Triple S Ranch is two setups on one hillside above Calistoga: a ceremony under a huge old tree in an open meadow, then a party in a barn that was a dairy before it was a winery. I've played both, and I handle the sound, the microphone and the timeline for your retreat, wedding or company event.
Triple S Ranch sits in the Mayacamas foothills, about a thousand feet above the valley floor at the north end of Napa Valley. A short drive up a country road from Calistoga gets you there. It's a ranch from the 1800s: a restored Victorian farmhouse, cabins, stone patios under redwoods with a creek below, and a barn that began as a dairy barn, was a winery by the 1920s and a restaurant in the 1950s. (Also written Triple S Ranch Napa.)
People stay here. The venue offers a package of three days and two nights with the property to yourselves, so an event at the ranch is often a weekend, not an evening.
For the music, that means distance and slope. The ceremony lawn and the barn are separate setups on a hillside, the outdoor spots are open air with nothing to hold a voice, and there are guests sleeping on the property. I plan for all three.
The ceremony spot is a lawn under the big tree, with open meadow around it and the hills behind. Nothing out there reflects sound, so a voice just leaves. In my photos the rack, the wireless receivers and the speakers on stands are set before the first guest sits down.
The reception building: an old barn built into the hillside, with salvaged antiques, chandeliers, a stone fireplace, a long antique bar and a commercial kitchen. I set the booth between two speakers under the beams and leave the floor clear, as in the photos below.
Upper and lower stone patios beside the barn, under redwoods, with long dining tables, a pizza oven, an Argentine-style grill and a deck overlooking the creek. Stone is hard, so dinner music stays low and close: one speaker on the flagstones, as in my photo.
A restored Victorian farmhouse, cabins and glamping for overnight guests, plus a pool, a hot tub and an organic garden. With people sleeping on the property, there's room for a welcome party or a morning-after brunch, and each of those wants only a small, quiet setup.
The ranch asks for more than one rig, and a plan for the ground between them.
The lawn gets its own setup, because open meadow holds no voice: a speaker aimed at the chairs, a wireless mic for whoever speaks (your officiant and vows, or a retreat host), and the walk-in music cued. Backup gear stays close. A mic once failed in the wind at one of my events. The backup was already set up.
I arrive early so the barn rig is built and tested before the ceremony starts. The aim is that nobody watches me carry speakers across a hillside during cocktail hour. Dinner music sits at a level people can talk over, then builds as the plates clear.
The tree and the barn are two separate spots on a hillside, and the barn and patios sit on sloped ground. So I ask about the load-in path, the stairs and the grade ahead of time. Power at the tree gets the same question, and a generator comes along if the answer is no.
I don't guess at music hours on a rural hillside with guests asleep in cabins on the property. I confirm the current cutoff with the venue, indoors and out, and build the timeline back from it, so the dance floor gets its full stretch and the last song is the one you chose.
Ceremony sound set up facing the chairs under the tree
Booth and speakers set in the ranch's wood-beamed barn
The barn with the full rig and a clear dance floor
The whole barn in one sweep, booth centered between the doors
Ceremony meadow with sound set at both sides of the aisle area
Stone-post entry path leading to the ceremony tree
Ceremony seating and sound under the tree at Triple S Ranch
Chairs set under the old tree, sound table off to the side
The meadow approach to the ceremony tree
Sound rack in the meadow with the ceremony gathered under the tree
Cocktail patio by the stone wall with sound already in place
The ranch lets you bring your own DJ, caterer and florist, which is a freedom and a pile of decisions. The music, the microphone and the timing can come off your pile. Before the day there's a planning questionnaire, then planning and music calls: your must-plays, your do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love. By the time I arrive, I already know your event inside and out.
On the day I'm the MC. I call every announcement, entrance and toast, and I move people from the tree to the patio to the barn, so nobody is looking at you to find out what happens next. And I talk to the venue ahead of time, because knowing what to ask is part of the job.
My photos here don't show lighting, so this is what I'd bring. In a barn full of old wood, warm uplighting along the walls brings the room up after dark, and dance-floor lighting marks where the party is. A monogram or pattern can go on a wall or the floor.
Out at the tree and on the patios, lighting depends on power, which is already on my list for the ranch. You add lighting in the instant estimate.
Retreats, company gatherings and special celebrations happen at the ranch along with weddings, and the layout suits all of them. A company retreat can end its last night on the barn floor. A milestone birthday can fill a weekend. A long-table dinner on the stone patios wants a Selector Session: a set of my own programming, kept where people can still talk.
Across a weekend here I can play more than the main night: the welcome party, the rehearsal dinner or first-night dinner, the after-party. And for a group that wants something other than a dance floor, there's The Journey, a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your date, the kind of event and the feeling you want in the barn. The instant estimate gives you a price in a couple of minutes, or book a short call and we'll talk it through.