Martinelli Event Center – A Garre Winery property

What a nice place in… Livermore!!!
Such a nice rolling piece of property for a winery.
The events center is great! Lots of stone, a great courtyard with a fountain. The conference rooms were great for our office event. We even took a break to play Bocce Ball… fun!
They catered us lunch and it was really good!

I was at a business dinner event ~ 60 — 70 people Thursday, 10÷15÷15 from 5 pm — 7 pm after a day of wine tasting in the valley. The center was beautiful as were the surroundings. I had not been at Garre for a few years and was pleasantly surprised at all the upgrades. The buffet dinner of focaccia bread, 2 salads, beef bolognese, chicken piccata, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, coffee and dessert was as good as any very nice restaurant. They also had a full bar cocktails as well as wine, not many wineries have a liquor license for hard alcohol.
Down below near the tasting room they were setting up for a rehearsal dinner on the grass with white table cloth tables and corn hole games. It also looked very nice /​fun and when I asked about pricing as I have a son’s wedding coming up it seemed very reasonable.

Bottom line — I wouldn’t trust them to handle my wedding. And here’s my story, why. We scheduled a site visit on 8÷21÷15, with thoughts to book them for our upcoming wedding next year. We met with their coordinator, Susanne, at 3:00pm. She discussed things with us, was nice, and everything seemed to be going well. She gave us a site tour, and luckily they were setting up for a wedding, so we got a good idea what the venue would look like all set up.
We explained to Suzanne that we were interested in the Sunday of a holiday weekend, either 7÷3÷16, or 9÷4÷16, because we wanted to get their lower Sunday rate and minimum, which Suzanne said would be a $ 10,000 minimum. Susanne confirmed we’d get the Sunday rate and minimum on the Sunday of a holiday weekend, including 9÷4÷16 (which is the same policy as all the other venues we visited). She said that Sunday ⁷⁄₃ was booked, but Sunday ⁹⁄₄ might become available on Wednesday (it had a temporary hold till then). Suzanne then said Saturday 7÷2÷16 was available instead, and proceeded to give us a written quote of $ 10,838.88, for Saturday 7÷2÷16. Suzanne then said that if we bumped up our spending to $ 12,000 they could do Saturday; otherwise, we would be fine for 9÷4÷16 — if it became available. She said that we should call back on Wednesday to find out if 9÷4÷16 is available. She also said there’d be an additional discount applied to our total if we switched to Sunday 9/​4, since it was not a Saturday. We then asked for a more detailed price quote and draft contract, since the written quote she gave us didn’t clearly break down what was included and not included. Although we discussed these terms in detail, we wanted to have everything laid out in writing to avoid any future confusion. Suzanne said she’d email the info to us in a couple days, and that another coordinator, Dipika, would help her with that documentation.
Fast forward to Wednesday, and still no documentation, so I email the person on the business card Suzanne gave me; which turned out to be Dipika’s email address. On Thursday, Dipika responded to my inquiry, saying that she had forwarded my inquiry to Suzanne. Today, Friday, Dipika responds with a 1 page quote for Sunday 9÷4÷16, in the same format as my Saturday 7÷2÷16, quote, except the total is now bumped up to $ 16,593.44 (instead of $ 10,838.88), and the details show I’m getting less options too (Suzanne’s quote included beer, wine, and well drinks, and 4 course plated; whereas Dipika’s quote was wine and beer only, and 1 course plated). And to add further insult, Dipika explained in her email that they want to charge us the premium Saturday rate for Sunday 9÷4÷16, since it is a holiday weekend, and therefore sorry, but we do not qualify for booking Sunday 9÷4÷16, because their Saturday minimum is $ 20,674. The, she concludes, we would qualify for any other Friday or Sunday at her $ 16,593.44 quote (excluding Sunday ⁹⁄₄), and to let her know if we want to choose a different date. Yeah… right.
So no, I do not trust them to plan my wedding.

We held our daughter’s wedding recently 7÷25÷2015 at the beautiful Martinelli Center at Garre Winery. From the start they were wonderful to work with. They returned our calls and emails promptly and attempted to meet our every request. We first interacted with Lindsay who is amazing and very knowledgeable. It was with her recommendations and their list of vendors we were able to choose a fabulous bakery, florist and DJ company locally that made the evening epic! We did upgrade to the middle tier of wedding options, and found it worth the difference. We were matched with Suzanne as our coordinator for the evening and though being new to the venue she was gracious, accommodating, considerate, and very organized. She bent over backwards to make the evening truly special for our daughter. She and her staff helped make our daughter’s dreams come true! Thank you all for a magical evening.

Let me start with the good. Martinelli Center (and Bella Rosa at Garre) are beautiful — absolutely stunning place to get married. The ceremony area at Martinelli overlooks the valley, surrounded by vineyards, and is picture perfect. The outdoor reception area on the other side is a Mediterranean style courtyard, with market lights strung above, it would be an amazing place for dancing/​cocktails. It was those things that led my fiancée and I to book our September wedding at Martinelli.
We booked in September 2014 at Martinelli, and were promised that we would set up a meeting soon, to iron out the details. A couple of months passed without any contact (we didn’t even know who our coordinator was at that point), and then we were told of a group tasting (for all 2015 couples). The food, to be kind, was terrible. Salads with no flavor, overcooked salmon covered in a creamy garlic sauce, well done hangar steak covered in what tasted like A-​1 sauce. The only good part of the meal was the dessert (which was from an outside caterer). Beyond that, we still hadn’t met with our coordinator (she wasn’t even at the tasting).
I told them of our concerns, and heard back from them a week later, when I found out that our coordinator was no longer working there. They would let us know when they’d hired someone else, and would like to set up a second, private tasting, to ease our concerns on the food. We picked a menu for the second tasting, and went back with our own newly hired wedding coordinator. We no longer trusted them to follow through, so we decided to hire our own. The food, again, was terrible. A caprese salad which had no flavor (completely bland tomatoes), a flatbread with eggplant that was stale and looked worse than it tasted, the salmon again, which was undercooked this time (raw in the middle), and lamb skewers, which were overdone, and looked inedible (tasted OK though). We also got to try all of their wines… I’m no wine connoisseur — pretty much everything tastes good to me — but I didn’t like any of them (outside of the sparkling wine). What’s funny, the worst part of the whole thing — they had recently hired someone to be a coordinator, and she wasn’t there. The only contact we had with the venue at this point was the server, so we still couldn’t iron out any details.
At this point, we were ready to cancel our booking, but we gave them one more chance — if they would allow us to bring in an outside caterer, and outside wines, and they would allow us to use the space at a price that kept us in the same budget range, we would be willing to keep our booking. Erik, the head chef, and the boss, was genuinely upset that we were so unhappy, and set up a meeting with us to talk it all over. He was sincere, and opened some new wines for us to try (which we liked — they were not Garre wines), and introduced us to the new, new coordinator (the fourth we had been through, but the first we had met). He agreed to let us bring in an outside caterer, and use any wine on their list we would like. We were happy with that, so walked away that day convinced we would stick with it.
It was later that night that we received a new proposal from them, which detailed the cost of making that change, and it was exorbitant. In order to keep the wedding at Martinelli, we would have had to double our budget. So, I wrote Erik a long explanation, and told him we would be cancelling our wedding there. I requested our deposit to be refunded, due to the complete incompetence at every step of the process. As a business owner myself, I would have been horrified to hear of these issues, and would have gladly refunded the amount, and sworn that all of these issues would be fixed (I wouldn’t want other couples feeling the same way).
Erik disagreed, but was willing to refund a portion of it (half, initially, and then after some back and forth, he agreed to refund all but their «hard costs»). Their hard costs were a lot higher than I thought reasonable, and I still think it was the wrong way to handle it, but we agreed and decided to let it drop.
All that being said, I was torn on writing this review. I just think it’s important that people know about these issues prior to booking their wedding. Do yourself a favor — insist on doing a food tasting before you book. Insist on getting the details ironed out before you give them any money. And most of all — hire yourself an outside coordinator.

My wife and I were married at the Martinelli Center @ Garre a couple months ago at the end of August 2014. We had an awesome wedding there and really positive experience interacting with the wedding coordinator, Lindsay. Rather than just being professional/​patient with our (right before the wedding) continuous email stream to her, she would reply thoughtfully and with encouragement. During the day of the wedding she did a great job directing our wedding and kept everything running smoothly. Her experience helped us relax and be comfortable while planning and on our wedding day (as much as it is possible to ever relax at your wedding…).
Martinelli Center is on a bit of a hill above the rest of Garre’s buildings. The view of the surrounding vineyards is great from the outdoor wedding ceremony area. This ceremony area is just outside the doors of the reception hall & has a really pretty vine-​covered arbor for the wedding party to stand under. I sweat a lot and was terrified (weddings give you the weirdest fears) for months ahead of time at the thought of wearing a tuxedo outdoors in Livermore in August. However, the shade of the arbor and breezes due to being on a hill really came through and it was not uncomfortable at all by 5pm when we had our ceremony.
On the other side of the reception hall is a courtyard where we had cocktail/​appetizer hour. It was also a convenient place to set up our various tables, photobooth, etc. and looked very pretty at night with string lighting. On a tangential note, we had some older guests (like my grandma) who move with difficulty and it was nice that the venue is easy to get around and has convenient bathrooms.
The bridal suite is spacious and it has a groom-​room. A lot of the other places we looked at prior to selecting Garre did not have a room for the Groom, so I thought this was really neat. It was way more relaxing to hang out and calm down before the ceremony started in my own room with my groomsmen.
The food was delicious. One of my favorite parts of wedding planning was visiting Garre’s café to taste bites of all the different food choices (and wines!). The biggest hit at our wedding was the bacon-​wrapped filet. I did not have time to actually eat anything after the salad during the wedding, but I gathered that from friends and family responses. We had a guest who asked for gluten-​free meal and Lindsay took care of it.
As for the cost, we were happy that the wedding packages were all-​inclusive and we never had the feeling of being upsold (or nickel-​and-​dimed) for every little thing that came up.
All around an awesome place to get married.

I was just married here! Everything went amazing and the staff is so wonderful! The planner Elizabeth made sure everything was exactly what we wanted and she was so great and easy to work with! All of our guests complimented us on how great the venue and the service were. The bar staff was quick and not a huge line meaning they were efficient and quick at handling a party of our size! We had both the reception and the ceremony outside. Perfect!!! They made wedding planing so easy! I wish I could give more stars for this venue!

Sooo Im a year behind on this review but better late than never. We had our wedding at the Martinelli Event Center last year on 8÷17÷2013. This place fit in perfectly with the theme and look/​feel I was going for our wedding. We had our reception outdoors and it was just perfect. Lyndsay, Irene and all of the staff went above and beyond to make our wedding day amazing. Our guests even commented on how great all of the staff was. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the day was perfect. Thank you again Lindsay and staff :)

We just had my son’s wedding at event center last weekend.
Great place for wedding. Everyone commented on how perfect it was.
Lovely setting, would highly recommend for wedding,
Lindsey was very nice and Kyle, bartender/​general all around good help rocks!
Can’t recommend place and people enough.
Btw, food was tasty especially considering feeding 150.
Why look anywhere else??!

We booked the Martinelli Event Center for our April 2014 wedding.
Lindsay, the venue’s wedding planner, made our vision at the event center come to reality and truly made the wedding planning experience effortless and enjoyable. She was able to provide extensive answers to my millions of questions and always responded in a timely fashion. Her seasoned wealth of wedding knowledge was an asset to our whole experience with Garre. Her relaxed and easy going nature throughout the wedding process and on-​the-​day of is exactly what I needed and something I appreciated and valued throughout the whole process. She is a very poised individual with excellent manners. She was great with our guests, great directing the staff, and it was evident she knew exactly how to handle the location, the weather, the staff, the food, the guests, us as the bride and groom, and everything in-​between. She was so thoughtful throughout the whole process, she even brought us appetizers to our reception table because she had the foresight to understand we wouldn’t be able to grab them ourselves during the cocktail hour. I feel like this review doesn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg for how grateful I am we had the wonderful Lindsay to work with! She is the BEST!
I’ve received ample feedback from my husband, our parents, and guests and they had nothing but glowing things to say about the service, the food, and the drinks at the wedding! I loved the appetizers, the chicken skewers were awesome, and my husband loved the mushroom crostinis. The sparkling wine, red blend, and chardonnay was delicious. Everyone enjoyed the bar very much.
If you are looking for a venue with the ambiance of Napa Valley but in a more central location, Martinelli Event Center is a great place to look! As long as Lindsay is there, I know I will be recommending this venue to my friends!

My daughter made reservations at Garre for Mother’s Day Brunch. I was excited as I assumed it would be in the new Bella Rosa restaurant. Her confirmation email gave us directions to go to the Martinelli Event Center instead. I had no idea until I just read the other reviews that this is part of the Garre properties.
It was a very windy day out in the Livermore Valley so when we were seated we were happy to find that we were indoors. But that proved to be a less than optimal experience since the food, which was buffet style was outside, so everyone, including wait staff had to enter and exit double doors. Every time a door closed it slammed so hard it sounded like a canon. You couldn’t prop them open as it was too windy. I wonder why they didn’t choose to have the food inside the space to make it easier than having to juggle a plate and a door in the wind. At one point three different doors slammed and my daughter called it a ‘Trifecta!’ We had to ask to be moved as our table was wobbly and the drinks spilled even as they were placed on the table. There was no background music just the sound of the doors and conversation. If you’ve gone to a convention, say the SF Auto show, and purchased food and sat at one of the tables that would be a comparable experience.

I cannot complain about the food as it was plentiful and fresh. Smoked Salmon, Asparagus with Manchego cheese, an omelet bar, prime rib, waffles, eggs, desserts and more. The selling point for us was the bottomless Mimosa’s. They were pouring Garre’s sparkling wine for the ‘champagne’. I think coming early was the best idea, our reservations were for 10:30, as the serving stations did look pretty barren when we went back for another serving.
The grounds are beautiful within the courtyard and out. We visited the natural garden where many flowering plants and bushes provided a backdrop for some great photos.
I would have to say that unless you are really happy with buffet style meals then the price was a bit steep and I didn’t even pay. I think the experience would have been nicer even if we had just gone to the Café and sat on the patio. I am very torn over giving 3 or 4 stars based on the ambiance or lack thereof.

Heard about the center from a friend and decided to take the family there this year for Easter Brunch. When we arrived at the place it looked fantastic, what a beautiful setting in the wine country. Then everything went down hill from there, had to wait 40 minutes for our table even though they had tables open. The Manager??? some young bearded gentleman was so rude it was almost funny (I mean almost) so unorganized, no sorry for the wait and very trite with the kids. Must have been his idea to put the stuffed rabbits on the buffet (looked like something out of Chucky Cheese). The muffins were stale and seemed to have been bought at Cost Co, I mean how hard is it to make muffins. Then there was the tall I assume the «Chef» that was running around in circles getting nothing done. He was wearing blue jeans and stunk of cigarettes to the point that I almost lost my appetite. I also noticed him sitting down with a lady In guess that she was the owner alot but who brings a dog into a restaurant with food and not a seeing eye dog and then walks into the kitchen with it. That happened as we were walking out but had it happened before we had finished our food I would have got up and taken the kids to another place. One would think that a owner of a restaurant would know better, there“s gotta be laws against that. Oh and here is the kicker… they ran out of champagne, isn’t it a winery. Stay away from this unprofessional and obvious poorly run operation. They are opening a new restaurant and event center hope they work out the bugs and get rid of the chef and manager NOW!!! and get some professionals in there. On a good note though the wine was nice till they ran out «SO SAD!!!

So went to Easter brunch here and what a disappointment. Store bought muffins… looked like Cost Co. fare, frozen waffles and deli ham. The omlet station had seafood sitting for hours with no ice under it and God only knows how many people got sick from that. There was a tall gentleman chef with blonde hair that looked very nervous or high and he did seem to be in charge, hope he’s only hired help for the day and not the chef. If this is the quality of food they plan to put out when the open the new place steer clear of it. I did also see what appeared to be a woman very friendly with the «chef» walk into the kitchen with a dog… gross and against so many health codes. I had such hopes for the place after eating there in February, had a beet salad that was to die for. Based on this visit Garre is a memory soon
hoped to forget. They also ran out of champagne and last but not least the servers are better at Dennys, who ever runs the front of the house is clueless

We attended their Easter Brunch for the first time this year. Our reservation was 1:30pm, which was towards the end of the event. The check-​in, where you prepaid for the meal & gratuity, was disorganized and my small group of 4 adults & 1 toddler, with no one waiting behind us or having been in front of us, took a solid 15 minutes.
I did anticipate that since we were towards the end of the event, that there may be some limited availability when it came to the food. The food was probably very good earlier in the day, however, the burners on the warmers had been turned off so all the hot food was lukewarm at best and the cold food overly warm as they didn’t have the food shaded and chilled properly.
The kicker came towards the end of our meal. I watched a woman (no idea if she was customer, owner or employee — I’m guessing manager or owner by her bold actions) walk through the dining room with a dog. The pup had no service animal designation. She then proceeded to walk into the kitchen with the dog!
Needless to say, we will not be making this our Easter lunch tradition after this. Next year we’ll have to try one of the many other options and honestly I don’t think I’d come back even to just the winery if this is how they run their events. It can’t speak well for their overall management.

My husband and I were set on finding a wedding venue with a more rustic feel, and after searching for weeks for the perfect setting found the Martinelli Center nestled in with many of the wineries in Livermore. There is a beautiful outdoor ceremony site with views of the vineyards, a great stone courtyard with fireplace and fountain, and an interior reception space complete with wood beams. Also, tons of free parking for your guests and large, clean restrooms!
Lindsay was our coordinator, and we could not be more pleased! Having someone there to quickly get back to me with answers to my countless questions about table sizes and measurements and meal pricing really made planning a wedding a thousand times easier! She even gathered up a few extra wine barrels for use around my reception. On the day of the wedding, I was so impressed by how calm she remained as she easily directed the wedding party to where they needed to be at all times and was even able to move some of my décor from the ceremony site to the reception.
The food on the wedding day was great, and the servers were very friendly and attentive. Right after we said our «I do’s», we rounded the corner to go sign our marriage license, and they had prepared wine, beer, and champagne for the entire wedding party. Our guests enjoyed the fruit and cheese platters during the cocktail hour and the craft brew was especially enjoyed by the guys.

My company and I had the pleasure of working with Lindsay and staff on June 8^th, 2013. The wedding had some complexities involved, it was a long day, plus it was 100 degrees outside. There were timing challenges, but it all went so smoothy.
I found the staff and Lindsay to be fine professionals, organized, friendly, and quite easy to work with. The food was excellent, as well. Very good service. I was happy with my day spent at the property. I think this venue is an excellent choice for brides and grooms who want a pleasant, friendly staff, and serene place to be married. Thumbs up!

Our wedding was held here in November 2012 and we were really happy with the venue, the food, and with our coordinator, Lindsay.
On our first visit, we were impressed with the beautiful location, ample parking, separate bride’s room and «groom’s quarters.» We sat down with Lindsay, discussed a couple of food and beverage options, and she printed out quotes for us right then and there. The cancellation policy was made crystal clear as was the payment schedule. When family came into town several months later and wanted to see the venue, Lindsay happily invited us back.
Here’s what we loved: the food (had a buffet with tri-​tip and chicken marsala and we still get compliments!), the wine, the beer, the view from the ceremony space, the white wooden chairs for the ceremony (not cheap plastic chairs), the chiavari chairs in the reception room, the beautifully lit fireplace in the courtyard, free use of the wine barrels for the altar and cocktail hour in the courtyard, bridal room with private bathroom (a bride needs a private bathroom for crying out loud!), super clean restrooms, Lindsay’s help with our rehearsal day and her quick responses to my 100+ emails, great servers and friendly bartender. You can also set up a slideshow easily, just be sure to bring your own laptop.
My only suggestions for the venue: while they do provide a very helpful timeline of items needed and payment dates, as a previous poster mentioned, there’s no reminder from Martinelli. You’re on your own to mark down due dates for payments and things like reception layouts. Our buffet ended up being held outside (in November, it was pretty cold out). I wasn’t thrilled that I hadn’t been warned that if our guest count hit X number of people, the buffet would be moved outside. It was expensive to add one extra hour of reception time (for dancing) to the end of our event. I would have loved to rent things like charger plates from the venue directly rather than purchase my own (and then have to pack them up at the end of the night…). None of these are a big deal obviously, more like conveniences. :)
Addressing a few odd complaints in previous reviews — the venue does the catering for you and they bring specifically bring the food and beverages that were ordered. There isn’t a full service restaurant at Martinelli just waiting for random orders that weren’t placed in advance. For this reason, I highly advise that if you’ve got picky children and you think they’ll be hungry after the ceremony, bring your own snacks. Also, your DJ should be in full control of the speakers and sound system during the ceremony. Our DJ had his own speakers for the outdoor parts of the wedding, and everything went perfectly fine. Lastly, the entire reception room was set up even before our ceremony started. As the bride and groom, we were the ones asked when we wanted the room to be opened to guests. It was pretty cold on our wedding day so we asked that the room be opened shortly after the ceremony. (Keeping the reception room locked had nothing to do with the staff…)
Overall we had a great time and I’d definitely recommend this venue.

Great Venue to host a wedding
As a Photography and Filmmaking, we love how warmly this location look and feel, love the vow ceremony location behind it with a nice garden feel. check out our video and see it for yourself
martin vo

I came here in early June on a Sunday for a friend’s wedding. Being the East Bay, it was still very hot at 5PM. We all were sweltering in our nice dresses in the direct sunlight. If you go during the summer be prepared to wear a hat and loads of sunscreen. The bride and groom also looked to shiny which might ruin and wedding photo or two.
I thought the staff was helpful and professional and the logistics of the wedding didn’t have any obvious problems. Ceremony started at 5PM where we all died in the heat, 5:30PM drinks on the patio which was nice and shady, 6PM dinner and dancing.
The dance floor was a bit on the small side as we all like to dance, but the food was great, the drinks kept coming and the bride, groom and all their friends had a wonderful time.

We just got married here at the end of July.
I must, say we were pretty worried after reading some of the reviews on here, but we decided to give it a chance and it was SO worth it! Everything was absolutely perfect!
Lindsay B., our coordinator, was on top of everything! She was quick to respond to any questions or concerns (and I’m sure I got very annoying at times!) and went well out of her way to help us. She is absolutely wonderful!
To be honest, we were very dissatisfied with the quality of the food selections we were given at our tasting, so I ended up contacting Lindsay and expressing my concerns about this and we were able to set up another tasting. I am SO glad we did because the other selections we tried were DELICIOUS! We received so many compliments about the food after the wedding (genuine compliments! — and I feel like that doesn’t happen too often with «wedding food»). The buffet line did seem to take a while for the guests to get through, but the staff was very polite and helpful and our guests didn’t seem to mind. Lindsay actually ended up putting out another keg of beer (complimentary) because we ran out fairly quickly — it was so sweet of her and I know that many of our guests appreciated being able to have that beverage option once again. Everyone had a great time!
The landscaping is beautiful, everything was clean and set up on time, the staff was wonderful and the food was delicious. I truly hope that others can share our same experience in the future because it was absolutely perfect!