At Solage in Calistoga the ballroom's glass walls slide open, so one event can live indoors and outdoors at once, and the sound has to follow it. I DJ and MC here, whether it's a holiday party, a wedding with a lawn ceremony or a company dinner, and I plan the sound for every space you use.
Solage is a modern resort on the Silverado Trail in Calistoga, at the north end of Napa Valley. (Its full name these days is Solage, Auberge Collection.) Low cottage-style buildings, clean lines, bikes on the paths, a 130-foot pool at the center. Vineyards and mountains all around.
It's relaxed, not formal, and Calistoga's hot spring tradition runs through it: a spa that works with mud and geothermal mineral water, a bathhouse with thermal pools. People come here to slow down. An event at Solage usually wants the same ease, so I read the room before I push it.
The event side is a cluster of rooms and lawns around the Solstice Ballroom, and most of them open straight onto the outdoors. Guests drift between a glass-walled room, a terrace and a lawn. The guest rooms sit on the same grounds, which is why I ask about sound limits before I plan a single song.
The largest indoor room, about 3,500 square feet: vaulted ceiling, polished concrete floor, glass walls that slide open to the terraces. Hard surfaces throw sound back, so I aim the speakers at the dance floor, not the walls. Most of my photos were taken in this room.
About 3,700 square feet of lawn beside the ballroom, planted with white roses, with mountain views. The usual ceremony spot. Open air swallows sound, so the lawn gets its own system, separate from the one in the ballroom.
A trellised terrace over a landscaped courtyard with a fire feature. It suits a cocktail hour or a smaller dinner, and it wants music people can talk over. If guests split between here and the ballroom, an additional sound zone keeps both covered.
Two smaller rooms. Aurora has a vaulted ceiling and glass doors to a private terrace with a small lawn and a fire pit. Nova has two patios and built-in AV. Good for a dinner, a company gathering or a Selector Session, with a compact rig.
A relaxed lawn next to the pool, the resort's pick for brunches, casual lunches and receptions. A welcome party or a day-after gathering fits here. Daytime and poolside, so I keep it warm and easy.
An event at Solage moves: a room, a terrace, a lawn. I keep the sound with the people.
A ceremony on the Solstice Event Lawn gets its own setup: a speaker aimed at your guests, a wireless mic for the officiant and your vows, the processional cued. The reception system is already built in the ballroom, so nobody waits while I move gear across the grass.
The ballroom is mostly hard surfaces: concrete floor, glass walls, a vaulted ceiling. Dinner music stays at a level you can talk over, then builds as the plates clear. With the glass walls open the sound reaches the terraces too, so I set it for the people out there as well as the ones on the floor.
I arrive early, build the ballroom system and the lawn rig if there's a ceremony, and sound check both before the first guest walks in. That's the opening photo on this page: the Solstice Ballroom, set and ready. Backup equipment comes with me every time, and it stays within reach.
Solage doesn't publish where a DJ loads in or what power reaches the lawns. So I ask, ahead of time: which door, how far from parking, where the nearest outlet is on the grass. If the lawn has no power close by, a generator goes on the estimate. I plan around the answer, not around a guess.
The rig set and sound checked before guests arrive
From behind the decks, a full room at Solage
Mixing live at Solage
DJ booth tucked beside the games at a holiday party
The full length of the room, lit and ready
Amber and red uplighting across the whole Solage hall
Lounge seating, games and the DJ booth across the floor
Candlelit tables under the lit orbs
Guests arriving as the room warms up
The dance floor from the DJ's side of the room
A full dance floor in front of the booth
Uplighting detail at dusk, before the party
The second room at Solage, uplit for cocktails
Candlelit lounge corner with red uplighting
Casino tables and sound along the side wall
A birthday, a company retreat or a holiday party often has no planner at all, just a host with a hundred other things to carry. (Solage does ask wedding couples to bring a professional planner on board.) Either way, the music, the microphone and the timing are mine.
Before the day there's a planning questionnaire and calls about the music: must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love. On the day I'm the MC, so every entrance, toast and announcement happens on cue and you can simply be there. What I won't do is guess at the resort's rules. I get the real music cutoff from the venue and build the timeline back from it, so the dance floor gets its full stretch.
Once the sun goes down, the ballroom is whatever the light makes it. Uplighting along the walls sets the tone for dinner. Dance-floor lighting changes it again when the tables clear.
I offer both, along with a custom monogram or pattern projection and spot lights. You choose them in the instant estimate.
Most of my own photos on this page are from holiday parties, and the dated ones run from 2012 to 2015: arcade games and casino tables along the walls, lounge sofas, candlelit tables, and a dance floor that filled (one photo shows it packed). Solage hosts plenty besides. Rehearsal dinners and welcome receptions, milestone birthdays, reunions, corporate retreats and incentive trips, and buyouts on request.
I play celebrations like those. A Celebration covers a company party or a wedding with ceremony and reception. A Selector Session is a set of my own programming, up to four hours, for a welcome party, a dinner or an after-party. And at a resort built around hot springs and a spa, The Journey fits naturally: a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Tell me the date, which spaces you're using and the feeling you want in the room. I'll take it from there.