculpture Garden is really incredible. Plus, admission is free!

Wente Vineyards is the oldest continuously operating, family-owned winery in the United States. It's located in Livermore, which is about 40 minutes from our wedding venue.

The Winchester Mystery House is the beautiful but bizarre mansion of Sarah Winchester, heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. Construction began in 1884, and didn't stop for 38 years. Mrs. Winchester built the Victorian mansion with many odd and mysterious features. The Winchester Mystery House is an architectural wonder and a historic (and haunted) landmark in San Jose, CA.

Explore the ancient coastal redwoods aboard Roaring Camp's authentically preserved trains, the Redwood Forest Steam Train and the Santa Cruz Beach Train.

Located about an hour away, this amusement park offers a variety of games & rides right on a mile-long stretch of sandy beach.

See the San Francisco Giants play (they'll be in town 9/8 - 9/13) or book a tour of the ballpark. We highly recommend taking CalTrain up to the city, as the King St. station is located just a few blocks from the stadium.

Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY! The SF Zoo is a great place to spend the day. Michelle especially loves visiting the gorilla exhibit.