The Carneros Inn

I love The Carneros Inn (TCI). And when I say that, I really do mean I love this place because this was where my husband and I ultimately chose to hold our nuptials.

TCI is a tremendous and stunning resort that is completely unique to Napa.
It's clearly an aesthetically gorgeous property set amongst the rolling hills of Napa and is impeccably maintained from their rooms to each part of their 27 acre grounds. (Style wise, if you don't like sophisticated rustic (e.g. bocce ball courts, open-air fire-place lounging, farm-inspired cottages)...then, that's a different story and preference).

But what I believe gives this particular accommodation-write up of mine a bit more credibility than some of my other hotel reviews is the fact that my husband and I came to really know this place through our meticulous research & numerous site visits (more than 4 separate overnight stays/visits in 1 year to TCI alone...as well as to other Napa resorts).
Of all of our interactions, visits, conversations, and the actual wedding... we have never once been disappointed.

Part of the reason we love this place so much, arguably even more than the aesthetics, is because of their tremendous & incredibly approachable team (from their reservations office to their groundskeepers...we even met by chance the ever charismatic general manager, Philip Kendall). Per our wedding, the entire TCI team was on the ball - especially TCI's wedding specialist, Brooke Baglietto.

Without her, our wedding could not have been the same. She is one of the few people in the [SF/Napa wedding] industry that actually seemed to genuinely care about us as a bride & groom (occasionally we came across wedding professionals that were a bit dismissive of our small wedding size (not everyone has a sky-is-the-limit budget...) or did not seem earnest in their efforts to do their utmost (as far as what you would typically expect from a good planner) for our wedding), was able to execute with absolute finesse and is very grounded. Brooke was definitely THE example of how exceptional TCI's team is, and I doubt any other part of the TCI team would be anything other than stellar.

As far as food goes, whether it's fine dinning at the Hilltop dining room or grabbing a quick sandwich from Market, we have had great experiences and always enjoy our meals. To applaud them further, they actually surprised me with how great our food was at our wedding. One of the the biggest challenges for food anywhere is often serving large groups of people and having quality control. They did not disappoint at all. In fact it is one of the few parts of our wedding that our friends still cannot stop talking about (e.g. we've converted some of our friends to be avid lamb lovers after serving TCI lamb chops at cocktail hour, while a few other friends are obsessed over finding the same gnocchi which they had a herb sage butter version at Hilltop, amongst a slew of other gourmet courses served). It really stood out, and not just because it was my wedding night. For me, I would certainly make an effort to come out and chill at the FARM for dinner & drinks, even if I was not staying overnight at the resort.

Last but not least, $$$. The Carneros Inn is by no means cheap', from their drool-worthy and breath-taking views of the valley to their price tag. But, it's every bit worth the stay if you were banking on a top-notch Napa-chic luxury resort and can swing the bill. For my husband and I, TCI's up there with the likes of other great Napa establishment (e.g. Thomas Keller's French Laundry, Auberge du Soleil, etc) -- a terrific place to...

The Carneros Inn was an amazing venue to be married at. The apple orchard for our ceremony was perfect. The courtyard is one of the most beautiful places with fig trees lining the area. The ballrooms allowed me to have one feel for the dinner and another for the dancing. The food is amazingly good. The wine list was very good and matched perfectly with the food. The resort is an elegant place to stay and our guests loved the whole experience. The best part of the site was working with Brooke Baglietto who is the on site wedding specialist. She is an expert at her job and helped with making sure that every detail went off that day without a hitch.

The Carneros Inn is an amazing place to be married. The location, the food were simply the best. Also they have Brooke Baglietto - wedding specialist - who is absolutely the most helpful person. She had great suggestions for ideas on how to make the day perfect. She sealed the deal for us because she was so fantastic!

We had our wedding at te Carneros Inn on June 28, 2008. I cannot say enough wonderful things about the location, food, value, staff and atmosphere. We were looking for an elegant, chic-casual wine country wedding with amazing food and wine. We visited a gazillion places in Sonoma, Napa, etc. but everyting we saw was too rustic or would have required too much additional decoration(tenting, etc). Then we got to the Carneros Inn...

Te Carneros Inn is a smallish luxury resort which sees the like of Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhall as guests. The decor is meant to look like napa farmhouses from the outside (big brown barn, tin roofs) but is noting but casual napa elegance in the inside (think restoration hardware meets an Ian Shrager hotel). It is absolutely one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I have ever been. Wedding ceremonies take place in the "apple orchard" which is a very large grass area surrounded by adorable small apple trees and looking out at vineyards and actual napa farmhouses. Near the ceremony location is a breathtaking infinity pool blessed with the same amazing view. For big weddings (like ours) the reception takes place in the brand new ballroom, with cocktails and stargazing in the fabulous grassy adjoining courtyard (which has little white lights strung across from roof to roof). The ballroom has insanely high ceilings, white clapboard french doors, modern ligting fixtures and neutral sage colored carpet.

One huge highlight is that the catering at the Carneros Inn is not wedding food -- it is just as good as the better restaurants in the napa area. Our guests still can't stop talking about how delious the food was. I know most brides don't have time to eat at their weddings, but let's just say I made time to eat every bite. :) The wine is amazing as well.

The biggest point, however, is that the staff is exceptional. My husband and I stayed at the Carneros Inn for the weekend of our tasting. There were a few service "blips" (apparently it was the first sunny weekend in Napa and they had an unexpected surge of guests leading to sligtly slower service than usual). In a bridezilla moment I complained and Brooke, their AMAZING on-site wedding coordinator, called me 1 hour later to apologize and left me her cell phone number. By that Monday I had messages from the vice president of the entire company apologizing and wanting to discuss our negative experience. It was then I knew I was in exceptionally capable hands. We had about 30 rooms booked for our family and wedding party, and we subsidized many of those rooms at various rates for our wedding party, etc. Their front desk somehow got every wildly confusing request of ours 100% right. (We had asked them to keep the real prices secret among other insane requests).

Brooke was my best friend and angel during the wedding planning. She is the most capable, brilliant, hard-working, sincere, creative vendor I worked with -- she will stop at nothing to make sure you wedidng is perfect. There was no request too big or too small. She is the kind of person who has the answer to every problem that arises -- she has been in the wedding industry for many years and knows most vendors in the area. Brooke wrote handwritten notes for each of our guests staying on property, she made sure our room was stocked with the water, wine and snacks we liked, and she physically picked a bee off my dress with her bare hands as I was about to go down the aisle (at the risk of being stung). Our guests told us it was the best hotel they had ever stayed in and I would have to agree. Every other employee from the VP's (who stayed on property to supervise the wedding and the service) down to the servers were awesome, professional, friendly, knowlegible and exceptionally good at their jobs. My wedding went off like a well orchestrated symphony and it was because of the beauty of the location and the perfection of the Carneros Inn staff.

I literally cannot express how wonderful and special this place is, and I am a pretty extreme perfectionist!!!!

It is worth the price which is actually a great value for the quality of service and food.

We absolutely loved The Carneros Inn! We wanted something elegant, but not so fancy it would feel stuffy, and the quality of the food was paramount to us. We visited at least a dozen places in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, and Napa Valley, but none of them quite fit the bill. However, after just one visit to the Inn, we knew we wanted to book it.

After we'd booked, they hired an event coordinator, Brooke Baglietto, who is fabulous and made the rest of our planning process a breeze. She responded to all phone calls and emails in a timely fashion, and was very on top of all of the paperwork. The day before and the day of our wedding it felt as if we'd hired our own personal wedding coordinator, since she was so helpful and made everything run smoothly. Two weeks after our wedding and right before we left for our honeymoon, an issue came up with the linens we had rented (the rental place claimed we had damaged one of the tablecloths and wanted us to pay for a replacement) and Brooke took care of it for us, even though she had no obligation to help us out at that point. She totally rocked!

The other rave I have about this place is the food. In fact, the food we had on our wedding day was even better than the superb food we had at our tasting, which was shocking to us because you'd think quality would be sacrified when you're making a meal for 100 people versus two. We got so many raves about the food, and the presentation was absolutely beautiful. We thought our wedding meal was on par with some of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco, which was more than we could ever have hoped for.

This is a wonderful place to wed, the rooms are beautiful, the staff is gracious and their wedding specialist Brooke is great to work with.