Marin & North Bay venue guide
Updated
Marin starts twenty minutes over the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito and Mill Valley and runs out to the ranches and coastline around Point Reyes and Tomales Bay. Most venues here rent you the place and not much else. You bring the caterer, the tables and chairs, and usually the person who runs the day, which gives you a lot of freedom and a lot to organize.
We've gathered details on 9 Marin and North Bay venues. Pick a starting point and Sage will rank them for your day, with cost estimates wherever the venue publishes its prices.
What should you budget?
$7.5k
Typical site fee
What the space alone costs at the venues here that charge for it, before food, drinks, staff, and rentals. Their published fees run from under $5k to $30k, depending on the property, the day, and how long you have it.
From there, add catering and the bar for your guest count, then the rentals the venue doesn't own: tables, chairs, linens, glassware, and a dance floor. Then add staff to serve and clear, and a coordinator for the day. Last, ask what the venue requires you to buy before they'll book you, and what goes on at the end for service charges and tax.
We're not giving you a typical all-in total for Marin, because too few venues here publish enough of their pricing for us to build one we'd stand behind. Each venue's own page has our estimate for your guest count wherever its published pricing does cover enough of the day.
Use − and + to reprice every figure below.
Every filled dot is one Marin & the North Bay venue that can host 100 guests, shaded by its own estimate on the same scale as the Californiaguide's map; grey ones don't publish a venue-with-catering price. Outlined dots are venues in neighbouring regions.
Narrow it down
See which Marin & the North Bay venues fit your guest count and budget, and why
Guests
By budget and guest count
How many Marin & the North Bay venues come in under common budgets for the venue and food, at the guest counts couples plan for most. Each row counts the venues that can host that many guests and publish a full price for the venue and the food, so the list gets shorter as it grows.
| Guests | Typical venue and food | Under $15,000 | Under $25,000 | Under $35,000 | Under $50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 guests | — | 1 of 4 | 2 of 4 | 3 of 4 | 3 of 4 |
| 100 guests | — | 0 of 4 | 2 of 4 | 2 of 4 | 3 of 4 |
| 150 guests | — | 0 of 3 | 0 of 3 | 2 of 3 | 2 of 3 |
| 200 guests | — | 0 of 3 | 0 of 3 | 1 of 3 | 2 of 3 |
Our estimates for the venue and food, including service charges and tax where the venue lists them, on a Saturday in peak season. Not quotes. A typical figure is shown only where at least five venues publish a price.
How venues price weddings
Pick one to see what its price contains, what it leaves for you to buy, and what it typically comes to.
You pay for the space and their kitchen
Venues publish their price in two ways: as a site fee plus a per-guest menu price, or as a bundled package (venue + food).
$44k
typical for venues with catering
$23k–$89k
where 80% of these 4 venues land
And then you still buy
don’t want to worry about sourcing a caterer or any outside catering fees.
What you’d still need to find out
Whether drinks are inside the menu price or billed separately, and what the service charge and tax add at the end.
You buy the space, then the food
You hire and pay a caterer yourself. Any fee the venue charges for letting an outside kitchen in is already in this figure.
$7.5k
typical for the venue rental
$4.3k–$20k
where 80% of these 5 venues land
And then you still buy
want a specific cuisine, a caterer you already love, or real control of the food budget.
What you’d still need to find out
What your caterer will quote, and whether rentals, staff and the bar come through them or the venue.
You pick the place, then build the wedding around it. A garden club in Mill Valley, a ranch above Tomales Bay, a historic hall in Novato: what these have in common is that they hand you a beautiful setting and leave the rest to you. You'll choose your own caterer, hire most of your vendors, and often bring the coordinator too. That's the appeal if you have a clear idea of the day you want. It also means you'll be adding up a list of costs yourself instead of reading one quote.
Food, drinks, and staff are yours to add, compared with 26% across California.
See venues that charge for the spaceOf the venues that say either way, compared with 30% across California. Often from a list they approve.
See venues that allow your catererOf music, rentals, décor, planning, and photography, compared with 53% across California. You'll book the rest.
See what each venue includesRight on the property, compared with 31% across California. Inn rooms and ranch houses, so ask how many they sleep.
See venues with rooms on siteWhat kind of place
Garden clubs, historic halls, and a lodge with the bay in front of it, all close enough that guests can stay in San Francisco. The properties are small and sit in neighborhoods, so ask about parking, how many people the room really holds with a dance floor, and what time music has to stop outside.
Estates, gardens, and event spaces with more room, easier parking, and warmer, sunnier afternoons than the coast. These are the ones most likely to have a kitchen, a list of caterers they work with, and someone who helps run the day. Ask which of those you get and which you're hiring.
Ranches, farms, and inns on the water, an hour or more from the bridge on slow roads, usually with rooms so people can stay the weekend. Everything comes in by truck, so ask what the kitchen, power, and restrooms can handle, when your vendors can arrive, and how fog and wind behave in the afternoon.
The same wedding costs different amounts at a barn and at a hotel — and so does the shape of the bill. One way to look at it, for 100 guests.
The venue rental across every venue that charges one as its own line — whether or not they also sell you the food. Just the room, nothing else.
Every venue that itemises a rental, including the ones that cater. Venues quoting a single package over the room and the meal never name a room price, so they aren’t here — and this is a part of a bill, not a whole one, so it can’t be subtracted from the next chart.
What changes the shortlist here
Walk the property and ask what stays for your wedding: tables, chairs, linens, plates and glasses, a dance floor, heaters, lighting, a kitchen your caterer can actually cook in, and enough restrooms. Whatever isn't there is a rental order and a delivery. Ask when your vendors can get in, when everything has to be out, and whether that happens on the same day.
See what each venue includesOnly 29% of the venues here that say either way have a coordinator of their own. Everywhere else, someone has to tell the florist where to go and keep dinner on time, and that person is yours to hire. Some venues require it: a licensed planner, event insurance, and a refundable damage deposit are the conditions that come up most often around here, and none of them show up in a quote.
See what each venue includesHighway 1 out to the coast is slow, dark at night, and often foggy, and phone service drops out along the way. Ask how many guests can sleep on the property, where the rest would stay, and plan a shuttle before you set an end time. On the weather, 78% of the venues here say what happens to an outdoor ceremony if it rains. Ask which space you move into, and whether it still fits everyone.
See venues with a rain planof venues that say either way (8 here)
at least, of all venues (9 here)
at least, of all venues (9 here)
at least, of all venues (9 here)
of venues that publish a cutoff (5 here)
a planner, insurance, security or similar, of all venues (9 here)
What affects the cost of your wedding
Wedding venue pricing is seasonal. 4 of the 9 Marin & the North Bay venues we track charge differently depending on the day, and 2 charge differently depending on the month. Every figure below compares a venue with itself, so it says what moving your date does — whatever kind of venue you pick, and whatever the size of your wedding.
Day of the week
Months you’d consider
Peak months are selected to start. Tap any month to compare.
Saturday, peak season
The most expensive date most venues sell, and the date almost every published price assumes. Choose a different day or month to see what typically comes off.
Places worth a closer look
These run from a Mill Valley clubhouse to a coastal ranch and a lodge by the bridge, priced in different ways. Open a venue to see its pricing, capacity, spaces, vendor policies, and other planning details.
Olema · Up to 200 guests
You can bring your own caterer or use theirs
$15–25k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Marshall · Up to 160 guests
Guests can stay on site, and the whole property is yours
$20–30k · Venue Fee Only
See pricing and policies
Mill Valley · Up to 140 guests
Outdoor ceremony, with an indoor space if it rains
$5–10k · Venue Fee Only
See pricing and policies
Novato · Up to 200 guests
Helps you plan the whole wedding
$15–25k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Mill Valley
You can bring your own caterer
Under $5k · Venue Fee Only
See pricing and policies
Sausalito · Up to 250 guests
Guests can stay on site
$35–50k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Describe your guest count, your budget, and anything you can’t compromise on. See a ranked list of venues, with why each one fits, trade-offs, and what to double-check.
Sage the Date reads each venue's own published details, including pricing, catering and alcohol rules, music curfews, rain plans, whether you get the whole property, and how many guests each space holds. Every estimate uses your guest count. When a venue doesn't say, we tell you instead of guessing.
Before you book
Sage reads each venue's own published pricing and policies and puts different kinds of quotes on the same footing. The site fee above comes from the venues here that publish one for the space. We leave out a typical all-in total for Marin rather than build one from the handful of venues that price the whole day. If a venue doesn't say something, we treat it as a question to ask, not a no. Venues can't pay to appear or to rank higher here.
