The ballroom at Ruby Hill in Pleasanton is two stories tall with a twin staircase, so the room gets seen from above as much as from the floor. I DJ and MC company nights, weddings and birthdays here, and the lighting in these photos is mine: color on the columns, pattern across the upper walls.
The Club at Ruby Hill is a private golf and country club on the southeast edge of Pleasanton, where the East Bay turns into Livermore Valley wine country. Plenty of people still call it Ruby Hill Golf Club. The clubhouse looks out over an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course, with vineyards past the fairways.
Everything stays on one property: getting-ready suites, an outdoor ceremony in front of wisteria-draped pillars, a patio for cocktails, and the Grand Ballroom in the clubhouse. Catering and the bar are in-house. Parking for guests is on site. The club sits inside a gated community, so guests and vendors all arrive through its gate.
The setting asks two different things of the sound. Out on the patio there are no walls to hold a voice. Indoors the ceiling is high, and a toast can blur before it reaches the back tables.
The main room in the clubhouse: a twin sweeping staircase, high ceilings and a large dance floor. Grand entrances come down that staircase, and I announce and cue them from the booth. In the photo from the top of the staircase I'm set up in front of the center French doors with the floor ahead of me.
The club's name for its outdoor setting, which it books for ceremonies, cocktail hours and receptions. Ceremonies are held in front of wisteria-draped pillars, and cocktails follow on a patio beside the ballroom. Open air takes a voice away fast, so anything out here gets its own small system, separate from the ballroom: a speaker aimed at your guests and a wireless mic for whoever is speaking.
A smaller indoor room the club lists for private events. For a dinner, a shower or a meeting in here: a compact setup, music you can talk over, and a mic for whoever needs to say a few words. I scale the setup to the room and to your guest count.
Rooms for the couple and the wedding party. No sound needed from me here, but they matter to the timeline. Nobody walks until the processional is cued and everyone is in place.
A patio with no walls and a ballroom two stories tall. Each one gets its own plan.
A wedding day here usually starts outside: a ceremony in front of the wisteria-draped pillars, cocktails on a patio, then dinner and dancing in the ballroom. A company night can open on the patio the same way. Whatever happens outdoors gets its own setup, separate from the ballroom system. Both are tested before guests arrive, so when people walk inside the music is already playing and I'm not carrying a speaker past them.
High ceilings are beautiful and they're hard on a microphone. I place the speakers for the tables, not only the dance floor, and the mic is checked before guests arrive, so the first toast is clear at the back tables. Dinner music stays at a level you can talk over, then builds as the plates clear.
The staircase and the balcony mean guests look down into this room, so I light it top to bottom. Uplighting on the columns, a pattern or a monogram on the upper walls. It's set and running before doors open, because the first look into the ballroom happens once.
The club is inside a gated community, so before the day I settle my gate entry and my load-in door with the club and allow time for both. Both systems, ballroom and patio, are set and sound-checked before the first guest parks. Backup equipment comes with me every time. If something fails out on the patio or under that high ceiling, the fix is already plugged in.
A club like this handles the food, the bar and the room. Somebody still has to run the evening: start things on time, line up the entrance, hand the mic to the right person, and move the room from dinner to dancing. That's me. Before the event you fill out my planning questionnaire, we talk through the music and the order of events, and by the time I arrive I already know your event inside and out.
The clubhouse sits inside a gated community, and the club decides how late music runs, in the ballroom and on the patio. I settle that limit with the club for your date and keep it in my plan. Then your timeline is built to the end time you choose.
Amber leaf patterns across all three upper walls. That's my lighting in the Ruby Hill ballroom, and so is the rest of the lighting in these photos. Pink and magenta on the white columns for one dinner, lavender and purple up into the ceiling coffers for a reception, and a white monogram on the wall.
A two-story room gives light somewhere to go. Uplighting, dance-floor lighting and a custom monogram or pattern are add-ons you choose in the instant estimate.
The club books a lot more than weddings: corporate events and meetings, holiday parties, birthdays and milestones, quinceaneras, showers, celebrations of life and golf tournaments. Company nights, holiday parties, birthdays and quinceaneras are nights I play too. A holiday party wants a host on the mic and a floor that fills after dinner. A quinceanera has its own entrances and its own music, and I plan both with the family.
For a tournament dinner or an awards night, a Selector Session fits: up to four hours of my own programming, with a wireless mic for the presentations. And if your crowd wants the songs they already know, I play those too: Latin, Motown, funk and soul, 80s, Bhangra and Desi.
Clubs, festival stages and every venue from Napa Valley to the coast are on one page: Places I've played.
Your date, the kind of event and the feeling you want in that ballroom. The instant estimate takes a couple of minutes, or book a short call and we'll talk it through.
