A Thirty-Seven-Guest Mountain Wedding at Twenty Mile House

A Mountain Ceremony in the Sierra Nevada Pines

The ceremony was outdoors on the grounds, under an arch of raw timber posts and a beam draped with white fabric, clusters of white and cream flowers and baby's breath tied at the corners. Tall Sierra pines stood close on every side. The thirty-seven guests took padded white chairs on the forest floor, and Alexis came in with flowers in her hands while Jas watched her the whole way down.

They said their vows with the pines behind them and the people who'd made the long drive up right there in the chairs, close in, no one far from the front. Twenty Mile House has been bringing people together on this ground for a long time — it opened in 1854 as a stagecoach stop on the run between Quincy and Beckwourth, and the estate still sits along the middle fork of the Feather River. The whole gathering fit on a small clearing inside two hundred acres of it.

“Thirty-seven people in the chairs, the forest behind them, and no one far from the front.”

Portraits Along the Feather River at Twenty Mile House

Afterward came the portraits, and the property gave them room to roam. Twenty Mile House still runs along the middle fork of the Feather River, with a creek, a small bridge, and a stretch of old railroad tracks cutting through the two hundred acres.

Alexis and Jas walked the grounds with the wedding party, then pulled everyone in for family photos before the light changed. With thirty-seven guests and that much land, the portraits covered ground — the bridge over the creek, the railroad tracks, the open meadow between the trees. The Plumas County light in July comes down through the pines at a long, warm angle late in the afternoon, and the property handed them all of it.

Dinner and Dancing on the Estate

Dinner was served under the trees, the tables set out on the estate lawn as the evening came down over the mountains. The food came from the estate's preferred catering partners, and the cake came from Grandma Jane's Place, a local bakery on the property's recommended list. Toasts went around, and the couple cut the cake with everyone pulled in close.

Then the first dance, and the floor opened from there. The music ran on and thirty-seven guests danced it out in the middle of the Sierra Nevada — a mountain wedding at Twenty Mile House held start to finish on one estate, from the ceremony chairs to the last song. With everyone sleeping in the cabins along the creek, no one watched the clock, and the night ran as late as the mountains allowed.