At Inn Marin the lawn at the center of everything is ringed by the Novato hotel's own guest rooms, so the sound has to reach your guests without filling the whole courtyard. For a company picnic or wedding I bring the music, the microphone and the timeline, and I run all three so you don't have to.
Inn Marin is a Spanish Mission-style garden hotel in Novato, at the south end of town just off Highway 101 in Marin County. (Listings also carry it as Inn Marin and Suites, in the Ascend Hotel Collection. Most people just say Inn Marin.)
The whole place is built around one courtyard on about five acres. Tile and stucco wings of guest rooms wrap a central lawn shaded by liquidambar and magnolia trees. There's a terra-cotta patio with a fountain, and the Garden Room opens toward that patio through French doors, with the pool on the other side of the glass.
For an event, that means nothing is far from anything. A ceremony, a cocktail hour, dinner and a dance floor can all happen inside the same courtyard, with guest rooms right there on the property. It also means the people in those rooms are your neighbors for the evening. I plan the sound around that.
The open lawn at the center of the property, shaded by mature trees and ringed by the guest room wings. The usual spot for a ceremony, a large outdoor reception or a company picnic. It asks for speakers aimed at the guests, a wireless mic, and an answer about power.
A terra-cotta patio with a European-style fountain, right beside the Garden Room. It suits a cocktail hour or a small dinner. Music here stays under conversation, and the fountain is part of the soundtrack whether you planned it or not.
The main indoor room, about 1,200 square feet, with bay windows and French doors toward the patio and pool. Receptions, banquets and meetings happen here.
The pool deck is also offered for events, and the hotel has hosted summer jazz beside it. It's open air close to guest rooms, so a set out here is tuned for listening and talking.
Guest rooms around the lawn, glass and French doors indoors. Both change where the speakers go.
A ceremony on the lawn and a dinner in the Garden Room are two different sound jobs. So the lawn gets its own setup: a speaker, a wireless mic for the officiant and the vows, the processional cued. I arrive early, so the main rig indoors is set up ahead of the ceremony.
Guest room wings ring the lawn, so every speaker I place out there is aimed at your guests and kept at the level they need, no louder. Before the day, I confirm with the hotel when amplified music has to end outside, and whether there's a limit on volume.
The Garden Room has bay windows, French doors and a twelve-foot ceiling. Glass is a hard surface, so I place the speakers to cover the floor without bouncing sound off it. In my photos the booth sits in front of the garden windows, a speaker on a stand either side.
Nobody publishes where the outlets are on this lawn, so I ask, along with the load-in route and how close I can park to the lawn and the Garden Room. My estimate asks about power too, and adds a generator when the ceremony spot needs one. Backup equipment comes with me to every event.
No planner? That works when somebody is holding the clock, and that somebody is me. Before your day we go through a planning questionnaire and planning calls, so by the time I arrive I already know the order of things, who's speaking, and which version of which song.
On the day I'm the MC as well as the DJ. I move people from the lawn to the patio to the Garden Room, cue the entrances, hand over the microphone for the toasts and take it back. I build the timeline backwards from whatever music cutoff the hotel gives me, so the dance floor gets its full stretch and the last song is the one you chose. What I don't know about the hotel's rules, I don't guess. I ask.
One indoor room with a twelve-foot ceiling and windows onto the patio changes a lot once the sun drops. Uplighting on the walls gives the room a color of its own. Dance-floor lighting marks where the party is. A monogram or pattern can sit on the floor or a wall.
Each of those is an add-on you choose in the instant estimate. Skip them and the sound is exactly the same.
Inn Marin hosts a lot more than weddings: family reunions, company picnics and team-building days, banquets, anniversaries, showers, meetings, rehearsal dinners and the brunch the morning after. The lawn is listed with games like volleyball and croquet, which tells you what kind of afternoon it's good at.
I play all of those. A company picnic wants music that keeps a lawn lively for hours and a clear microphone for the announcements. A milestone birthday or a holiday party in the Garden Room wants dinner music first, then a real dance floor. And if what you want is a sound for a welcome party or a dinner, a Selector Session is a set of my own programming, up to four hours.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your date, which part of the courtyard you're picturing, and the feeling you want in it. The instant estimate gives you a price in a couple of minutes, or we can book a short call. I'll take it from there.
