Viansa sits on a hilltop at the windy Carneros end of Sonoma Valley, and most of its event spaces are outdoors or open-air. I build the sound for that, then run the music, the microphone and the timeline so your company dinner, wedding or birthday moves without you watching the clock.
Viansa (its own site calls it Viansa Sonoma) is a winery estate on a Carneros hillside in Sonoma, at the southern end of Sonoma Valley. It opened in 1990 and was modeled on a Tuscan monastery: buildings gathered around a shared courtyard like an Italian farmstead, with a hilltop terrace, lawns and an olive grove looking out over vineyards.
Below the hill is a 97-acre wetland preserve beside Sonoma Creek, home to migratory birds and waterfowl. Parts of it close seasonally for nesting, so it's the view, not the dance floor.
It's a hilltop, so there's wind, and open air swallows sound that a room would hold. There are several spaces to choose from, so a ceremony in one spot and dinner in another means sound in both. And it's a working winery with tasting guests during the day, so load-in can overlap with them, and I ask about it ahead.
The shared courtyard the buildings gather around. My photos show a 2015 ceremony here: white chairs, ivy on the walls, my mixer and wireless mics at the edge. Walls hold sound in and bounce it too, so I aim at the chairs and keep the level down.
Open lawn with vineyard views, and an arch the winery offers as a ceremony backdrop. No walls means wind, and nothing to reflect a voice. Whoever is speaking needs a microphone here, whether it's vows or a welcome toast.
One of the sites the winery offers. Trees break sound up, so music there works better from a speaker kept close and low than from one loud one far away. Good for a ceremony or a long table.
Two ways to have a roof. The barn keeps the evening air coming through. The ballroom has four walls: a dance floor holds its energy there, and it's the first room I ask about for a rain plan.
The visitor side has a hilltop terrace, a west patio, a main lawn and an upper lawn called Alta Terrazza. One of my setups at Viansa had speakers on stands beside a building, facing a patio and the valley. Out here it's about coverage, not volume.
A hilltop, open air and more than one space to cover. Here's what I do about each.
Ceremony and party can land in different spots here. The ceremony gets its own setup: a speaker aimed at your guests, a wireless mic for the officiant and the vows, the processional cued. A company welcome on the lawn before dinner in the barn works the same way. The second system is tested before you get there.
Wind finds the microphones first. I plan the ceremony mics for it and keep a backup already set up, not in a case, so if one fails in a gust I switch and most guests never know.
Tasting guests are on the property during the day. I ask ahead where I can load in, how far the walk is and when I can sound check, then arrive early enough that everything is set up and quiet before your first guest walks in.
If your ceremony and dinner are in different spaces, the timeline has a move in it. I get the music cutoff for your space from the winery, then build back from it: time for guests to get from one to the other, toasts early, dinner music you can talk over, the dance floor open on time, and a last song you chose.
Sound rig set in the Viansa courtyard, ready for the ceremony
The open courtyard from behind the rig, fountain in view
Speakers set along the ivy wall with a valley view beyond
My ceremony sound rig set among the Viansa vineyard gardens
Rig set up in the garden terrace, mics ready
Mics and mixer laid out in the garden terrace
Mics and mixer beside the courtyard ceremony seating
Ceremony seating laid out in the courtyard beside the rig
My mixer at the edge of the Viansa ceremony courtyard
Speakers and table tucked beside the ivy-covered garden building
The arched gate entry into the Viansa courtyard
Sound reaching the terrace with the Sonoma valley behind
Speakers on the brick patio, olive trees and lawn behind
Powered speakers on stands, ready for the ceremony and cocktail hour
Viansa asks wedding couples to bring a planner and a professional caterer. I work the music side with your planner: one timeline, agreed ahead, so the kitchen, the photographer and the microphone all move together. For a company dinner, a birthday or an anniversary with no planner at all, I build the timeline with you and run it myself on the day.
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. Every announcement, entrance and toast is mine to run, so you can simply be there. And what I can't know from the outside, I ask the winery directly.
The photos on this page are daylight, and none of them show my lighting. Here's what it would do at Viansa. Uplighting warms the walls of the ballroom or the courtyard once the sun is gone, dance-floor lighting tells people where the party is, and a monogram or pattern can be projected on a wall or the floor.
Lighting is an add-on you choose in the instant estimate. I check with the winery what each space allows, especially outdoors, and plan around the answer.
The winery offers wedding dates on any day of the week, and it also takes engagement parties, corporate meetings, retreats and offsites, private dinners, birthdays and anniversaries. I play all of those. A company offsite that ends in dinner and a dance floor. A milestone birthday on the lawn. A holiday party for the whole team.
If you want a sound more than a program, a Selector Session is a set of my own programming, up to four hours: right for a welcome party, a cocktail hour or a winery dinner. The Journey, a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance, can be its own event or sit inside a bigger one.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your date, the spaces you're using and the feeling you want on that hill. The instant estimate gives you a price in a couple of minutes, or book a short call and we'll talk it through.