The Ranch at Little Hills

I was lucky to have been the wedding photographer at a wedding at the Ranch at Little Hills a few months ago and I the location makes really charming photos and the staff is second to none.
After having photographed more than 200 weddings in the Bay Area, I feel like I speak with some authority.
If you’re looking for a rustic, outdoorsy feeling wedding, this spot is really nice.

We had my daughter’s wedding venue at this place. It was a very successful event. We loved working with Marci and her staff. It was a really great experience. I highly recommend the Ranch at Little Hills.

I love this place! My company plans summer events here regularly. The food is very good. There are lots of games and activities for all ages. The staff is super friendly and they are even able to provide a golf cart for elderly visitors. Their bathrooms are clean. There is NO cell phone coverage… but honestly… this is a PLUS.

The venue is nice. The food was barely edible. Salad? Barely a couple of pieces of lettuce with something. «Creamy mashed potatoes» — NOT! Lumpy & smashed, it makes a blob on your plate. At least there was a little flavor. Chewy short ribs, although the flavor was okay. Polenta so salty it’d make you go blind (so to speak). Flavorless mixed rice. Bread rolls (can’t mess that up). Pasta with shrimp — no sauce, very sparse & little salad shrimp. A tiny chunk of chicken (or was that mystery meat). The dinner service was horrible, it took too long to transit the buffet line. I was told this was from the expensive menu option.

I had the pleasure of attending my moms work party here for Bridgelux. It took a while to get here from where we were coming from. This place seems as if it really is in the middle of no where in San Ramon. As soon as you reach the place, you automatically get the elementary school Science Camp feel.
You really do get the camp feel here, even when driving here you are mainly surrounded by all tall trees and it’s forestry like! When you finally arrive to, you see the sandy type parking lot remind you of Science Camp yet? Haha.
From the parking lot, there were no signs directing us where to from there. They should have had some signs saying Bridgelux Picnic enter here or this way, something like that. They didn’t have any signs…
The inside the place is really Science Campy like feel, it looks similar to the one I went to in Santa Cruz for 6^th Grade Science Camp. You cab see all the cambin like buidlings and get the real outdoor feel. This place has a few aminites to offer.
Swimmming Pool, Rock Wall Climbing, Archery, Dunk Tank, Fishing, Jump House, and other Sport and Recation Activites.
The food here could use some improvements, I’m not sure buit I don’t think the food is made on site, but it needs work in my opinion. They lable it as barbeque, but to me it doesn’t seem at all much barbeque.
They had Tri-​Tip and Barbeque Chicken (as they claimed). They also had some side dishes, such as cold noodle, bread with butter, salad, and hot dogs for the kids. They didn’t prepare anything for the vegetarians of the group, which i’m not sure if it’s the company’s fault for not telling them we had vegetarians, or them just not making any items for the vegetarians.
While, I liked the Tri-​Tip, the so called Barbeque Chicken was not good. It to me was dry, even though yeah it had Barbeque sauce, it was still sorta dry, but that’s just my opinion. They need to work on the Chicken to make it more juicer and just overall better. The italian noodles that were cold, had okay taste, but I would have prefered it rather to be served hot, warm and fresh rather than cold.
The drinks they were okay, they served alcoholic beverages, soda, lemonade, water and some sort of hot tea… they offered Pepsi from the dispenser, but they didn’t have Mountain Dew?!
The Ice Cream selection was kinda really small and sparse. They didn’t have a wide variety of Ice Cream to choose from and it’s not real Ice Cream either it’s the fake kind they sell at the Dollar Tree and 99 Cents store that you seen in a blue container with sliding doors… usually for a $ 1.
They had 2 kinds of Ice Cream Sandwiches (regular and Mississipi Mud Chocolate), Twin Pops (Cherry, Grape and Orange, Sundae Cone, Oragne Dream Bar, and Vanilla Bar. Very limited selection, when you go to the store, they offer way more, kinda odd that they only had that limited selection…
The staff and employees here were very friendly and helpful. They were also welcoming and assistful. They made sure everyone was having a good time and ran each event according to schedule and even earlier upon request for the dunk tank.
There are many, many and I say many flies, bugs and bugs all over the place! Too many if you ask me, but I guess we are outdoors so…
OH and lastly, no Wi-​Fi or phone service here, so you truely are outdoors with no social online life for a day! HA-​HA.

Just attended a school picnic, as a parent I would not want to bring my kids there, 1. The place is not safe, lots of bees. 2 staff are not friendly and not accommodating. 3. Swimming area is so crowded and rules are crazy, there is a 10 min wait every 1 hour, thought they will clean the area but no, plus lifeguards are not friendly, allowing kids to swim in the deep whatever they like, the test is a mess, they only want a freestyle swim (what if kids know diff swimming style than freestyle, they don’t want), the head of that lifeguards is inconsiderate. He does not need to work there.

From preliminary planning and contracting phases, to onsite execution, our Venue Coordinator, Becky Walker, and the supporting staff at The Ranch at Little Hills helped to create a truly memorable Company Picnic for our employees and their families. Their attention to detail, responsiveness, organization, communication, and overall capability, greatly eased any stress we may have had going in. Our company’s «return» to RLH after nearly 15 years, made for an exceptional experience! You can trust your event in the hands of the staff at RLH.

If you are looking for a very reasonably priced, all inclusive rustic venue with an awesome coordinator and super helpful staff, then this is it. (Caveat: our wedding was May of last year so rates may have increased just a tad bit).
Wedding planning is definitely not easy, but Lauren definitely made it a lot easier and less stressful. While she is The Ranch’s day-​of coordinator, she had 3 check in meetings with us leading up to the wedding and was always available via email/​phone. She and the staff took care of everything the day of our wedding. We didn’t have to check in on set up, nor did we have to clean/​pack or take stuff home with us after the wedding. They packed everything up nicely and stored it away for our friends to pick up the day after.
For a nominal fee, you can also have the staff help with various tasks (instead of doing it yourself, they will do it for you — loved this option as it relieved us of having to stress over additional details). They helped us string lights all around the gazebo area, set up and arrange decorations on the guest book table, dessert table, and s’mores table. You will receive a high level of professionalism and responsiveness, along with friendly and superb service.
We highly recommend The Ranch at Little Hills!

Lauren is simply the most amazing wedding coordinator ever! She is upbeat and positive, helpful and reassuring, friendly and professional. My husband and I were planning our wedding in the Bay Area remotely and couldn’t make appointments to see our vendors or venue to take of business as promptly as we’d liked. Lauren made sure to check in with us as decisions needed to be made and kept us on track. She asked all the necessary questions to guide our thought process and even made sure to get the wedding party’s names, including the parents and ushers. She also was a picture of calm and collected, even with so much happening all at once. She made the experience extremely personal, even though she probably plans a crazy number of weddings a year!
Since this venue is a regional park, it is wrought with beautiful nature. Our photographer was nice enough to scope out the perfect area for our wedding portraits beforehand. Otherwise, I think we would’ve been hard-​pressed to find them within the time limits of our rental agreement. The areas we did find, however, are absolutely stunning! The parents kept commenting on how the backgrounds in our portraits were so green and gorgeous that it looked crafted. (They were not.)
The staff here is wonderful as well. Lauren snuck us in to the tented area during an event one night to give us a tasting of the Ranch’s menu offerings. We were greeted by just about everyone, though they were in the middle of running glasses back and forth and refilling the lemonade and water. They made sure to check in on us occasionally, giving us time to mull over our thoughts about the dishes but keeping our glasses filled with the beverage of our choice. On our big day, they were in good spirits and greeted everyone with smiles!
The bridal area was quite nice, but ideal for no more than 4 or 5 people. The décor is simple and pretty, and there are three changing rooms available for the girls to change. It is connected with the women’s restroom, which the guests use, so it can be a little tricky to avoid people. The groom’s area, though, is less impressive: it seemed to be a long trailer-​type container with only one entrance. Unfortunately, our July wedding fell on the hottest day of the year, so neither rooms were ideal to get ready in. Oh well.
The only downside to this venue is that it’s used for company picnics and retreats as well. That means there are picnic tables with plastic tablecloths in plain sight, which are an eyesore only if you scrutinize. I’m quite sure the guests from our wedding didn’t even notice.

I had my wedding here on Saturday June 7^th, 2014. From beginning to end, it was an amazing experience. The wedding site is beautiful and the food was delicious. The customizable layout was a huge plus for my husband and I — as we wanted to incorporate the wedding theme in various areas.
In addition to everything this venue had to offer, I would have to say that we were most pleased with our time working with the site’s wedding coordinator Lauren Maser. Lauren is absolutely AMAZING. She promptly responded to all of my emails (I had a ton), ensured our order with Pleasanton Rentals met our expectations, and made sure we felt comfortable through the entire planning process of our wedding. Lauren is a true professional who hands down made our experience with The Ranch at Little Hills an unforgettable one.

We had our wedding ceremony and reception here, and I would not choose a different place for it. The grounds were gorgeous. The staff is friendly and willing to help (however you do have to remind them a few times about things because they often forget). They seem to be very busy, which makes timing a bit busy at times. My guests had a wonderful time and many told me that they thought the grounds were gorgeous and that it was one of the best (if not the best) weddings they’d ever been to. Thank you RLH!

I shot a wedding at Little Hills on July 11, 2014. I can’t find words to describe how perfect this day was. Lauren the coordinator is an absolute gem! She reached out to me a few times before the wedding to invite me to preview the venue, which I thought was a nice gesture. During the rehearsal, she added her input on tiny but important details, such as how the groom should hold the bride’s hand as he puts her ring on her finger. As other posters have noted, Lauren is calm, happy and super helpful! Her staff is no different. Every single person was courteous and interested in how they could help. All smiles! And the food! It’s not easy to feed over 100 people and keep the food tasty, fresh, and the right temperature but their caterer did. The tri-​tip was juicy and tender, and the salmon was tasty. The coffee was just right too! :)
If you want a quaint location with a five-​star staff, this is a location you should definitely consider The Ranch at Little Hills.

We had our wedding here last month (May 17, 2014). This was the perfect venue for our wedding of 125. The campus is beautiful! We chose to have our ceremony under the awning, which was absolutely perfect. There’s so much greenery that we didn’t need too many extra decorations. The reception on the deck was wonderful, too. Food was delicious. (Many guests complimented the food. We had the hummus spread and veggies, salmon and tri-​tip, mashed potatoes and little gem salad.) The bridal room was small, but totally perfect for me and my 4 bridesmaids. The groom’s room was a bit weird (in a trailer, I think), but the guys didn’t spend much time in there and didn’t seem to care at all.
Lauren, our wedding planner, was absolutely perfect. I didn’t think we needed a wedding planner, but I was so HAPPY we worked with Lauren. She is professional and so efficient. After meetings, she was prompt with emailing the discussed topics and she responded to questions we had throughout the planning process quickly and accurately. The day of the wedding, she was great behind the scenes, but definitely knows how to run a smooth wedding. Also, Lauren is so excited about weddings; after each meeting, we felt so confident that our wedding was going to be perfect because she was so enthusiastic and paid attention to details. We loved working with her!
Many, many guests complimented us during and after the wedding, saying that it was one of the best weddings they’ve ever attended. Our guests were happy. We were happy. We love The Ranch at Little Hills.

We had our Company’s picnic here this past weekend and it was really nice!
The staff was very friendly.
The pool was clean and big.
The grounds were very well kept.
The food was tasty.
Plenty of parking.
Overall, it was a very fun experience!

My husband and I just got married at Little Hills Ranch this October. I cannot rave enough about the incredible service and professionalism we received from the wedding planning staff! They were easy to plan with and the wedding day went smoothly and just as we had discussed. Not only was the food wonderful, but my family and guests were impressed by the ambience of the romantic setting tucked away in the woods as well. We were thrilled with everything, and I would give a 10 star rating if I could!

This review is for a company picnic event on 8÷18÷13 for about 100 people.
First off, everything went smooth as can be, even with my back and forth and about date, and number of guests.
I’m really impressed with Vanessa our event planner, she always made herself available to answer any questions, and was more than accommodating to our group.
We had a few special requests, and all of them were met with ease, I really didn’t have to do anything. Our picnic site was clean, covered from the sun, right next to the pool, swings, and live music. All the activities were a short wait and the clown/​magician/​entertainer was great as well!
We will probably be doing the same event next year with a larger group!
THANKS AGAIN!

We just had our wedding and reception here on 6÷29÷13 and it was everything we could’ve asked for! Vanessa, the coordinator, was amazing and met with us multiple times before the big day to make sure everything went smoothly.
The venue grounds are huge (and gorgeous!) and there are a ton of areas for great pictures :) There is a small bridal room that was perfect to hold our stuff and put some last minute touches on. The ONLY downside was the room didn’t have A/​C and we happened to get married on one of the hottest days of the year so far!
Vanessa and her staff set everything up exactly how I pictured it and were incredibly attentive all day. They helped keep us on schedule without making us feel rushed all day.
The food was amazing — we had salmon and steak, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and 2 salads… yum!
Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better venue or staff to help with our wedding!

As another member stated in a previous review, there were a lot of bees there but to their credit, it is difficult problem to control — and they try by setting traps.
Food — the chicken was cold, the tri-​tip was ok, and just ok, the sides were good.
Location is very nice. It is a large property and a very enjoyable drive getting there.
So my review weighs heavily on the food and it was disappointing to have been served cold chicken after only standing in line about 5 minutes. I think they just need to work on their food service and they’ll be ok.

Attended a company event here today. This is a great space, plenty of different picnic areas (some sheltered), horseshoe pits, volleyball, lots of grassy open spaces and a pool. There are several little trails leading up the hills to different areas. The food was great… I had the BBQ chicken, a spinach salad and pesto pasta salad. All very tasty. They also offered chips/​dip, fruit, crackers and cheese plates later in the afternoon. All of the staff there were really friendly too. Oh, and the restrooms were very clean. However, absolutely no cell coverage… which can be a refreshing break.
I’d definitely consider this as a venue if you’re looking to host an event.

We just got married here on 10÷20÷12 and we loved everything about it. The outdoorsy feel was perfect, and we had hanging lights and candles everywhere. The food was fantastic, Vanessa the coordinator was so helpful and accommodating, and it was the exact wedding we had hoped for.
We originally wanted a small, backyard wedding, but since the small part couldn’t happen, the backyard part was out of the question. The Ranch at Little Hills created the ambiance we originally wanted, while accommodating our larger party.
If you love nature, and the beauty it creates, then this is the wedding venue for you! We highly suggest night time receptions, because there is no replacement for dancing the night away under the stars!