Weddingbee Blog

Warning: This post is photo heavy. I would apologize, but I’m too smitten with the subject.

Feeling frustrated from the not-so-fruitful venue hunt, I tabled the subject. The beginning of March rolled around. We had decided we were getting married in late October, and that was about it. We were down to seven months with no venue and, therefore, nothing else planned. I very casually started the hunt again online.

For the record, I had never before even considered looking around the northeast Georgia area. Granted, I practically grew up there. Hiked the trails, panned the rivers for garnets, fished the trout streams, and learned to drive on the very windy Highway 129. We camped for years, and my family ended up building a house up there when I was in middle school. It has definitely become a second home for me. But it was nowhere near the rocks where my fiance and I met! The horror! Yeah, I’m crazy. It’s beautiful up there and meaningful to me ’cause it is a take on the tradition of getting married in the bride’s hometown.

But honestly, I didn’t expect much. Like I said, I know that area. And besides wineries, which would be a little too highfalutin’ for our blood, there wouldn’t be much in the way of venues. Or so I thought. Cue tinkling bell sounds!

Image via PrintActivities

In came my fairy godmother on a tractor! The first venue to pop up when I Googled “cleveland, ga wedding venue” was a place called Neverland Farms. It sounded pretty (although people constantly think I’m getting married at MJ’s house) and every photographer’s pictures I could scrounge up from there were gorgeous.

Photography by Slava Slavik Photography

Photograph by W. Scott Chester Photography

Photograph by W. Scott Chester Photography

Photograph by W. Scott Chester Photography

Photograph by Kyle Hale

But I’d done this song and dance before. I needed to see it in person and get some deets. I got in contact with Suzy Tebor, the owner of the farm, on a Wednesday and had a meeting set up for the following Sunday. She warned me that the farm would be in “winter mode” but said that I should be able to get an idea of the venue anyway.

Knock me down and steal my teeth! It was amazing. “Winter mode” or not, I could’ve gotten married on the spot. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. These are all my personal photos from that first day.

Road going onto the property

Pre-ceremony barn. The boys will get ready in the hayloft up top. Ceremony site is just on the other side of this.

Dan’s Hall, also known as the reception barn

I was using my hoodie as a veil and hamming it up in front of the stick arbor.

One thing that I had mentioned before is that I wanted to build a stick arbor for us to use for our wedding ceremony, and here was this amazing venue that had one already in place. It was fate. Or something like it. Anywho, we got down to business and found out she only had one date left, November 5th. I was smitten and signed away. Shablam! We have a venue!