Emily and Paul

We certainly hope the enticement of spending time in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area with wonderful warm and dry October weather will be a factor in having you join us for our wedding on Sunday, the 8th. Some guests will be making a long weekend trip for the wedding, but many others will likely extend it into an extended California vacation. Whatever your reasons are, whether it is just you or your whole family, we are just so sincerely happy to have you with us.

Location

The wedding ceremony, reception, and host hotel are all located in Marin County just fifteen minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The wine country of Sonoma and Napa Counties is 30 miles north and Berkeley, on the eastern side of the Bay, is 15 miles to the southwest. All of these locations are easily accessible via freeways and interstate highways. Further still, the old-growth redwood forests of Humboldt County are 3 hours north. Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains are under a 4 hours drive east. Los Angeles and southern California destinations, like Disneyland, are in the range of a six to seven hours drive to the south.

Marin County is geographically (if not demographically or economically) very diverse. The skyline to the southwest is dominated by the 2500-foot Mount Tamalpais (Mt. Tam, as locals call it,) the birthplace of modern mountain biking. The Pacific Ocean and endless miles of beaches are just to the west of it. To the south, there are groves of dark redwood forests rising from the coasts---including the famous Muir Woods. The north is dominated by rolling hills with grazing cattle interspersed with a sparse network of roads. Point Reyes, in the northwest, is a wildlife refuge region that juts on into the ocean on a large peninsula and affords many hiking and camping opportunities despite being only an hour's drive from a major metropolitan area. The east side of the county has a more suburban feel with many small and large towns, but no real cities.

Wedding Ceremony

The wedding ceremony will be in the quaint, picturesque marina town of Tiburon, which is right on the water with views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate, and the hills of the East Bay. The Tiburon peninsula pokes out into the Bay along side uninhabited Angel Island--the "Ellis Island of the West" which is accessible by a short ferry ride from Tiburon.

Old St. Hillary's Church sits atop the hill overlooking the town on a wildflower reserve. It is a restored carpenter-gothic style 19th-century chapel and historic landmark---as such, its decor is rustic and minimalist. The solid oak pews seat about one hundred and twenty.

The wedding will be on Sunday, October 8th at 5:00 pm in Tiburon. A shuttle service will be provided from the town up to the church on the hill, a 400-yard commute, as it has no parking area of its own. Sufficient details will be supplied later. As such, please be sure to arrive early.

Wedding Reception

The wedding reception is a straight 10-mile shot away from the ceremony in the town of Mill Valley. The community center has an indoor pool and is usually bustling during the daylight hours with seniors attending craft lessons and little league baseball and soccer players and parents, depending on the current athletic season. The Cascade Room, where the reception will be, is a large, high-ceiling, open space with plenty of room for dancing, an open bar, a biergarten, and general merriment. The food will be served buffet-style and will oriented towards the many bike-racers likely to be in attendance, which means lots of it.

The doors will open for guests at 5:00 pm with self-serve beer, wine, and snacks available. The reception will begin in earnest at 6:30, including a fully-tended open cocktail bar. A buffet-style dinner will be served at 7:00, followed by toasts and cake-cutting. Dancing will ensue until late.

Accommodations

The host housing, the Marin Suites Hotel, is in the Town of Corte Madera easily accessed from US-101--not eight miles from the reception. These should be quite suitable for most of our guests who will be traveling long distances. They are comfortable, very clean, and spacious 1- and 2- bedroom suites with full-service kitchens, cookware, and roll-out sofa-beds---accommodating as many as four to eight financially-constrained persons without undue lack of privacy for under $140 per night---certainly fewer as resources permit. The hotel has a central outdoor heated pool, grill area, and courtyard. Supermarkets, restaurants, and chain stores are very near by. More adventurous guests are certainly not obliged to stay at the Marin Suites by any means.

Airports in the Bay Area

Several major airports service the Bay Area. We recommend for both convenience and cost flying into and out of Oakland Airport (OAK), which is approximately 45 freeway minutes from Marin County. Fares on Southwest Airlines into and out of OAK from BWI (Baltimore) and MDW (Chicago-Midway) are usually the most competitive rates. United Airlines also uses Chicago as a hub, so often they have the best fares and more direct flights.The San Francisco Airport (SFO) is about the same transit time away yet involves driving through the city itself and the fares tend to be more expensive, but not always. San Jose and Sacramento airports are also possibilities, but travel times will be in excess of one hour.Â

No matter which airport you fly into, remember this is California, and if you are landing in the vicinity of rush hour you will get stuck in a traffic jam unlike anything ever seen in Freeport! We otherwise leave it to the frugal talents of our guests to find the best airfare and car rental rates available.

3 July 2007