Post Ranch Inn

Post Ranch Inn
47900 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920 USA
(831) 667-2200
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Average Base Cost: $25,000

Average base cost for a Post Ranch Inn wedding is calculated by figuring a 75-person guest list for a Saturday afternoon wedding at the Inn’s restaurant, Sierra Mar including food and alcohol. Transportation to venue, entertainment, decorations, flowers, etc. are not included. Price is rounded up to the nearest thousand.

How it Breaks Down

Facility Rental Fee: $6,000

Average Food Costs: There are several prixe fixe options available at the Post Ranch Inn’s Sierra Mar restaurant, ranging from a 3-course $45 prix fixe per person for lunch (+$27 for a trio wine pairing), and a $120 4-course dinner tasting menu (+$110 for a wine pairing).  On average, you can expect to pay around $200/pp for a multi-course wedding reception menu.

post ranch inn wedding
A view from the Post Ranch Inn restaurant, Sierra Mar

More Stats

Space Type: Inside and Outside

Bridal Suite: Your hotel room

Size: 25-75 guests can be held on Sierra Mar’s ocean-view terrace

Food Service Type: Plated

Parking: Yes

Party On! Ceremonies and receptions at the Post Ranch Inn for 25-75 guests are held from 12:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m at the Inn’s Sierra Mar restaurant.

How Will Grandma Get There? There are several hotel options in Big Sur, including the nearby Ventana Inn and Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn. In order to hold a wedding at the Post Ranch Inn, a two-night stay in one guestroom is required, beginning the night prior to your event. Four guestrooms and eight people is the maximum one party may book during an event. All overnight guests must be 18 years or older.

post ranch inn wedding

Option B: The Elopment Package

You can also choose to “elope” at the Post Ranch Inn. A wedding with no invited guests can be performed in any guest room. For a wedding ceremony with 6 guests, you must reserve the Cliff, Ocean, or Peak House rooms (prices below). The elopement package includes:

  • Wedding ceremony performed by our resident interfaith wedding celebrant with a ceremony custom-tailored to your style and preference
  • A keepsake script of your wedding ceremony
  • Legal wedding license
  • A one-hour photography session and 60 or more prints
  • A CD featuring high resolution versions of all of your photos
  • Flower arrangements of your choice
  • Made to order bridal bouquet and boutonniere
  • Select bottle of Champagne
  • Keepsake pair of etched crystal Champagne flutes

Total cost for Post Ranch Inn Elopement Package: $2,200 plus cost of your room

Sample Room Rates for September 12-14, 2014:

Lower Butterfly Fredericks: $775

Treehouse: $1,150

Ocean House: $1,975

Cliff House, $2,585

post ranch inn wedding

The Report

The Post Ranch Inn is widely considered one of the most gorgeous resorts in the U.S. The 100-acre resort is built on a cliff 1,200 feet above the Pacific and has 39 rooms with either a mountain or ocean view. The resort opened in 1992 and added the Ocean, Cliff, and Peak houses  in 2008. All rooms are made of recycled materials, and the resort’s restaurant, Sierra Mar, boasts a seasonal menu with an organic focus, and received a Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine. The Inn has hosted several celebrity weddings over the years, including most recently Andy Samberg and Joanna Newsom’s September 21 wedding. The couple, who began dating in 2008, invited family and friends such as Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel to their Post Ranch Inn wedding ceremony and reception.

Woman Getting Married Says

The hubs and I went to Big Sur for Thanksgiving last year. And while we stayed across the street at the Ventana Inn, we had a delicious and gorgeous lunch at the Post Ranch Inn one day that was a highlight of our trip. The food and wine was great, and the grounds of the resort are breathtaking. The Post Ranch Inn is one of the few hotels in Big Sur with direct ocean views, and since the resort is built into a cliff , you feel like you’re pretty much floating above the water from anywhere you stand on the property. The view down to the ocean isn’t the only steep thing about the Post Ranch Inn, though.

The prices are pretty outrageous, as you can see above. With that said, the views are some of the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen, and if I thought that from the restaurant’s terrace, I can only imagine what it would be like waking up and watching a sunset from your own ocean-view room. Unless you’re Andy Samberg or have a celebrity budget, I think the elopement package makes more sense than hosting a 25-75 person wedding there.

If you’ve got $10,000 to spend on a wedding and like the idea of eloping or having a ceremony with only 6 guests, I think the Post Ranch Inn would make for a stunning location. You could stay in the Ocean-View room for three nights, and on one of those nights have a small ceremony for 6 people, then an intimate dinner at their Sierra Mar restaurant. From there, you could drive up the coast and honeymoon in Carmel, San Francisco, and Napa. And you can still say you got married at the same place Andy Samberg and Joanna Newsom did. 🙂

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Amenities/What’s Included 5
Convenient for Grandma 6
Layout 8
Location 10
Overall Charm 10
Venue Value 9

WGM Rating

8
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