The Madrona, formerly Madrona Manor, is an estate with a lawn for the ceremony, terraces for cocktails and dinner, and a deck for dancing. I DJ and MC company dinners, weddings and birthdays here, and each stop gets its own sound. I run the speakers, the microphone and the timing across all of it, so you don't have to.
The Madrona sits at 1001 Westside Road in Healdsburg, in Sonoma County wine country, a mile from the heart of Healdsburg. It's a hotel and restaurant built around a Victorian mansion, and the estate dates to 1881. You'll still see it searched as Madrona Manor. Same estate.
What makes a day here easy to run is that everything happens on one property. The hotel's own map names the spaces: the South Lawn for large ceremonies, the Oval Terrace for cocktails and mingling, the Palm Terrace for large receptions, the Valley Oak Deck for dinner, dancing, and cocktails, and the Orange Grove for small ceremonies and dining. Guests can stay here too, with 24 rooms on the property, so nobody is watching the clock for a drive home. For events with over sixty guests, the hotel can offer exclusive use of the grounds.
So a day can follow the estate from one space to the next: the ceremony on the lawn, drinks on a terrace, dinner at long tables, then dancing on the deck. A company day uses the same spaces, with the Drawing Room for a small dinner and the terraces and lawns for a reception once the meetings are done.
Two things shape the sound here: open air among old trees, and a day that moves from place to place. Neither is a problem. Both need a plan.
The hotel's map gives the South Lawn to large ceremonies and the Oval Terrace to cocktails and mingling, so the vows and the first drinks are a short walk apart. A lawn ceremony gets a system of its own, set and tested before guests arrive, and the cocktail music is already playing when they step onto the terrace.
A lawn of white folding chairs beside a brick terrace backed by a tall hedge, with old shade trees overhead and the mansion beyond. Live strings played on the terrace while my speakers stood on stands along the rows. Trees soak up sound instead of bouncing it back, so the speakers are pointed at people.
The hotel lists it for large receptions, and pairs it with the East Lawn for the biggest seated dinners. At a reception this size the microphone has to reach every table, so I keep dinner music at a level people can talk over, run the toasts from one place, and build toward the dancing as the plates clear.
In my photos a covered porch is set with long white-clothed tables, ceiling fans overhead, roll-down shades along the sides and a speaker on a stand in the corner, with a screen on the wall. It's the kind of room where a small system and one good microphone do the whole job: toasts reach the far end of the table and the music stays under the conversation.
The hotel lists the Valley Oak Deck for dinner, dancing, and cocktails, so that's where I plan the dancing to go outdoors, with the booth facing the floor. The Orange Grove is listed for small ceremonies and dining, a good fit for a long-table dinner or a quiet vow exchange where one speaker and a wireless microphone are enough.
Four things this property asks for, and what I do about each.
The lawn, the terrace and the deck are different places, so I don't try to cover them from one booth. The ceremony gets its own system, the reception system is already live when guests arrive, and nobody waits while I carry a speaker across the grounds. The parlor is a third setup: in my photo of it, the booth sits between two speakers on stands, with the arched French doors behind.
Outdoors, sound goes up and out. I put a wireless mic on the officiant, point one speaker at the chairs and keep it to the level the rows need. A second microphone is already set up beside the first, because a gust or a dead battery is what takes a mic out. I settle the lawn's microphones, the processional music and the power with the hotel before the day, and the estimate adds a generator if there's no outlet near the chairs.
With 24 rooms on the property, some of your guests are sleeping a short walk from the music. Whether the grounds are all yours or other travelers are staying too, I plan the evening with that in mind: the dance floor gets its full run, and the volume suits the hour.
I plan the timeline to the end time you choose: the big moments early, dinner with room to breathe, a full stretch of dancing. I confirm the hotel's limit for your date and the space you've booked, whether that's the deck, a terrace or the lawn. The last song is the one you chose.
The ceremony lawn and brick terrace, set for a wedding
Ceremony seating and sound under the old trees
White chairs set across the lawn for a ceremony
The mansion and string-lit garden
Ceremony sound covering the lawn
Speakers placed along the lawn for the ceremony
The hedge-lined ceremony terrace, sound in place
Live strings and a speaker on the ceremony terrace
A covered porch set with long tables for dinner
Wide view of the porch dinner setup, sound in place
A speaker tucked into the corner of the porch
Head table and speaker on the porch
My full rig set up in the parlor, with stage lights beside the booth
Here's what usually lands on a host at an estate with this many spaces: who tells guests to move from the lawn to the terrace, who finds whoever's giving the toast before it starts, who notices dinner is running long. That's my job. I'm the MC as well as the DJ, so every announcement, entrance and toast comes from one person who has the timeline in front of him.
Before your event you fill in a planning questionnaire, then we get on calls for the plan and the music: must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love. Then I take the questions below to the hotel myself. I arrive early, I carry backup equipment, and by the time the first guest walks in I already know your event inside and out.
The stage lights on the bar beside my booth in the parlor photo are mine. The ceremony and dinner photos are daylight on the lawn and the porch, so what you see there is the estate and my speakers.
For an evening here I'd bring more: uplighting along the hedges and tree trunks, dance-floor lighting for the deck, and a custom monogram or pattern for the wall behind dinner. Uplighting, dance-floor lighting and a monogram are all choices in the instant estimate.
The Madrona hosts more than ceremonies. The hotel takes weddings, private holiday parties and company gatherings, from an intimate dinner in the muraled Drawing Room to expansive gatherings across the grounds.
So I play it that way. A company dinner or holiday party on a terrace. A milestone birthday, a fundraiser or an anniversary with the deck open for dancing. A Selector Session for a welcome party or a rehearsal dinner: up to four hours of my own programming, kept where people can still talk. And an after-party when the main event is done.
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Your date, which spaces you've booked and the feeling you want in the room. The instant estimate gives you a price in a couple of minutes, or book a short call and we'll talk it through.