Reception at Martha Clara Vineyards? Riverhead, anyone?

The vineyards are sooo pretty! I 'think' martha is the most reasonable. A lot of the vineyards require 5-15K in site fees just for breathing on the property...ha ha...but I think it's an amazing wedding. Good luck!

Martha Clara has a site fee and can have up to 3 events at one time... It's beautiful though

You also have to rent tables, chairs, linnens, china etc. The works!

I have a great rental company out there that does work with them. Their linens and china are beautiful!!!

Hi-- I'm new around here. Not recently engaged (I've been engaged over a year), but my wedding is coming up in a couple of months at Martha Clara Vineyards!

Martha Clara really can be much more reasonable than people seem to think. Considering my fiance are paying for everything and we are straight out of grad school with barely any savings and TONS of loans (like we-could-have-bought-a-house-instead type loans), we really would not have done this if it couldn't be reasonable! In terms of site fees you can negotiate with them. AND if you join their wine club you get a huge discount on the site fee! (I think it was 15-20%). I booked back in Jan 07 so I got 2006 rates for my Sept 2008 wedding (huge savings there-- booking early pays!).

Anyway, in terms of lessings, they are one of the caterers Martha Clara works with. But honestly, Christopher Michael Caterers (of the Jamesport Country Kitchen) is their favorite (and more preferred) caterer. So while Lessings starts at $120 pp (on top of the site fee), Christopher Michael is doing my sit down for $60pp (cocktail hr, salad, pasta, entree, dessert and beer)! Wine from Martha Clara is additional but at 20% off. And to be honest the food from Jamesport Country Kitchen is 100 times better than Lessings! Matt Karr (the owner of Christopher Michael) is amazing-- he coordinates all your rentals for you with WaterMill Party Rental. You go and pick out what you like and he takes it from there. And he has a deal with them to keep the cost to $15 pp for ALL the rentals-- chairs, linens, china, even the benches for my ceremony site!

So yes, having a wedding at Martha Clara takes a little more planning, but not much more if you use vendors like Christopher Michael.

One word of advice-- If you book, block rooms off at the Holiday Inn East End and Best Western the same day! Those hotels fill up insanely fast, and are pretty much the only game in town for your out of town guests.

Feel free to email/FM me if you have any questions!

~Kim :)

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Posted by kjm24

Hi-- I'm new around here. Not recently engaged (I've been engaged over a year), but my wedding is coming up in a couple of months at Martha Clara Vineyards!

Martha Clara really can be much more reasonable than people seem to think. Considering my fiance are paying for everything and we are straight out of grad school with barely any savings and TONS of loans (like we-could-have-bought-a-house-instead type loans), we really would not have done this if it couldn't be reasonable! In terms of site fees you can negotiate with them. AND if you join their wine club you get a huge discount on the site fee! (I think it was 15-20%). I booked back in Jan 07 so I got 2006 rates for my Sept 2008 wedding (huge savings there-- booking early pays!).

Anyway, in terms of lessings, they are one of the caterers Martha Clara works with. But honestly, Christopher Michael Caterers (of the Jamesport Country Kitchen) is their favorite (and more preferred) caterer. So while Lessings starts at $120 pp (on top of the site fee), Christopher Michael is doing my sit down for $60pp (cocktail hr, salad, pasta, entree, dessert and beer)! Wine from Martha Clara is additional but at 20% off. And to be honest the food from Jamesport Country Kitchen is 100 times better than Lessings! Matt Karr (the owner of Christopher Michael) is amazing-- he coordinates all your rentals for you with WaterMill Party Rental. You go and pick out what you like and he takes it from there. And he has a deal with them to keep the cost to $15 pp for ALL the rentals-- chairs, linens, china, even the benches for my ceremony site!

So yes, having a wedding at Martha Clara takes a little more planning, but not much more if you use vendors like Christopher Michael.

One word of advice-- If you book, block rooms off at the Holiday Inn East End and Best Western the same day! Those hotels fill up insanely fast, and are pretty much the only game in town for your out of town guests.

Feel free to email/FM me if you have any questions!

~Kim :)

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Hi Kim

We're date twins! I'm getting married at the Vineyard caterers on September 20th!

I looked into Martha Clara a year ago for our wedding. The rate was not as great as that Bride Mentioned in the previous post. However I do remember being locked into their wine and we could only have that as the alcohol. Is this still the case. I dono... But getting married on the vineyards is just awesome!

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Posted by NapaValleyGirl

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Posted by kjm24

Hi-- I'm new around here. Not recently engaged (I've been engaged over a year), but my wedding is coming up in a couple of months at Martha Clara Vineyards!

Martha Clara really can be much more reasonable than people seem to think. Considering my fiance are paying for everything and we are straight out of grad school with barely any savings and TONS of loans (like we-could-have-bought-a-house-instead type loans), we really would not have done this if it couldn't be reasonable! In terms of site fees you can negotiate with them. AND if you join their wine club you get a huge discount on the site fee! (I think it was 15-20%). I booked back in Jan 07 so I got 2006 rates for my Sept 2008 wedding (huge savings there-- booking early pays!).

Anyway, in terms of lessings, they are one of the caterers Martha Clara works with. But honestly, Christopher Michael Caterers (of the Jamesport Country Kitchen) is their favorite (and more preferred) caterer. So while Lessings starts at $120 pp (on top of the site fee), Christopher Michael is doing my sit down for $60pp (cocktail hr, salad, pasta, entree, dessert and beer)! Wine from Martha Clara is additional but at 20% off. And to be honest the food from Jamesport Country Kitchen is 100 times better than Lessings! Matt Karr (the owner of Christopher Michael) is amazing-- he coordinates all your rentals for you with WaterMill Party Rental. You go and pick out what you like and he takes it from there. And he has a deal with them to keep the cost to $15 pp for ALL the rentals-- chairs, linens, china, even the benches for my ceremony site!

So yes, having a wedding at Martha Clara takes a little more planning, but not much more if you use vendors like Christopher Michael.

One word of advice-- If you book, block rooms off at the Holiday Inn East End and Best Western the same day! Those hotels fill up insanely fast, and are pretty much the only game in town for your out of town guests.

Feel free to email/FM me if you have any questions!

~Kim :)

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Hi Kim

We're date twins! I'm getting married at the Vineyard caterers on September 20th!

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I'm getting married on September 21 at Bourghese Vineyard ... around the corner and down the road .. it was the only one that let us do wedding in the daytime.

I've done non-profit events at Martha Clara and I can vouch for Matt Carr - AWESOME FOOD. We use him for all our events. And I can also vouch for Watermill Party Rental. They are professional, attentive, and they really do have a wonderful selection of products!

The big barn in the back of MCV is great!

Do they really charge $7500 for a site fee? That sounds VERY excessive!

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Posted by gemmifer

I looked into Martha Clara a year ago for our wedding. The rate was not as great as that Bride Mentioned in the previous post. However I do remember being locked into their wine and we could only have that as the alcohol. Is this still the case. I dono... But getting married on the vineyards is just awesome!

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My site fee is $5800, but bc i got 2006 rates + my wine club discount. I have seen the new site fees and they are $7500.

Christopher Michael definitely starts at $50 pp for buffet and $60pp for sit down. You are right that you are locked into Martha Clara for wine. But in terms of alcohol/beer, it all depends on your caterer. You caterer needs to have the liquor license to serve the liquor/beer, which Christopher Michael has. We chose to do only wine and beer, but he definitely offered a full open bar for about $15 more pp.

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Posted by NapaValleyGirl]
Hi Kim

We're date twins! I'm getting married at the Vineyard caterers on September 20th!

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Will you or your guest be at the Holiday Inn Express? That's where we'll be (or at least 20 rooms worth of us)! The hotel said that is looking like a very busy wedding weekend this year-- they have several weddings basically filling the entire hotel! I had to put the rest of my guests at the Radisson MacArthur!

~Kim :)

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Posted by Karmagirl76

I've done non-profit events at Martha Clara and I can vouch for Matt Carr - AWESOME FOOD. We use him for all our events. And I can also vouch for Watermill Party Rental. They are professional, attentive, and they really do have a wonderful selection of products!

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I can defenitely vouch for the two vendors above as well!!! AWESOME AWESOME vedors!!


I know MOST, not all vineyards don't have liquor licenses so you can only have beer and wine. And obviously the only wine they sere is what the vineyard makes.