Our Vineyard Wedding Site Location

Rough and Ready Vineyards is located in historic Nevada County, in the Northern California Foothills. Couples choosing our vineyard wedding site are often looking for something rustic or a wedding barn feel. There are few outdoor wedding spots privately owned in Nevada County, so booking early is important.

We are squarely between the towns of Rough & Ready, Penn Valley, and Lake Wildwood, although the post office says we are in Rough & Ready. These areas are known for their country roads, beautiful oak trees, green meadows, and access to the South Yuba River, a popular site for swimming and sunning.

We are just 20 minutes from both Grass Valley and Nevada City, and 30 minutes from Yuba City and Marysville. All of these towns have many shops and restaurants, breweries and wineries, and plenty of activities to keep all of your guests who may be traveling entertained! There is an abundance of lodging including hotels, bed and breakfasts, and vacation rentals.

If you have guests who will be flying in, Sacramento International Airport is the nearest commercial airport. From the airport, they can be at the wedding site in about an hour. Those with private planes can usually fly into the airport in Grass Valley. Further out, the Reno airport is about two hours away and both San Francisco and Oakland are three hours’ drive time.

Day trippers love Nevada County because of our proximity to Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, and Truckee – not much more than an hour in any direction! We also have six lakes with boat and public access within about 45 minutes. If you’ve never spent time in our county, we would love to share it with you!

For wedding guests, we often hear how wonderful and relaxing our wedding spot is. In fact, many believe it is “one of the best places to get married in Nevada County!” Your vendors will find set-up a breeze! We’ve had most all of the wedding vendors in Nevada County at our wedding site over the years, and are happy to welcome those that you’ve selected, even if they are from out of the area.

If you are new to our area, we’ve got a whole list of more ideas for a Northern California destination wedding.

We’d love the chance to talk by phone with you or give you a free tour of our beautiful vineyard wedding site!

About the Town of Rough & Ready, California

Nevada County is full of rich California history, and we do mean rich! The richest mine in California, the Empire Mine, is located just about 10 minutes away. So about 175 years ago, the entire area had gold fever!

Nearby Rough and Ready was a mining town, founded by a group of prospectors from Wisconsin. They called themselves The Rough & Ready Mining Company, taking the nickname of General Zachary Taylor, “Old Rough and Ready”. They established their camp and began a lucrative placer gold mining operation.

In April of 1850, they decided to secede from the Union, forming the “Great Republic of Rough & Ready”. Their goal was to avoid taxes that had been assessed on mines. About three months later, in the midst of preparing for Independence Day celebrations, they realized that they could no longer celebrate the 4th of July since they were not a part of the United States. The miners quickly held a vote and rejoined the Union, and the party continued!

Today, the town is sparsely populated, but a few old buildings remain. Nearby Penn Valley, once considered the “Western Gateway and Pantry to the Northern Mines”, has more shops and stores for visitors traveling this way. The rich farmland that during the 1800’s grew crops and supported livestock now produces grapes for the many area wineries, including ours!