Chris & Christy's Wedding

 Chris and Christy are a vintage match made in heaven. This lovely couple incorporated unique elements (check out the amazing brooch bouquet!) into their wedding and truly made the day their own. Take a look at some of our favorite photos, taken by the talented Stephanie Olvera. Enjoy!

Getting creative at Hidden Valley!

As some of you might know, Hidden Valley is the perfect place for family reunions, church getaways, weddings and more. We recently had a group of girls from a church stay at our property for a few days in order to bond and explore together. All the girls participated in many different team-building activities and discovered Hidden Valley's numerous gardens, plants and trees. The group then came together to create hand painted, customized signs that are now placed around our property identifying different plant life. In the picture below you can see one of the girls holding her handmade sign titled, "Fiona's Enchanted Garden." Why not stop by and paint your own? We would love to have you add your creative flair to our gardens and other outdoor areas!

DIY elements at Hidden Valley

     At Hidden Valley you can personalize all aspects of your wedding! Our chalkboard signs add a DIY touch to your special day and allow your creativity to shine. These boards are also perfect for writing down your wedding menu, as a festive guest book, or even to display a special message to guests when they arrive. You can use these boards as directional signs to inform  guests of important locations on our property, too. Summon your imagination and use colored chalk to match your theme. These stand alone boards are the perfect addition to a wonderful wedding at Hidden Valley!

The Self Heal School Women's Retreat

We have so many wonderful groups staying at Hidden Valley this summer. If you haven't heard of the Self Heal School of Herbal Studies, now's your chance! This organization focuses on learning about plants, plant medicines, and other practices that can enhance a person's health and well being. We're very excited to have them staying with us in August! Read on for more information about this wonderful organization:

21st Annual Women’s Retreat

Since 1989 Self-Heal School has been hosting annual events inviting women to come together to share and celebrate women’s healing arts. This year’s retreat will take place August 10-12 at the former residence of the late healer and teacher, Doctor Bernard Jensen, in the secluded foothills of Escondido. This 11-acre garden paradise boasts a pool and Jacuzzi, gardens and fruit trees, waterfalls, shady groves, open vistas, comfortable quarters and beautiful expansive common areas for group activities. The retreat offers women a chance to relax and be nurtured, to heal their body, mind and heart, and to renew and rejuvenate. Six delicious vegetarian meals are served.

Arriving on Friday, women settle in their quarters and get comfortable, swim in the pool, soak in the Jacuzzi, or walk the garden paths. Women are offered the choice of several workshops in each of five workshop periods. Friday night teachers introduce themselves and the workshops they’ll be offering such as dancing, art, singing and music therapy, transpersonal psychology, nutrition, and herbal and energy healing. Some of the workshop titles include: Your Wonderful Womb; Stress - how to use it to strengthen yourself; Herb Walk Around the Ranch; Intro to Human Design - making decisions in alignment with your life plan; Sounding and Singing Meditation; Marriage and Family Therapy in a Bottle; Taking Care of our Energy Bodies; Developing Abundance Consciousness; Self-Journeying with Music Therapy; and Creating Magic Wands. Other activities include an Herbal Spa Saturday afternoon, a Talent Show Saturday night and a Barter Faire on Sunday morning.

Jane Richmond, retreat coordinator, chooses great teachers for their knowledge, experience and enlightened awareness. Women attending these events experience renewed spirit, joy, laughter, new friendships and transformation, as well as learning self-healing arts that they can use in their everyday life and share with others.

Cost: $345 assigned bed, $315 bring a cot or mat. Pay in full by July 27 to receive a $50 Early Bird discount.

Self-Heal School, owned and operated by John Finch and Jane Richmond, also offers classes and workshops in local plant identification, shamanism, herbal medicine-making and therapies, holistic nutrition, aromatherapy, energy healing, and holistic herbal clinic operation.

Sharlene & David's Wedding

 It's been a busy few months here at Hidden Valley, but we wanted to stop amidst the chaos and bring you some gorgeous wedding photos of Sharlene & David. This couple was a joy to work with from start to finish. Just check out the photo of them walking along one of our paths! Visit First & Orange to see more photos of the happy couple enjoying their day and slicing pizza from David's very own Pizza Wagon. Congratulations, Sharlene and David!

Our inspiration shoot and virtual tour

Sometimes it is difficult to visualize exactly where everything is located on our property, so we teamed up with Here Comes the Guide to create a virtual 360 degree tour of our grounds. We decided to stage our own inspiration shoot in order to help future brides create their own Eco-friendly, DIY wedding at our property.

  First thing's first: our wedding stage. We wanted to use simple decorations to accent the ceremony site, so we chose something inspired by summer. A yellow lace trim was tied to each chair down the aisle, as well as to the stairs at the wedding stage altar to define the aisle. The color combination of lemon yellow and olive green was used to enhance the natural setting and give a pop of color against the white chairs we placed on the lawn. Simple, yet sweet!

   Next stop: Reception! We placed round tables on each tier overlooking the wedding stage. Cream colored linens were accented with silver buckets, filled with lemons and cream colored tulle. We wanted a fresh and summery feel, so we had to have mason jars filled with lemonade at each place setting. Sliced lemons, along with red and white striped biodegradable paper straws, were placed in each mason jar for extra fun. To top it all off, deep-hued green napkins were trimmed with our aisle ribbon and a silk marigold carnation to finish the look.

   When nature is the focus of your big day, then Hippocrates Circle is the perfect location. Our towering oak trees make for a visually stunning ceremony space any time of the year. For this outdoor area, we chose to do simple decorations so as not to compete with the surrounding nature. A cream colored burlap runner marked the aisle leading to the stage and small bows decorated each bench down the aisle. Ikea lanterns created a border with soft, glowing light. We used LED lights in particular, so there would be no fire hazards in such a heavily wooded area.

  Overall, our sweet, country style transformed the space without drawing attention away from the natural state of the property. Eco-friendly products and DIY ideas made for a fun celebration without harming the environment. Be sure to view our virtual tour and see our ideas come to life!

All photos by: David Lenhert 

The Clickery Inspiration Shoot

Here at Hidden Valley, we love Clickery Photography! Katie and Zack truly know how to capture life's important moments. From brides to grooms and everything in between, Clickery is as professional as it gets.

   With great photos from Michelle's recent nuptials, it's no wonder brides keep flocking to use their services. It's great to have a duo such as these two because they capture every detail of your wedding. Katie can be present for bridal shots and time with the girls, while Zack can focus on the groomsmen. With such a large property, one photographer can easily feel overwhelmed. However, with Katie and Zack, you never have to worry about missing that amazing wedding photo.

  We clearly love Clickery and all that they do, so we decided to enlist their services for an inspiration shoot. They are extremely familiar with our 11 acre grounds which made them efficient and knowledgeable about where to get the best photos. The final product was absolutely gorgeous- sun setting, vast angles, and picture perfect scenery.

  Katie and Zack are truly masters of the lens. Take a look!