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    Shadelands Ranch Museum

    4.7 (29 reviews)
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    Services - Shadelands Ranch Museum

    Venue rental

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    Recommended Reviews - Shadelands Ranch Museum

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    Janet S.

    We had our 150-ppl wedding here June 2022. This place is gorgeous!!! I found it on yelp and so glad I did. The grounds are beautiful and very well kept. I worked with Jackie the entire time and she was a pleasure to work with. I originally booked back in 2020, but with Covid had to move our date around to 2022.I wanted to have an outdoor wedding but didn't want to deal with a fixed vendor list. Luckily I found this place and was surprised on how affordable it was compared to other venues!! There is so much parking available behind the venue and the trees provided so much shade. There is also a cute dressing room on the porch that has a vanity, tall mirror, and clothing rack. They also provide tables/chairs and set them up for you! Fast forward to June 2022. It was a very HOT day and had some elderly family members attending the wedding. Although we had plenty of shade, Jackie offered to have the family members sit inside the Museum if needed. It was a very nice gesture. This place is truly beautiful and their staff is wonderful to work with. If you're looking for a beautiful outdoor venue without having to overspend, check this place out!

    Museum tour hours
    Shayla B.

    A total Walnut Creek gem! The Shadelands Museum is owned and operated by the Walnut Creek Historical society. The museum was once home to Walnut Creek Pioneer Hiram Penniman. The home was built in 1903, and here Penniman raised four children with his second wife, Carrie Morris. Many of the original furnishings and architecture can be found within the museum, along with donated replicas of popular items that were used in the early 1900's. The museum has been well maintained and each and every room has its' own piece of history. The kitchen is probably the only room in the entire house that has been modernized since it still used to prepare meals for weddings. In the back of the home, there's an old tank house dating back to 1902 that was used as a worker's cabin. You'll also see the beautiful altar that gets rented out for weddings. Museum tours are held twice a week on Sundays and Wednesday's from 1pm - 4pm from February to October. The tours are docent led and last about an hour. Admission fees are $3 for adults, $1 for children, and free for members. This small $3 fee helps to maintain the museum and offers support to The Walnut Creek historical society. Reservations are required for large groups. Photography is not allowed once inside of be museum, but unfortunately I didn't know this until after I had completed the tour (I'm sorry!). The docents are very passionate and informative. Phyllis was excellent and made the tour extremely enjoyable. If you're interested in learning about the history of Walnut Creek, I would absolutely recommend taking a tour!

    The Shadelands Ranch House was the perfect venue for our wedding. After issues with our original venue, and being a little over 2 months out from our wedding, Shadelands luckily had a cancellation for our wedding day and we were able to fully move over and have our wedding there. We worked with Jackie leading up to the wedding. She was so accommodating and helpful with trying to make our vision come to life. She allowed us to come see the venue a few times before the wedding to make sure we knew where everything would be and how it would look day of. They also provided all tables and chairs, and had everything set up before our allotted rental time. The venue itself is beautiful and has many trees, the gazebo, flowers, and the amazing house. The venue is fully outdoors and our wedding day was much hotter than expected for an October wedding. However, they allowed us to set up fans and a portable air conditioner in the bridal suite to help with the heat. They provided a venue coordinator who was there day of to make sure everything was set up correctly and taken down at the end of the night. They also had a pumpkin patch going on in front of the house that they redirected traffic for and gave all the kids at our wedding tickets to go get their own pumpkins. We were also able to go over there to take photos which was so fun! Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better venue and we loved working with Shadelands and their staff.

    Ann L.

    After doing a short hike in the area we decided to see what the Shadelands Ranch Museum was about. Since it was Sun we were able to visit it. It's $3 per adult, no AAA or Senior Discount - boo. We asked for the full tour and it was pretty long with lots of information about Hiram Penniman, his 5 kids, etc. NO Photos allowed inside - another boo. Inside is the living room, dining room, upstairs are four rooms & a bathroom. You can take all the pics you want outside though. Ask if you can get some oranges & lemons from their trees outside - we did and were allowed. That was nice. Hours: Wednesday & Sunday (tours offered) - 1 to 4 p.m. Closed late November through early February. Office hours: Mon-Thurs, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission: $3, adults; $1, students ages 6-17, free; children under 6 and WCHS members. Website: http://walnutcreekhistory.info/

    Cait R.

    We had our wedding here on April 29. It was as perfect as we could have ever imagined. The grounds were beautiful and the flowers were in full bloom. The venue fit our vision to a tee. Jackie was fantastic to work with and helped us every step of the way. She even helped us set up a "doomsday" plan in case of rain. Our guests loved the venue, with the touch of history and beauty of the gardens. All of our wedding photos turned out beautifully - with so many different options for backdrops.

    precious moment
    Kitty C.

    Great Site for Wedding Ceremony***** we were there 6/4/2011. we had a Great time!

    Rick rolled my wedding vows. Yeeeeee
    Dick S.

    I just had my wedding there, and they were amazing. Jackie was super helpful, they were flexible and allowed us to get in a little early, bring out tables and chairs when necessary and just pretty much do whatever we needed. To anyone considering an event in the Walnut Creek area, I would recommend this place with no reservations. It is gorgeous and requires very little decorating, the staff is amazing to work with, it is cost efficient (compared to the rest of the area, especially since there is no minimum time), and the trees offer shade and natural beauty. Check the place out, ask Rob and Jackie questions, everyone is awesome. Thank you to them.

    We had our wedding here & it was perfect. Affordable venue that allows you to make it your own & hire your own vendors. Beautiful for wedding photos if you're looking for a romantic garden wedding. I was nervous about the location on Ygnacio but it didn't bother me at all the day of.

    Picnic themed wedding
    may q.

    My husband and I got married here in June. Jackie helped us with the site. It was pretty easy and organized to work with Jackie. She was responsive to emails and professional. We enjoyed this beautiful garden and so did our guesses. We hosted 240 people here with no issues. We had a live band FYI: Beer and wine only for you events. You have to turn down the music around 10pm and really quiet down by 11pm.

    Perfect place for our outdoor wedding ceremony! It was beyond beautiful and all the workers were amazing . Highly recommend

    They had this table with nice, cold water and lemons to put in if you wanted.

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    Ask the Community - Shadelands Ranch Museum

    Do we still need to rent even if we just want to take pictures and no event, less than an hour? just like a picture of me with a dress but not an event

    You do not need to rent the space but please call the office to make sure that there is nothing else going on at the venue that would conflict with you coming to take pictures.

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

    Review Highlights - Shadelands Ranch Museum

    Although we had plenty of shade, Jackie offered to have the family members sit inside the Museum if needed.

    Mentioned in 7 reviews

    Read more highlights

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    From beginning to end, the staff that help and manage the venue went above and beyond to make sure…read morewe were fully taken care of to use the facility for our wedding. My husband and I picked this venue to have our ceremony and reception. We rented the garden, the fireplace room, and the reception hall for the day. Sarah Jackson worked with us in the very beginning. Sarah was very responsive and communicative with us. For arranged times for reviewing the venue, set up and rehearsal, I and my party were late. The team with the venue was very flexible and very patient with us. We also had an unfortunate untimely passing of a party member before the wedding. Sarah and her team were very willing to be flexible with us and allow us time to reschedule if needed. My husband and I decided to move forward with the event at our scheduled time. We also received assistance on the day of the event, Liz DeLaCampa, who was very helpful and was lovely to work with. She was very communicative and very willing to be helpful. A disclaimer for catering and food: The kitchen does not have a place to cook. However, this venue is ideal for working with a food truck vendor that has their own kitchen for cooking and preparing food (which is what we did for catering). The kitchen does have a lot of storage space as needed for dishes, cups storing desserts and floral as needed. What we really liked about this venue is a lot of the basic things needed for an event are available such as indoor and outdoor chairs as well as tables. The team here is wonderful and this venue is highly recommended for an event with a small to medium size party. Highly recommended and they have packages that are available (and very reasonable) for parts of the venue (garden area, fireplace room, reception hall or all of the above). Thank you to the team again who were so helpful, so kind and very thoughtful. We will keep you in mind for future events!

    Shadelands Ranch Museum - museums - Updated May 2026

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