Founded in 1983 by Carl and Hope Falcke, the Orchard House was the very first Bed and Breakfast in…read moreDouglas County, Nevada and Genoa. It is currently operated by their son (Gayle's cousin) and daughter-in-law as a venue for outdoor weddings and special events. The Orchard House is where Gayle's brother was married a few years ago, and what a memorable event it was. And with the recent engagement of one of her sons, a wedding at these pretty, spacious and well kept grounds may be in the works. Although Gayle and I will be wed in Napa next May, Genoa and the Orchard House remain near and dear to our home town hearts.

We celebrated our daughter's wedding at the Orchard House a few weeks ago, and the venue could not…read morehave been better. The area is beautiful, and the staff went beyond the beyond to provide a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. Afterwards, we heard more than a few who specifically mentioned the Orchard House in their compliments. Great job!

Should read 4.5 stars but I'm rounding up!…read more We had the most amazing ski vacation at the Ritz Carlton. We spent 4 nights here and did not leave the property except to ski 3 whole days. Here's my notes: ***Seriously ski-in ski-out: The hotel is located on a ski run, so we literally traded our shoes for our boots at the mountain concierge and then grabbed our skis/poles from the concierge outside and started skiing down the mountain to our desired lift. No need to hop on a slow gondola or walk a distance to get to the snow. ***Some fun hotel perks: The hotel does a smores thing at 4:30 pm every day and we thought it was a very nice event. They gave everyone a plate with a graham cracker and piece of chocolate, then your choice of marshmallow (they had strawberry and regular). They also gave us a cup of hot chocolate with a little liquor if you were so inclined. They also had Kids events and we had our little guy paint a pinecone. He had a great time with the very nice guy running it and who knew painting a pinecone could be so fun? ***The restaurants: While we had high hopes for going out to Truckee to check out some cool restaurants, we were so tired from skiing at the end of each day, we never made it out. We loved the food at the Lobby Bar (I think it's called the Living Room) and their new taco restaurant which is called Montesa. Both are expensive (for example, get ready to pay $11-13 for a taco) but we really liked the food at both places. We also ate at Manzanita which is the high end restaurant and the service was amazing plus our little guy LOVED their kids buffet. We on the other hand thought the food was just okay and I don't think we would do this again. So why 4.5 stars and not 5 stars? ***Communication could be improved. We asked directions to the Smores event and a staff member told us it was at the Backyard restaurant and it's not there. In addition, because we pushed out our trip by a day due to the weather, we lost the room upgrade we had secured. It was not the Ritz Carton's fault that we lost this, but there were a couple places where we told the Ritz what was happening with us and they could have told us that they could not guarantee our upgrade. ***Service times at the Lobby Bar restaurant were extremely slow. There was one night where we waited for our food for at least an hour and a half. We will be back!

We booked a family stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe for myself, my wife, and our six-year-old…read moreson. A few days before our trip, our son was diagnosed and tested positive for RSV. I called and asked for a reservation modification given the circumstances, and I was completely open to alternative solutions: a date modification, Marriott Bonvoy points to rebook on our own, a refund, or anything reasonable. We just wanted some flexibility. What followed was the usual runaround. We called the Ritz-Carlton directly, they told us they couldn't help because we booked through American Express. So we called Amex, whose concierge team was empathetic and professional. They reached out to the Ritz-Carlton on our behalf. After waiting 24 hours and following up, we were told that Ritz-Carlton management responded via email and declined to allow modifications to the reservation and still expect us at the property unless we pay a $750 cancellation fee. We presented a positive diagnosis of a contagious virus, were willing to accept any reasonable accommodation; a date change, points, anything, and the answer was no. This raises a serious concern beyond our personal frustration. If the Ritz-Carlton would rather a family show up carrying a contagious virus than accommodate a date change, what does that say about their commitment to the health and safety of their guests and staff? How many other sick guests have they pressured to check in rather than lose a night's revenue? What about employees who may face the same inflexibility when they're ill? For a brand that markets itself as the gold standard of hospitality, this experience seems like the opposite.

Right when I met Jessica for the free consultation, I immediately liked her. She was professional,…read morekind, personable and made you feel comfortable about the whole wedding plannning process. Jessica is very organized, detailed oriented and knowledgeable about everything wedding that she made the whole wedding planning thing seem easy! My fiance and I were so impressed after the initial consultation and knew we had to have her as our planner. Right after we booked OUATE, my fiance and I had a meeting with Jessica and basically told her everything we wanted, what we didn't want and what we dreamed of having but didn't think we could afford. She also had us fill out a questionnaire to get a sense of our style, get to know us and get an idea of what we envision for our dream wedding. After reviewing everything we gave her, she created a design board with everthing we had talked about. I loved how we got to go thourgh and point out what we liked and what we didn't like. This gave us a great sense of what our wedding was going to look like. Since I had a very hard time picking a theme and staying with that direction, this really helped me get on track and focus on one thing at a time. This also really helped me stop stressing and feeling overwhelmed and let me enjoy the wedding planning process. As a bride, I knew I wanted to be involved in the fun stuff but not the boring, budget related stuff. Jessica was amazing at handling all the stuff I didn't want to do or did not know how to do. We gave her our total budget and she planned around that very well and helped us stay on track. She also did all of the orders (which were a ton since we had our wedding at private estate and had to bring everything in) and delt with the most of our vendors. She has a great working relationship with a ton of wedding vendors in Reno that she was able to get things done and get them done fast! And she had wonderful recommendations for our wedding vendors. We loved them all! During the whole wedding planning process Jessica and her sister, Cassie kept us on track and made sure we were getting things done when they needed to be done. I loved how they took all of my ideas and wishes and made them happen without any questions. The whole time, they were professional but so nice and fun to work with! It made wedding planning a lot of fun! The day of the wedding, I had absolutley nothing to worry about. I sat in the house and got ready while Jessica, Cassie and her team set everything up and dealt with all the vendors. The wedding was not too big but the whole production of it was a lot! We had a ton of flowers, a fire pit, a dessert bar, photo booth, a lounge and a ton of details such a signage and personalized items. Jesssica and her team were so organized and executed everything PERFECTLY! It was above and beyond anything I had even imagined. They took my vision to the next level and made it better than I could had ever wished for. Jessica and Cassie kept the wedding on track the whole night and everything went off witthout a hitch. My husband and I nor our wedding party or family had to lift a finger, it was amazing! We got to spend our time enjoying ourselves while OUATE delt with everything else. Jessica, Cassie and the entire OUATE team are amazing!! They made planning our wedding an absolute joy and I would HIGHLY recommend them for wedding and party planning. If I plan another event you can be sure I will be booking Jessica and her team to help

Jessica, Cass, and their whole team know how to make a celebration exceed all expectations. We've…read morehad the pleasure of working more than a few events with this team and no detail is missed.

This Beautiful Venue offers some of the most stunning Views, in the World. The Resort Venue is…read moreFirst Class in every way imaginable. From the snow capped mountains, the beautiful forest environment, and environmentally friendly architecture. Highly, highly recommend for your Wedding or Event!

Stunning venue for a friends and family reunion!! Gorgeous views with luxurious accommodations…read moreincluding an outdoor bar, sauna, and a pool that was perfect for the kids! We took advantage of nearby hiking and biking trails, shopped in the cute town of Truckee, and just overall had a wonderful trip, thanks to this beautiful Austin Ridge property! Owner was super responsive and helpful: couldn't be happier!

Donna is by far the best coordinator any girl could ask for! Let me try to explain how amazing of a…read morejob she did by telling you about the unforeseen circumstances of our perfect wedding. We decided to have our ceremony overlooking Lake Tahoe with our reception in Incline Village, both venues outside with little to no coverage. During Septemeber, the weather is known for being nice, however, two days before our wedding it snowed and day temperatures were down to 45ºF. I was in a panic because changing your wedding, TWO DAYS BEFORE that date is wedding suicide. I guess the risk comes with the mountain territory. Donna was a champ and used her creativity and endless effort for your happiness, and arranged a new reception venue and turned it into something magical. She, last minute, arranged hot cider, coffee and tea to be served during the ceremony (we did not change that venue due to its importance) and did many other small touches that made a large impact. So why do I recommend Donna? Because at the end of the day you need someone who not only has your interest at heart but has the creativity and passion to make any scenario amazing. She turned a ski lodge bar into a gorgeous mountain retreat! Her pricing is low for all the sweat and creativity she puts into it. Thank you Donna for rolling with the mountain punches and handling it like boss! You are amazing and I hope to use you again for other celebrations!

Hire Donna to plan your wedding!!!! She is absolutely wonderful…read more We hired her as our full time planner as soon as we picked a venue that was in the middle of a meadow with nothing else around it. We needed EVERYTHING brought in to the venue for the big day. Donna didn't skip a beat and found us the best vendors to work with for all of our needs, from bathrooms to DJs. I can't stress how important it is to work with a wedding planner that has a great vendor book - she saved us so much time and energy by giving us a few great options for every vendor that we needed to hire. And every vendor that we picked were great to work with - huge thanks to Donna. Planning a wedding is not easy, but she made the process as painless as it could be. She is truly kind, patient, dedicated & hard-working. We always felt like she had our best interest at heart and that she was constantly looking for ways to make sure our day was personalized to us and went off without a hitch. Above and beyond! The day ran so smoothly, all thanks to Donna. We couldn't have asked for a better planner!!!

I originally posted here about a less than perfect experience, but the owner, Angelina, reached out…read moreto me immediately afterwards to see how she can make it right. It was apparent that she values her customers and is passionate about the work she does. We talked through everything and came to a great solution and I'm happier than ever. With a few things in mind to avoid the snafus I experienced for my wedding, I'll definitely use Elevated for a future event. Customer service is huge and Angelina nailed it. Thank you, Angelina, and the rest of your staff!

Angelina and her husband decorated my wedding at Harveys lake Tahoe march 7,2015. The people at the…read morewedding chapel were a piece of work.! Canceling and moving times like HELLO PEOPLE ALL MY GUEST ARE FLYING IN AT A SPECIFIC TIME YOU CANT KEEP CHANGING SOMEONES WEDDING DATE! UGHH. HATE THAT PLACE. Anywho, angelina was so amazing, she helped me through every single detail, her warehouse is so to die for its not even funny. Tons of great themes and really cool pieces. We did a great Gatsby theme and she had really great 1920's themed stuff. She arrived early, her and her husband set up in record time and they did a great job. Everyone was like ooooooo..ahhhhh. Shout out to my sister who paid for their awesome service! Lol anywho, if your looking for anything party/ wedding related. This is the place to go. P.s. they expanded their business to include other goodies so check them out!!