The barn wedding venue has become the norm – the latest “craze” and is no longer the “outside the box” wedding option. But it wasn’t that way and not so many years ago. In fact, my daughter Jill, who got married here at the farm 14 years ago was certainly more of a trailblazer as she announced her wedding plans. I am sure that she was not the first “farm wedding” but it was virtually unheard of. The internet was around back then but you had to scrounge around to find any sort of picture. The only pictures that we ever saw were where they used a small barn more as a backdrop or prop rather than a ceremony or reception area. Jill’s reasoning was to have her wedding in a way asto reflect her and her upbringing. Anybody who knew Jill knew that she was a farm girl – a country girl who loved the land. Beyond that, she envisioned ways to make the logistics work and I give her great credit for her “out of the box” ideas.
Jill found great balance in embracing the rustic farm (and it wasn’t a converted barn at this point) but infusing those touches of vintage elegance which at the time – weren’t being blended. She altered her mother-in-law to be’s wedding gown in order to make it her own; she made her own bouquets for a farm wildflower look; the groom/groomsmen were in seer-sucker suits and Chacos; we collected mismatched vintage china plates and use floor-length white linens for the tables to dress up the barn; we hung lights and curtains in the barn; we had fresh straw on the floor; we had candles for additional lighting; and the reception was both in and out of the barn with a bluegrass band playing throughout the evening.
We were not even imagining becoming a venue at this point but in making a memorable event for Jill. It was memorable and very unique. Friends of Jill borrowed her wedding photo book on a continual basis for over a year as they were in awe of this very unusual wedding and shared it with so many of their friends. It was from this unusual behavior that first made us go “hmmmm” in thinking that maybe – one day – we should host “a few” weddings.
Just recently, I shared some of our favorite pictures from our earlier years – weddings from 2011 and 2014. So many of these photos are timeless. I still credit these early brides for having their wedding here when even then – it was a mostly unheard of wedding location. I can remember giving tours in those early years where the brides were all gung-ho to have their wedding here – but their mother’s had nothing heard or imagined such an event. They would come and question the idea of it all – thinking that their daughter was wanting a “honkey-tonk country/western” type wedding….which of course – was NOT the case most of the time. Once here – they would see our place – our pictures – and some of the canvas’s on our walls of other brides where they we see this vintage elegance of the weddings…..pictures like these:
Once their mother’s caught on to this new vision of how the wedding will be, then they were relieved and ready to support. Even so, I give great credit to our early brides who bucked the traditional system and ventured into a new look for their wedding day. We were much simpler then but here is a sampling of some of those early weddings – 2011 through 2014.
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- Crimson
~ Margie