Destination Weddings in Chelan Wine Country

Ideas & Inspiration

Destination Weddings in Chelan Wine Country

Start asking people around Lake Chelan what their favorite season is, and you’ll hear it over and over again: fall. The intense heat that fills the region’s peaches, cherries, berries and grapes with sweetness during the summer months has subsided, leaving behind the perfect balance of warm sun, cool breeze and a gently rolling landscape in glorious bloom. Grapes have been grown here for more than a century, but it wasn’t until 2009 that Chelan became Washington state’s newest AVA (American Viticultural Area). This 55-mile-long lake, three hours from Seattle, has become home to a number of picturesque wineries where an outdoor destination wedding can feel like you’ve crossed oceans rather than the little old Cascade Mountains.

If your dream wedding is at a Tuscan villa, consider Tsillan Cellars Winery as a more doable, and just as luxurious, alternative. Italian marble and tile, hand-carved woodwork and Italian porcelain floors inlaid with Rosa Verona mosaics in the main facility create the atmosphere of an Italian countryside escape. Outdoor ceremonies for up to 60 guests are held on The Terrazo, perched above the winery grounds and overlooking the lake, with vine-covered Roman pillars, a fish pond and meandering slate walkways. In spring of 2012, a new indoor/outdoor structure with increased capacity for 120 will be finished on the winery’s front lawn. With its own fabulous lake view, the ceremony spot is flanked by elegant pillars with retractable glass walls that can be opened or closed depending on the weather. Tsillan’s ever-popular semisweet and dry Rieslings are sure crowd-pleasers.

Sitting across the lake from Tsillan near the town of Manson is another Mediterranean-style gem, Benson Vineyards Estate Winery, noted for the well-balanced Sangiovese it produces as well as a delightful Viognier-Chardonnay blend dubbed “Curious.” “If you’re looking for the perfect winery wedding with an elegant, high-class feel, this would be it,” says Chelan wedding planner Libby Harrison, of Sweet Bliss. Perched high on a hillside overlooking the lake, the large stucco winery is romantic to the core, with fireplaces and tiled wood floors inside and a heart-stopping panoramic view surrounding the outside stage where you say “I do.” The outdoor reception area, with manicured lawns, pots of bright flowers and lots of bursting Mediterranean color, has an airy, open feel.

For a new-world wine country ambience, Karma Vineyards is the place. The tasting room and outdoor bar have an inviting, modern feel with wood ceilings, textured stone walls, a koi pond and trailing geraniums. And where better to celebrate the love of your life, after all, than a winery known for its bubbly, the festive Méthode Champenoise. Choose from two uncovered outdoor locations, either the intimate Lilac Patio, nestled in a grove of lilacs, echinacea and azaleas, or the bold Panorama Patio, boasting a 180-degree view of Lake Chelan and the vineyards, with seating for 250 guests. What elicits the most gushing here, though, is the underground Wine Cave, a 3,000-square-foot cavernous wine-storage facility that doubles as a romantic and rustic reception space with touches of wrought iron and long, wood-planked tables for communal-style seating for up to 100 people. Plus, the acoustics are great for music and dancing.

No one knows the land here better than the Evans family, which has been farming Chelan soil for four generations. Their rustic and charming winery, Tunnel Hill, known for its crisp Rieslings and food-friendly Pinot Noir, is housed in a 1930s-era stone cottage once inhabited by a beloved local schoolteacher. Couples can tie the knot in the intimate Waterfall Garden, which the bride enters via a winding path from the vineyards, or up to 80 guests can be shuttled by hayride up the hill into the vineyard itself for the ceremony. Owners Guy and Rachel Evans also operate the adjoining Sunshine Farm and CSA, which is often the source of seasonal, organic produce for the wedding feast.

A newcomer this year to the local wedding scene is the laid-back Rio Vista Winery, a small-scale producer of estate wines owned by two retired teachers, which has the unique distinction of being the only winery on the banks of the Columbia River. If a barefoot beach wedding is your speed, bathing suits are considered perfectly acceptable party attire at this venue 10 minutes from Chelan. Weddings with 125 to 150 guests can be held in a grove of trees next to the tasting room with a view of the river, or on a grassy slope leading down to a long, sandy beach. Chairs set up here might be a bit wobbly, but a recent bride solved that problem by using straw bales instead. The best thing about the riverside location is the transportation options it presents—there’s nothing quite like a seaplane swooping down to spirit you and your beau away for making a dramatic exit to your next destination. 

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