Our 2022 wedding season opened this weekend. This year begins our 12th season.
The picture above was of our very first wedding in 2011. So much has changed but so much is the same.
First – the “way we were.”
While the ceremonies are still predominantly held outside,
the walking path to the ceremony is now
all a concrete and stone pathway. Our benches are a permanent fixture
which blends better to the atmosphere of the grove.
No more need to haul chairs outside and then back inside.
Brides and grooms would venture off further away from the barn to take romantic photos.
Receptions were inside the barn on rented tables. “Rustic wedding”
had just been introduced and we were certainly that.
Floors were cedar shavings. Cake was on a haywagon. Open-air barn, we were.
Dancing was out in the middle of the barn surrounded by tables.
Old barn stalls and walls surrounded the inside spaces and even haybales in the hayloft remained.
Now – after 11 years of transforming year after year,
……….the way we are now.
At first, we had no place for the bride to prep ahead of time. She came to the farm all dressed and ready to go.
Then, we gave them a room in the front of the farmhouse to do their prepping while Jill and her family were living in the rest of the farmhouse.
Now, they get the farmhouse all to themselves.
The guys at first had no place to change. Eventually we made a room
in the Milkhouse for them and called it the Man Cave.
That was pretty rustic though the guys did seem to like it.
Now, they have much more space and class in our Mimi Guest House.
The weddings are still outside predominantly, but the pathway to the ceremony is a stoned pathway.
Trees and bushes surround the ceremony area. Permanent benches replace
the folding chairs. Cafe’ lights are hung around the ceremony area.
Cocktail hour is still outside but often out in converted “horse-ring” where we have the bonfire pit.
Guest now will play cornhole and feed the goats and often get
a personalized “goat visit” to keep them entertained a bit beyond the food and beverages.
The bride and groom still venture off beyond the barn area for those romantic photos.
Even our infamous “Tree Tunnel” has improved over the years. We cleared out the weeds
and debris but left the ambiance of the tree lined pathway.
In fact, they go many more places on the farm for special photos.
Receptions are still in the barn with the rustic wood surrounding the inside.
Many of those boards are original to the barn and still remain.
We even have left some of the hay stacked in the hayloft to keep that authentic vibe.
We have beautiful farmhouse tables and this year we have added wood cross-back chairs.
We have insulated the barn and closed up all of the doorways so that we can enjoy
the heating and air-conditioning, yet from the outside, those cool trolley doors remain.
We have morphed from a classic rustic venue to a rustic-chic venue – keeping the charm of our old original barn
but updating her to accommodate that touch of elegance and modernization to keep up with the times.
The cake table is often this spool table. Our floors are a beautiful stained concrete.
The dancehall was added after the second year and has been a hit ever since.
We have spruced up and improved every outbuilding on the property.
Even our old Milkhouse that use to be a plain-Jane masonry building has turned out to be
one of our most popular photo ops with its beautiful vines growing on it.
We built a greenhouse on the end of the Milkhouse and it too has become one of our favorite photo ops.
Our garden areas grew more and more places. We began growing more flowers than vegetables.
Our dahlia production increased. We began planting purposefully in all areas of the venue
to keep up with the demands of our brides who wanted fresh florals for their bouquets and for our decorating packages.
Our blooms have ever increased. We have been recognized through
the Georgia Department of Agriculture to be a bonafide
flower and goat farm and deemed part of their Georgia “Agri-Tourism.” Woohoo!
We began providing lodging options many years ago.
Due to its popularity, we began offering a two-day package
that included the Rehearsal Dinner Event on Friday with the Wedding Event on Saturday
plus lodging on-site in two houses for two nights. Now, most of our weddings are these two day events.
With the popularity of the lodging, we built a treehouse for our honeymooners several years ago.
What’s not to love about that. Most of our couples now stay honeymoon night here on the farm.
We use to offer no extra services or rentals. As we got our footings that first year
and discovered that this “wedding business thing” wasn’t going to be 3-4 a year like we thought
but an actual business – we began agreeing to brides requests.
Could you do this or that? Could you rent this or that?
So from vintage china to decorating packages to bouquet creations to bonfires
to horse photos to goat visits to vintage couches to Day of Coordinator and more and more.
We offer what we know and what we are good at but draw the line to all of those others.
We still allow vendor choices to give some control of visions/budget for our brides
though it would be more convenient for us to do otherwise.
So I’d like tot think that even if our first couple, Brian and Janelle, came back to visit the farm,
that it would be a trip that felt vey dejavue-ish….where so much of it was different
but somehow much the same. We hope that every step along this journey we have been on since 2011,
that we have kept to our original roots and heritage. That we have kept the best of the ambiance of our authentic barn
while doing all of our updates and improvements. That we still feel like a family farm first
and foremost and that in our accommodations of transformations, that we feel still real and true.
We are not run by a corporation but still by family and staff that has been more or less adopted.
We still welcome you to our farm to enjoy this splice of heaven at High Point.
~ Margie