Ann Fitts

Review of Sand Rock Farm Bed and Breakfa...

Our daughter was married at Sand Rock Farm(SRF) in...

Our daughter was married at Sand Rock Farm(SRF) in October 2019. One year prior, after visiting a number of wedding venues in Santa Cruz County, we knew immediately, upon visiting SRF, that it would be THE PERFECT VENUE for us. Plus we live in Aptos, so it was local! Overall, we are extremely happy with the wedding weekend and feel that SRF is a magical and special place.

First and very important, owners Jen and Derek are wonderful. They come from a wedding planning and catering background, so they know ALL of the special touches that make for a magical wedding day (and weekend)!

The property is amazing. Tucked off the road, nestled in redwoods and trees, complete with dogs, cats, chickens, and only 10 minutes from the beach. The beautiful B&B sleeps 18 so we were able to have the wedding party stay for Friday and Saturday nights of the wedding weekend, and breakfast was provided for everyone both mornings, and lunch before the 3pm wedding (a great cost saving for the bridal party and fun to have everyone hanging out together). A shout out to Riley who cooked and served the delicious meals and even made the spectacular and delicious wedding cake! We also had the rehearsal dinner on their beautiful deck on Friday night (catered tacos - reasonably priced - fun and casual).

My husband and I stayed in the Eva s Garden room upstairs. Very comfortable and the morning of the wedding I relished a luxurious and relaxing bath in the jacuzzi tub! The bridal couple stayed in the lovely "Morning Glory" room. We used the "Hidden Garden Suite" for everyone to get ready. We set up the two HMU artists next to each other and it was so much fun to all hang out there while getting ready.

We had 80 wedding guests which was a perfect size for the ceremony in the spectacular Redwood Grove and dinner (family style) in the gorgeous old Barrel Room. On the day of the wedding, the SRF team (owners, florist, caterer) worked very hard to set everything up and make it look amazing and just as we dreamed of. When I look at our wedding photos I feel like they look like something out of a bridal magazine!

When we booked SRF for the wedding venue we were advised that we were required to use their vendors: E Events (wedding planner), Five Star Catering, Amanda Connors Designs in Bloom, Ivy Hill Entertainment (DJ). I was relieved to not have to search for these vendors and felt confident that if Jen and Derek had confidence in these vendors then they would do an excellent job. Five Star Catering was absolutely amazing! We had so many wedding guests comment on how excellent the food was. They did a beautiful job in the presentation as well. We highly recommend them. And Amanda Connors (Designs in Bloom) was outstanding. She worked within our budget and we were in awe of all the beauty she created and we cannot recommend her enough. We were disappointed with the wedding planner E Events. We feel she has gotten too busy and taken on too many weddings. It created a lot of extra stress for us in the wedding planning that we thought would be taken care of. We also felt that the DJ (Ivy Hill Entertainment) fell short of what we had hoped from them.

Shuttles are required for SRF. We used Santa Cruz Experience roundtrip from the BW Seacliff Inn in Aptos. It all worked very smoothly and we had the after-party at Severino's in the BW Seacliff so it was perfect and very fun!

Our other highly recommended vendors we found on our own (you can see my reviews for them on Yelp and Google):
Photography: De Joy
Videography: Iz Cinema
Hair: Kendra Guisado, Evolve Beauty Lounge
HMU: Jamie Skocko, Vanity Beauty Parlour

if you are lucky enough to get a wedding booking at SRF I think you will be very happy. If you are looking for a venue for a family reunion or any group of 18 or less, I think you would love the property too! It is a very special place!