The El Dorado Hotel and Kitchen in Sonoma, California:

The El Dorado Kitchen offers a variety of options for your wedding, with the numerous seating arrangements comfortably accommodating parties from 22 up to as many as 250 guests.  These options include the use of the Fireplace Lounge and Fig Tree Courtyard, the private dining room, the bridge table (running down the center of the restaurant), and a semi-private portion of the main dining room.  Event coordinator Angie Bettinelli will work with you to help you choose the best option for you and your guests, as well as coordinate between the hotel and your vendors to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Just off the hotel lobby is the fireplace lounge.  Aside from the main focus, the fireplace, there are numerous bookshelves covered with vases, behind which you can see a portion of the original building.

This cozy room can be made even cozier by closing it off from the rest of the lobby, and you also have the option of opening the doors to the Fig Tree Courtyard, which makes it perfect for rehearsal dinners, brunches, or small receptions.

Finally, and most importantly…the food is incredible!  The mouth-watering menus all look fantastic, making it nearly impossible to narrow down your choices.  Their dinner offerings include seared ahi tuna, truffle risotto, and red wine braised short ribs, all of which are served with a variety of side dishes.  Their brunch and lunch choices are equally impressive and include steamed mussels, chopped chicken salad, or a la carte brunch stations with fruit, pastries, and brioche bites.  Another great thing about the El Dorado Kitchen is that when possible, the food prepared at the El Dorado Kitchen is made from organic and locally grown produce, helping to green your wedding day.

The variety of options, wonderful food, and friendly staff, make the El Dorado Kitchen a great place to host a bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, wedding reception, wedding ceremony, or a post wedding brunch.

After partying the night away downstairs, take to your room for some relaxation.  The El Dorado Hotel is situated in the heart of Sonoma in an historic, 150 year old building.  The refurbished hotel is green certified and has all the luxuries of a modern day hotel, while maintaining its old-town feel.  The 27 guest rooms come fully-stocked with the typical TV, iPod clock, and mini-refrigerator, but the slanted ceilings, colorful walls, and the use of real keys all help keep its charm.  If you have your wedding at the hotel, you can work with Angie to reserve a block of rooms for yourself and your guests.

Enter to win a free night stay at the hotel and dinner for two so you can check it out for yourself!

Sonoma El Dorado Hotel and El Dorado Kitchen:

405 First Street West

Sonoma, California 95476

Angie Bettinelli, at angie@eldoradosonoma.com – 707-996-3030

Contest rules:

To enter you must post a comment on Bay Area Bride Guide between July 5th and July 18th.

There is no limit to the number of entries you can have, but if it is determined your entries were not legimitate, you will be disqualified.

A winner will be chosen at random on July 19th and announced on the site.

Wish Upon A Wedding, founded by local San Jose based wedding planner, Liz Guthrie is the first wedding specific non-profit dedicated to wedding wish granting. Because of Marry Me Live’s participation in Wish Upon A Wedding, I had a chance to sit down with Liz and discuss her organization. I was very inspired by her words and wanted to share with you some very heart warming things that are taking root not only in the Bay Area, but across the nation.

Wish Upon a Wedding was conceived from the San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway, which awards a wedding to a couple in need, with respected wedding vendors donating their services to award the wedding couple with a “Dream Wedding”. From that concept, Liz wanted to take this idea national, enabling national wedding vendors a way to give back through a formal 501-c non profit, while also benefiting wedding couples all over the country.

Wish Upon A Wedding’s growth has all been organic. Liz relies on word-of-mouth to convey the message, and that message has spread like wildfire. There are already 20 chapters everywhere from Northern California, to Houston, to Indiana, and New York City.

One of the main messages that Liz wants to spread is not only about giving back to wedding couples with terminal illness, but also to send a message of tolerance. Wish Upon a Wedding supports same sex marriages and asks all wedding vendors who participate in Wish Upon a Wedding to support the cause as well.

The Wish Upon A Wedding Mission is large and the expansion plan to boot. Liz plans to expand nationally in the immediate future with international chapters in a couple of years. With a noble cause that allows so many to give back, finding wish granters should be no problem. I look forward to seeing how Wish Upon A Wedding evolves and grows.

Our friends over at StyleUnveiled.com have a little giveaway that all you local engaged couples with a long road of wedding planning will definitely appreciate. They have two free tickets to the Wedding University taking place January 31st at the Silicon Valley Four Seasons.

The Wedding University covers topics including everything from wedding etiquette to choosing flowers, menus and music. Ideas are illustrated with examples that allow wedding couples to see how concepts can be brought to life.

StyleUnveiled.com will choose a winner at random on January 14th, 2010. Good luck!

Click here to learn more: http://www.aurorameneghello.blogspot.com/