For many years prior to starting Milestone Events Group, the founders were deeply involved in the North Bay and Wine Country events community.

Leslie and Marshall Bauer owned the areas’ largest event rental company for a decade, until it was purchased by a group of investors who have now grown it into the largest event rental company in California.  While they managed this business, providing services for up to 200 parties per week during the season, it became obvious that the primary sites where they worked struggled with the process of producing events.  This was often the case, as most of these locations were wineries, and the primary business of wineries is making and selling wine. Events in many cases were an afterthought, or if not that, were often characterized with high event personnel turnover and a production process that focused on the convenience of the site personnel, not the client.

Following the sale of the company, and a much-needed long vacation, Marshall and Leslie Bauer were discussing could there be a better way to simplify the event planning process, for both the venue and client, while enhancing the overall experience and success of the event for all parties involved? They started to explore this idea and met with many colleagues in the industry to collect thoughts, data, and opinions.

One of these colleagues was Leslie Fravel. At that time, Leslie was the Director of Hospitality at a local winery where she was building a successful events program that the Bauer’s rental company served.  Prior to that, Leslie Fravel and The Bauer’s had worked together for over a decade as vendor / supplier and customer when Leslie held a position in sales/event coordination with one of the largest caterers in the North Bay. After many meetings and discussions, the group decided to build a business where the event client would come first.  Clients would be offered options, value, and service at a higher level than they could get through the existing method of venue search, selection, and event production.

In March of 2014, Milestone started operations.  In the years since, the Milestone team has grown and helped hundreds and hundreds of clients to not only find a site for their event, but more importantly, find the right site.  This has meant that clients have been able to keep within their budgets, enjoy a much less stressful planning experience, and create an excellent experience for themselves and their guests.  

The team at Milestone is proud of the overwhelming number of 5-star reviews that have been published by clients who have expressed how the Milestone approach and process made all of the difference in the success of their event.  The Milestone team looks forward to continuing to grow the network of venues in their portfolio and to host many more successful events in the future.