What made us decide to open a wedding venue?

It was a bit by accident! We lived on 5 acres but wanted to be out in the country a bit more. We were looking for 20 acres and found this wonderful piece of property we (well actually I) fell in love with. The property was going up for auction to settle an estate and was in total disrepair. I convinced Jim to just go to the auction and see how things would go! At the end of the bidding we ended up with 83 acres (a far cry from 20) and a whole lot of work. I just kept saying “I have a vision for this property and I think it will be beautiful.” So the project began. The barn was starting to lean and hadn’t been cleaned out for 30 years. It needed a lot of tender loving care. We hired an amish builder to restore the barn. They saw my vision and wanted to help keep the barn as original as possible. The house was not habitable and had to be torn down. I really wanted to save as much of the original history as possible so we recycled the beams, stones, and headers from the old house and put them in our new house. The barn got a new floor and we put that gorgeous old barn floor in our house. The builders thought I was crazy! The property was settled in the 1830’s by a family looking for more land from Lancaster, PA. They traveled by wagon train to Ohio which was considered the wild west at that time. The land was farmed and used for coal mining back then. You can still see where the original train tracks were in the forest. There is a lot of great history in our area.

As time went on we continued to restore the property, dug the pond and created our own little oasis. Our friends really wanted a barn wedding and asked me if we would consider having the wedding in our barn. I jumped at the chance to help their dream come true and we started planning. We had so much fun at that wedding that I thought I really enjoy this! And that’s how it started.

Jim and I do the majority of the day to day maintenance. He loves to mow which is fantastic because I do not like to mow! I take care of the venue, flower gardens, creative areas etc. We do bribe family members when the projects are on the larger side! Our son Zack is at the top of that list! He was a teenager when we moved here and has helped with the entire restoration. He refers to us as “Wedding Farmers.” Our fields are farmed by the real farmers that know what they are doing! As you can see we are animal lovers and love when they get a chance to help with the weddings.