Cavallo Point in Sausalito is an old Army post at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, and a retreat, wedding or gala here can move from a hilltop chapel to a lawn to a hall that used to be the fort's gymnasium. I run the music, the microphone and the timeline across all of it, so you don't have to.
Fort Baker is a former Army post on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge, in Sausalito. Cavallo Point, the Lodge at the Golden Gate, is the lodge that reuses its buildings. Those buildings went up in the early 1900s in Colonial Revival style around a ten-acre parade ground. The lodge opened around 2008, inside the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. San Francisco is just across the bridge.
What that does to an event: the chapel and the ballroom are separate buildings on a hillside site. A ceremony in one and a reception in the other don't share a sound system, so each one gets its own.
And it's the Golden Gate. One of my photos here shows the lawn with fog rolling over the hills and only the top of the bridge tower showing through. So outdoor sound gets planned for weather. It's also a lodge in a national park with guests staying on the property, which means the venue sets the limits on sound and I work inside them.
The fort's former gymnasium: a vaulted ceiling about 33 feet up with exposed beams, its own foyer, and a terrace with a firepit. In a room that tall I keep dinner music at a level people can talk over, then build it as the plates clear.
The old fort chapel, high on the hillside, with terraces and a stone patio looking toward the bridge, the city and the bay. It's a separate building from the ballroom, so a ceremony here gets a sound setup of its own.
Open lawns, some among trees and some with the bridge in view, and the lawn can be tented. Out here the speaker is aimed at your guests, and I confirm with the venue where the equipment can go well before the day.
Bright rooms, each with a foyer, used for ceremonies, receptions or meetings. They suit a company dinner or a celebration where the music sits under conversation until it's time to dance.
Two adjoining rooms with working fireplaces and heated covered porches facing the water and the bridge. With guests split between the room and the porch, an additional sound zone (an add-on in the estimate) keeps the music even in both.
A hillside site, weather off the bay, and guests staying the night. Here's how I work the place.
When the ceremony or the speeches happen in one space and the party in another, I don't haul one system back and forth. That first space gets a second setup. My photos show it: a small mixer in a road case, a wireless mic and a speaker on a stand at the side of the hall, facing a flowered arch.
This is the edge of the Golden Gate, and the weather changes its mind. Fog can take the bridge out of the view, and it does nothing to the sound. Wind is what takes a mic down, so I carry backup gear, a spare microphone included. If the plan moves under a tent or indoors, the music and announcements move with it.
The site is a hillside and the chapel sits on a rise, so I ask the venue ahead of time which path vendors use, when I can load in and where the outlets are. I arrive early so it's done before your first guest walks up. No power near the ceremony spot? The estimate adds a generator.
Guests stay on the property, so the venue decides when music ends, and I ask for that time by space: the ballroom, the firepit terrace, the lawn. Then I build the evening back from it. Entrances and toasts land early, dinner stays at talking volume, and the dancing gets its full run before a last song you picked.
Amber uplighting and the DJ setup in the trussed hall
My decks set up facing the ballroom
At the ceremony sound station
Ceremony sound set up facing the arch
The booth facing the dance floor in the second room
Speaker and booth in the candlelit room
The arched timber hall, warm-lit for a reception
Dinner reception room with the DJ booth in place
Teal uplighting in the timber hall
The timber-beamed ceremony hall, set for a wedding
Ceremony audio ready in the historic wood-beamed hall
Sound for the outdoor courtyard
The lawn and the Golden Gate Bridge tower in the fog
Dance floor, cake table and DJ speakers set up
A full dance floor in front of my booth
Late in the night, floor full
Booth, speakers and dance floor set in the cream room
The view from the booth during dinner
Before your event I send a planning questionnaire, and we talk through the music and the timeline: must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love, who's speaking and when. By the time I arrive, I already know your event inside and out.
On the day I'm the MC as well as the DJ. Every entrance, toast and announcement comes from me, at the right moment, so nobody in your family or on your team is watching a clock or hunting for a microphone. And I don't guess at Cavallo Point's rules. I ask.
The lighting in these photos is mine. Amber uplighting along the walls of the white-trussed hall, warm against the tall draped windows at dinner. The timber hall with the hanging lanterns, once in warm light and once washed in teal. String lights across the courtyard between the red-roofed buildings.
These are tall rooms, and color on the walls changes how they feel once the daylight goes. Uplighting, dance-floor lighting and a monogram or pattern projection are add-ons you choose in the instant estimate. Anything near the beams, I clear with the venue first.
Cavallo Point hosts corporate events, meetings, retreats and conferences as well as weddings, along with rehearsal dinners, vow renewals and private celebrations. I play more than weddings: a company gala or holiday party, a milestone birthday, a fundraiser, a welcome party the night before.
If you want a sound more than a program, a Selector Session is a set of my own programming, up to four hours, for a cocktail hour, a dinner or an after-party. The Journey is a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance, as its own event or inside a bigger one.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your date, the space you're looking at and the feeling you want in the room. The instant estimate takes a couple of minutes, or book a short call and I'll take it from there.