Ceremony Terrace
An open-air terrace on the hillside with the vineyards and the Mayacamas behind the two of you. No walls to hold the sound and nothing to stop the wind, so it gets its own small system, and a backup mic stays within reach.
DJ and MC at Auberge du Soleil
Every terrace at Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford faces the valley, and the people staying the night sleep on the same hillside you're dancing on. I run the music, the microphone and the timeline here, so your company dinner, wedding or birthday gets its full stretch inside whatever the inn allows.
Rutherford, Napa Valley
A hillside inn
A hillside inn
above Rutherford
Auberge du Soleil is a country inn and restaurant built into the slope of Rutherford Hill, east of the town of Rutherford in the middle of Napa Valley, about 65 miles north of San Francisco. The restaurant opened in 1981 and the guest rooms followed in the mid-1980s. It sits on 33 acres of olive and oak, and the old olive trunks still line the walkways.
The view is the whole point. Vineyards on the valley floor, the Mayacamas range across it, and glass doors that open the rooms onto terraces so nobody loses sight of either.
For an event, that setting asks three things of the music. The property is terraced into the hillside, so the ceremony terrace and the reception room each get their own sound. The ceremony is in the open air, where wind decides which microphone I use. And this is a small hotel with about fifty rooms, suites and maisons, so how loud and how late is a question I settle with the inn before I plan a single song.
The spaces
Terraces, glass doors
Terraces, glass doors
and small rooms
Bellevue I and II
The main reception rooms, used one at a time or opened into one, with floor-to-ceiling bronze-framed glass doors onto private terraces. Glass throws sound back, so I place the speakers toward the dance floor and away from the dinner tables.
Maison d'Arbre
A small private dining room above the restaurant with a vaulted ceiling, a fireplace and its own deck over the valley. A room for a dinner, not a dance floor. Music here stays under the conversation, and one compact speaker is plenty.
La Rotonde
A small round room with a fireplace, ringed in bronze-framed windows and doors. Round rooms focus sound toward the middle, so I keep the level low and the speaker off the center line. Good for a toast and a playlist with some thought in it.
Le Jardin
A garden terrace in the olive grove under a wisteria arbor, informal in feel. I ask about power out here before anything else, then keep the setup small enough that the arbor stays the thing people look at.
How I work here
How I set up
How I set up
on Rutherford Hill
A terraced hillside changes the job. Here's what I have settled at Auberge du Soleil before your first guest arrives.
Two systems, not one
The ceremony is outdoors on the terrace and the reception is inside, so I don't move one rig between them while your guests wait. Ceremony sound is its own setup, ready and tested, with the processional cued. The reception system is already live when people walk in.
The carry, sorted in advance
The property is terraced. Maison d'Arbre sits above the restaurant, Le Jardin is out in the olive grove, and the Bellevue rooms open onto their own terraces. I ask the inn where vendors load in and what the path to your room is, then arrive early enough that the booth is built and quiet before anyone is seated.
Sound for a wall of glass
The Bellevue rooms open through floor-to-ceiling glass doors, which makes them bright to the eye and to the ear. Dinner music sits at a level people can talk over, and I build the volume as the plates clear.
A timeline that respects sleep
About fifty rooms, suites and maisons share this hill with your party. I ask the inn when music has to end, indoors and on the terraces, then build the evening back from the answer: toasts and the big moments early, dinner unhurried, the dance floor open on time, and a last song you chose.
Photos from 2012
My own events
My own events
at Auberge du Soleil
No planner? You're covered
You don't have to
You don't have to
hold the evening
Before the date there's a planning questionnaire, a planning call and a music call. Must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love, who's speaking and in what order. By the time I arrive, I already know your event inside and out.
Then I'm your MC. Every entrance, toast and announcement comes from me, at the moment it should, so nobody in your family is watching a clock or hunting for a microphone. I carry backup equipment and I fix things quietly. And where I can't find a published rule, I don't guess. I ask.
Lighting
Purple on the timber,
Purple on the timber,
a monogram on the floor
The lighting in these photos is mine. Uplighting washed the timber posts and the wood plank ceiling in purple, and a monogram was projected onto the parquet dance floor in front of the booth.
In the room in these photos, with that much wood, a single color does a lot of work. It warms the candlelight at dinner and gives the dance floor a center once the tables clear. Uplighting, dance-floor lighting and a custom monogram are all added in the instant estimate.
Not only weddings
More than weddings
More than weddings
on this hill
The inn hosts rehearsal dinners and private dinners, corporate meetings and incentive groups, milestone celebrations and wedding parties that stay for several nights. I play all of those. A company dinner in one of the small rooms wants a different hand than a full reception, and a birthday for thirty wants a different hand again.
For a welcome party, a cocktail hour or a dinner where you want a sound more than a program, a Selector Session is a set of my own programming, up to four hours. And when a group is here for a few days, The Journey (a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance) can be its own gathering.
Good to Know
Questions about a DJ
Questions about a DJ
at Auberge du Soleil
What time does the music have to end at Auberge du Soleil?
I haven't found a published music end time for the inn, and I won't print a guess. It's a small hotel with overnight guests on the hillside, so it's the first thing I ask, including whether the answer differs between the terraces and the indoor rooms. Then I set your whole night against that time so the dancing isn't the part that gets cut short.
Can you handle sound for a ceremony on the terrace?
Yes. Ceremony sound is a second setup where the vows happen: a speaker aimed at your guests, a wireless microphone for the officiant and your vows, and the processional cued by me. It's an open hillside, so I bring a backup mic and keep it live. If there's no outlet close by, the estimate asks about power and adds a generator when one is needed.
We don't have a planner. Can you run the timeline?
That's a normal day for me. We build the order of the evening together on the planning call, I check it against what the inn tells me, and on the day I announce every entrance, toast and big moment. You'll know what's next because I'll tell the room. You won't be the one keeping time.
Do you play events here that aren't weddings?
I do. Rehearsal dinners, private dinners in the smaller rooms, company gatherings, milestone birthdays and anniversaries. For a dinner or a welcome party, a Selector Session keeps the music present without turning it into a show. Tell me what the event is and which space you're in, and I'll tell you what it needs.
How do I find out what it costs?
The instant estimate on this site gives you a price in a couple of minutes. You choose the kind of event, the hours, ceremony sound if you need it, and any lighting. Travel, when there is some, is added there too. If you'd rather talk it through first, book a short call. A deposit reserves the date.
More rooms
Other rooms I've played
Other rooms I've played
in Napa Valley
- SolageCalistoga
- Triple S RanchCalistoga
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your event
Tell me about your event at Auberge du Soleil
Your date, the space you're using and the feeling you want in the room. I'll ask the inn the rest and take it from there.