The Lumen House Story

Britt tells the story of The Lumen House in long form for the first time: how a career selling new construction homes, then developer finance, then boutique hotels and spas, turned into a wedding venue outside Charlotte with a greenhouse at the center of it. Check your date at The Lumen House: https://thelumenhouseevents.com/inquiry?utm_source=bridal-bff&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=season-1&utm_content=ep01 CHAPTERS 00:00 Why couples always ask "why did you build this?" 01:47 Selling new construction homes out of college 04:06 Pivoting into boutique hotels and spas 06:16 Designing so a five hour reception isn't one room 07:09 Her first house, and Charlotte's third Airbnb 09:08 A hammock, a skydiving field, and the greenhouse idea 10:43 Meeting Jonathan and deciding it was now or never 11:59 Two years hunting for land with no power lines 13:05 Why banks decide what buildings look like 14:54 The greenhouse never appraised 15:36 "Oh, like a barn?" 19:22 Building a business with your husband 21:41 The arches everyone told her not to do 23:10 What still scares her 25:05 Why the drive is the point 27:34 How to choose when you're touring five venues 30:03 The moment in a wedding day that gets her every time 31:56 If you're on the fence She and venue manager Mikayla Tate get into meeting Jonathan, the two years they spent hunting for land with no power lines running through it, and the fight to keep the greenhouse and the arches when everyone kept asking whether she was building a barn. --- Bridal BFF comes from The Lumen House, a wedding venue just outside Charlotte. Each week, owner Britt Loukos and some of the top experts in the wedding industry tell you what they'd tell a friend over coffee: how the money works, what to ask before you sign anything, and the parts of planning nobody warns you about. New episodes every Wednesday. thelumenhouseevents.com Instagram: @thelumenhouseevents #charlottewedding #northcarolinawedding #weddingvenue #weddingplanning #engaged

What is Bridal BFF?

Bridal BFF comes from The Lumen House, a wedding venue just outside Charlotte, so we've had a front row seat to a whole lot of wedding planning. Each week, owner Britt Loukos and some of the top experts in the wedding industry tell you what they'd tell a friend over coffee: how the money works, what to ask before you sign anything, and the parts of planning nobody warns you about. No gatekeeping, no sugarcoating, just real answers from people who do this every day.

Britt: 00:00

I'm always so surprised at how frequently when I am here and I'm giving a tour and couples find out that I'm a founder. Yeah. The questions naturally start happening because it is I feel it's it is hard to talk about because it feels really vain to talk about, like, my own vision, but

Mikayla: 00:23

Mhmm.

Britt: 00:25

It's a little bit unique and the location is unique. And I think that people can't help but ask why. Like, they're naturally curious.

Mikayla: 00:32

Mhmm. Yeah.

Britt: 00:33

And so, yeah, I figured

Mikayla: 00:36

Here we are.

Britt: 00:37

Today, we could talk a little bit about it and answer a lot of those questions. And I get to meet a lot of our couples, but certainly not every single one. And I've never put it in a Yeah. Concise long form thought before. So it might even be a little cathartic, to be honest.

Mikayla: 00:57

Absolutely. Yeah. I think kind of to your point, everyone is naturally curious and wants to feel a human on the other side of even a brick and mortar building. And so I think this is like an opportunity for you to connect with couples who get married here, who might not get married here. And at least they know that there is like such heart behind the space.

Mikayla: 01:22

So Thank you. Well, we can jump right in. Yeah.

Britt: 01:27

And you can ask, you can just go through

Mikayla: 01:30

them all and all. Perfect. Amazing. So, Britt, before The Lumen House, you spent years building spaces for other people. Take us back.

Mikayla: 01:41

What was that work that you did? I

Britt: 01:47

feel really blessed because I do feel like I've had a long career now all in one industry, and I can see the way that each of those, like, pieces that I've learned ultimately birthed at The Lumen House. My first job out of college was selling new construction homes, And it was during a time when the real estate market wasn't great. And that out the gate gave me so many ideas on how to be creative and like how to market. Cause I worked for a company that again, like just people were not buying new construction homes at the time. And it was very much like a sink or swim kind of situation.

Britt: 02:30

And also to be like so young, early grad, had never bought a house myself trying to tell other what appeared to be full grown adults to me how to buy a house. And I never really like meant to go into real estate. The economy wasn't good. I had no choice. Like that was the job I was offered.

Britt: 02:48

And I was like, well, I need to work, so I'm gonna take it. And I was surprised at how much I ended up just like falling in love with buildings. The building process, the way that we were creating homes for people, like they would call it their forever house. And I just like felt so tied to people. And I didn't really have a lot of direction before taking that job.

Britt: 03:13

But within a couple of months, felt very clear of I'm just always going to be building places. That's my thing. I also learned that I wasn't just like anyone early on in their career. I'm like, I can't. I'm not the one that's making a lot of the decisions and the boots on the ground.

Britt: 03:32

But I don't have the tenure right now to for anyone to care what I think and for the bigwigs who come from corporate once a quarter to like really hear what I'm trying to say. So I ended up going back to school and I have my master's degree in real estate. And then that's when I realized that I really wanted to take more of like the finance route. Started going down that path working for developers in finance and ultimately ended up pivoting just to hospitality. And that was in 2018.

Britt: 04:06

So started working on boutique hotels, golf courses, spas, got to do some really fun products. I now I can see, like, all of these little pieces coming together and learning. Like, we do so much in marketing, and I think back to pounding the pavement, selling houses. And we use a lot of those strategies that I kinda just had to figure out. Like, when we look at floor plans, I used to have to make my own floor plans because we didn't have the ability to do it with this new construction home builder.

Britt: 04:41

Like now we're doing that. Right. Yeah. And I think that's really fun.

Mikayla: 04:46

Yeah. That's awesome. So what did designing resorts and boutique hotels teach you about like what makes a space work with people inside of it and how that flow happens?

Britt: 05:02

Yeah, that actually impacted a lot

Mikayla: 05:04

of how

Britt: 05:06

we designed The Lumen House. So, and again, like thinking about how we're we're going to use scale and how we can open up different spaces, but also shrink spaces, depending on the size. And we talk all the time about like not being in a ballroom, but there's also a sense where even and not necessarily boutique hotels, but like large convention centers even do things like that. And you and I have been working together for a long time. I am so curious about everything.

Britt: 05:35

And like, I don't walk by something and be like, Okay, how do I implement that for the better or for the worse? You know, I find a lot of things really interesting and fun, and I want to tag along to that. On the other side of that, I can be just as quick to be critical, but it's always just trying to learn as much as I can and be a sponge as much as I can to, like, everything around me. And so also looking at hotels, like one of the projects that we were doing was adding a spa to a hotel. And that hotel was also in the middle of nowhere.

Britt: 06:16

So it was like, well, how do we keep people moving through a space across a long amount of time? And you can also even see that here. So a receptionist for five hours. And I think it would be so lame just to have reception hall for five hours. And that's when we started looking at, well, let's add the mini courtyard.

Britt: 06:32

Let's add a cattle experience in. And then the fireplaces in and just these little moments because I find myself when I'm on vacation myself and my husband's an introvert, I find myself looking for those quiet corners of a space. And so all of those things kind of impacted our design.

Mikayla: 06:53

Yeah, Absolutely. Would you say that there was a specific moment that made you think that you wanted to build something on your own and not for someone else, not for these hotels, these resorts? What was that pivotal moment like?

Britt: 07:09

Yeah, I think that I have been building for a long time because I'm naturally a dreamer and probably a little bit on the entrepreneurial side. So I bought my first house within like three months of starting to work. And it was so interesting because I got so much pushback from everyone when I bought it of like, you're too young and like also so lame because everybody else is living in Southend which is like a pool part in Charlotte where all my friends were living. And like, I could only afford like $112,000 house in Matthews, which is like forty minutes from everyone. And it like wasn't that cool or that glamorous.

Britt: 07:48

And it didn't have a pool like all of the hotels or the apartments did in South And Bend and stuff like I've just always kind of gone against the grain and not really cared, rented that house out. And I another, like, random thing is I do feel like I have a lot of grit, and I can wait a really, really long time for, like, an outcome, and it doesn't really bother me. And so started renting that house out, and I knew, like, if I can just buy one house a year, like, this is going be really cool. Well, fast forward just a few years after that, I heard about Airbnb, and there were two other Airbnbs in Charlotte, and that was it. I was the third unit to have, like, an Airbnb in Charlotte.

Britt: 08:35

And, you know, today, I don't know if I necessarily personally identify that much with that platform. But at the time when it was the Wild West and there was so much like learning and growing and like all of those peer to peer apps were like getting really popular, that was really fun for me. And I did those things all at the same time while having a corporate job. And so I was slowly starting to wade or I was slowly starting to dip my toe into entrepreneurship Mhmm. And owning my own business.

Britt: 09:08

I met my husband, and at the time, he was a professional skydiver. And he would have to practice every weekend, and he would have to do like 12 or 14 skydives. And so he would be up and down and up and down in the airplane. And I would set up like one of those Eno hammocks, and I would lay out in the Eno hammock and watch him come down. And I remember thinking at that point, so like now context, I am working in like boutique hotel development.

Britt: 09:36

And I'm sitting by myself in this hammock like all day. And I thought even then to myself, like, it would be so cool to have a greenhouse to have like this glass enclosure. And at the time, I was like, I wish that there was like a pizza oven in here and like a brewery. And then all of these other people could sit and watch skydivers land. It was kinda cool.

Mikayla: 09:58

Yeah. It is really cool.

Britt: 09:59

And the Whitewater Center was here. And I was like, in my mind, this is all just, like, completely just made up dreams. And I was like, man, people like watching rafters at Whitewater Center. What if they did something like that at a skydiving place? And that was like the first time that I had the thought of the greenhouse.

Britt: 10:19

So this is like 2017 now. And then but again, I think it's like so interesting how you have all these little

Mikayla: 10:28

moments. Moments. Yeah. Yeah.

Britt: 10:30

Where one little piece is revealed to you, but you don't know the full picture until you're like sitting in it. Yeah. Which is really cool. Yeah. But then ended up marrying Jonathan, which is really fun.

Britt: 10:43

And then he's also a dreamer. Lot of dreams in our house. And we started talking about, like, how we could Mhmm. Build something that was really special that also kind of focused on family because you just you know, you get married and you start having kids, and it's like, man, I really wanna be at home with the kids. We were both working a lot, traveling a lot for work, and it kind of hit us of like, this is the time.

Britt: 11:14

Like, it's kind of now or never. We can't keep going down this road where we're working all the time for other people, have a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of ideas that keep getting like stifled. And I'm not even able to practice any of that creativity. Like I have all of it and I'm like ready to give it to this other business, but it's not really being received at all. And I can stay here, but I could like feel myself like shrinking.

Britt: 11:41

So cliche to say, but true. And then our kids were being watched by other people, which was like never really part of the dream. And so we thought, let's just do something small. And we were originally like, just going to start with the greenhouse. Like, let's just do the greenhouse and the bathrooms and like, we'll do everything else later.

Britt: 11:59

And my husband does not work that way. He's very much like, go big or go home. So we did it. We searched for the land for probably like two years. And one of the things we were really passionate about was not having power lines and finding 50 contiguous acres in North Charlotte with no power lines because the Duke Energy plant's really close to here.

Britt: 12:23

So to have no power lines, no easements was really difficult. And we finally found this one.

Mikayla: 12:29

Yeah, that's amazing. So when you and Jonathan got married, started imagining the Lumen House, I'm sure you guys thought through like what this venue could be. Maybe it wasn't even an events venue. Maybe it was something along the lines of the skydiving dream that you had. What did the process look like when you were looking at other spaces that kind of maybe mimicked what you wanted to dream up or had details that you wanted to include.

Mikayla: 13:05

And what did you find missing that you so wish would have been

Britt: 13:11

Pretty an much my whole development career, I was always so frustrated with the way that banks would dictate design. Mhmm. We read a lot about it in, like, the blogs about Charlotte development and how they all look the same and how developers need to be more creative. And I can tell you, like, every developer wishes they were allowed to

Mikayla: 13:35

be creative.

Britt: 13:36

Right. And Yeah. They don't get that shot because it looks risky. It's so much easier to build exactly what's next door. Change five or 10% of it, maybe like change the window package a little bit.

Britt: 13:50

And instead of having, you know, like two window panes, it has six. Like, wow, so innovative. And like, that's all the wiggle room that they're really given, especially when they have to answer to some of these, like, big corporations. And I found myself working for corporate developers and also feeling that. And I think that this is amazing.

Britt: 14:09

So I'm answering your question. Okay. And so when you're looking at what's missing, just built environment in general. I wanted to try to be as free as possible. As silly as that sounds, I, like, really wanted to leave design first.

Britt: 14:24

And I knew that I was going to be up against like a huge, like rolling a huge rock up a mountain. And I knew that I was going to pick that path and it was gonna be like really treacherous and really hard, but that the clients would appreciate it once it was ultimately built. Yeah. And I think that we do find it. Like, even with the greenhouse, you know, we were told no so much because it's very impractical to get the greenhouse to I mean, it doesn't.

Britt: 14:54

The greenhouse never appraised. And naturally, that for the rest of the stakeholders makes them feel really unsure. But like, I also know that the greenhouse is probably one of the reasons that we're the most successful. I would have made it bigger if I could have used as much glass as I could afford at the time, to be honest. And I think that I pulled a lot of, like, cool inspiration from other places, which I'm always doing, and then also looking at I don't want it to look like everywhere else.

Britt: 15:36

Yeah. And I also would get asked all the time, and there's nothing wrong with barns. But like, before we even built this, and I would tell people like, oh, so I quit my job, but the venue wasn't built yet. And that was almost like a two and a half year period that it took me to, like, even get the doors open. And so during that time, if people would ask me what I was doing, I would say, I'm building a wedding venue, even though I, like, hadn't pushed an inch of dirt around yet.

Britt: 16:04

And they would be like, oh, like a barn. They'd say, oh, like a glasshouse. And now glasshouses are cool. But, like, when we bought the land in 2022, I think that I saw one in Bali one time on Pinterest. I don't even know if

Mikayla: 16:18

it was real.

Britt: 16:19

I just went like an ad. Right. Right. And I don't think a lot of people got it until it was built.

Mikayla: 16:29

Mhmm. Yeah. But now it's so rewarding. It's so great. So I think this question kind of leads into that.

Mikayla: 16:39

A lot of venues are getting designed right now based on what's trending, what's selling, what's really popular. What did you want The Lumen House to be driven by instead of what's trending and what's popular?

Britt: 16:53

Well, to be fair, that is my own insecurity because I feel like I feel like it is trendy.

Mikayla: 17:01

But it wasn't when you started dreaming No. It

Britt: 17:04

No. No. I would agree with you on that. And I, like the last ten years, have really loved design.

Mikayla: 17:14

Mhmm.

Britt: 17:16

And would always talk about architecture and design and even still do. Like, I'm always looking at buildings. And, like, I want to watch building shows on Nat Geo and, like, engineering shows Or, like, even the ones where they talk about, like, how the Romans used to build stuff. Like, I just love I you're gonna literally love all of it. Could nerd out.

Britt: 17:37

And I think even you look back on any other design that's not timeless. Like a lot of them have these eras, and I think that they stand the test of time as long as they're done with quality. And I actually do think that we lean a bit trendy, but because we've executed with such quality and such attention to detail, I think we're going be fine. I think about and I'm not don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not claiming to be frankly right.

Britt: 18:05

But what I am saying is like a mid century house that was done with excellence and, like, really just owned the fact it was like a mid century modern house, still very cool. Right. It's the ones that go, like, half in on design. Right. I think you're like, oh, what are you trying to be?

Britt: 18:22

Do you know who you are? Because it looks like you wanted to be mid century, but your owners were afraid of not being timeless or being too trendy. And so they downplayed it. Right. Yeah.

Britt: 18:32

Versus just owning the fact, like, it's a little bit brutalist. It's a little bit minimalist. It's a little Eastern European, which is cool right now. But I think that because of some of the touches, I do think it'll stay cool.

Mikayla: 18:47

Yeah. And I think too, like, the size of it is also very timeless because as weddings trend, speaking from it as like a wedding venue, weddings ebb and flow in what's popular in terms of sizing. So Yeah. 300 people weddings were real popular back in the day, and now we're seeing just how people are putting more of an emphasis on smaller weddings, and we still have obviously big weddings.

Britt: 19:13

Mhmm.

Mikayla: 19:14

But I think being able to do

Britt: 19:16

both Yeah.

Mikayla: 19:17

Is really important because this space doesn't feel too big for a micro wedding.

Britt: 19:20

Yeah.

Mikayla: 19:21

So I

Britt: 19:21

love it.

Mikayla: 19:22

Thank you. Talking through the building process, This is a family business, primarily built with your husband. Yes. And a small team. Talk to me about what that journey was like.

Britt: 19:39

Jonathan and I work really, really well together. I couldn't imagine working with anybody else. And it's not that we always get along, but I do always respect his opinion. And I think that that's important for any marriage and any business partnership, both. Like, I feel like you need both of those things where we practice radical candor with each other.

Britt: 20:07

But he also, since we know each other so well, he knows how to deliver it in a way that I can actually receive it and at a time that I can receive it. Feel like timing with that kind of stuff is super important. So we hold each other accountable to who we say we want to be. But also, you know, with your own spouse, like when to give and extend. Yeah.

Britt: 20:25

Yeah. Grace. Right. And I think that we're a lot better for it. And there's times where, like, I've been uncomfortable with owning a business with him, and he is, like, so steady about it.

Britt: 20:42

And he's really supportive and like very matter of fact. And I think all of those things help a lot because I do have a lot of ideas. And you know, I call you all the time. And he's really good about staying grounded. I mean, like, if you just do the one thing real well, then you'll get to where you're trying to go.

Britt: 20:59

And I always really like that. And then, I mean, honestly, you've kind of been here since the beginning.

Mikayla: 21:07

Yeah. Give or take.

Britt: 21:09

We were doing our first open house. Mhmm. And it was like a month before opening. And I think we had drywall mud in here, but we hadn't painted yet. And then I met you, I think that has helped a lot just to have another person who

Mikayla: 21:26

is Yeah. Also very Yeah. Wild ride for sure. Yeah. In the design, what is something that was really important to you?

Mikayla: 21:41

And maybe we've touched on it a little bit, but really important to you that you fought for that other people didn't see and didn't believe in?

Britt: 21:49

Yeah, I so everyone always there's a terminology in construction called value engineering. V E. I throw it around as much as the next gal. But when it was like my baby and my project, I found it to be incredibly annoying because I when you're building a project like this, I'm always thinking about the end user and I obviously really want to respect their money. Right?

Britt: 22:21

Like, when they're paying us a rental rate, I wanna make sure that it's for something that they want. So I obviously wanna make sure that whenever we're building stuff, it's, like, wise. But also, if you VE a project to death, it's no longer interesting. The arches, yeah, like, we got so much pushback not to do the arches from the drywall people because it was so hard. They wanted cross ties Mhmm.

Britt: 22:43

Up here. So there would have been a a beam going through this space was a really big one that I fought really hard for that the engineer and the builder weren't I will say I ended up finding builder who supported me a lot and like knew what I was going for, but would also also knew I was on a budget. And so he was kind of trying to work both ways and I respect that.

Mikayla: 23:10

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Was there anything that you were afraid of in the building process and what was it that kept you going?

Britt: 23:21

Yeah, I am still scared a lot of days. It's too late to turn back now. I also think it's really fun And I'm okay with it. You know, I just like, I'm also in a place now where I feel like every day I'm like a little bit scared of something or I'm a little bit scared that like no one's gonna like the venue anymore. Or like people are gonna stop getting married.

Britt: 23:44

I'm not one to say that like, I'm not scared. Like I am like, pretty much we launch packages and I'm scared it's not going to be enough. Are we getting enough value? I get off a discovery call and I'm scared like, was that received well? Did she feel loved?

Britt: 23:56

Did she like, did I answer all of her really well? Like I care so much and I overthink it and it keeps me up every night, but

Mikayla: 24:04

I'm not gonna stop. Right, right. Just because of the fear.

Britt: 24:07

And also like we have a flywheel going now. Like there's so much momentum. I think stopping is actually scarier than just like keep going.

Mikayla: 24:14

Right. Yeah. Absolutely. What do you actually believe a well designed space can give a family on their wedding day?

Britt: 24:24

I think that it makes all your vendors so much more simplistic. You can have a lot of the things that we've talked about a million times, but you don't have to have a tent. You don't have to have draping. You don't have to have a million and one other things. You can have a couple of really simple, awesome vendors and still have a really great day here.

Mikayla: 24:42

Yeah. That's amazing. It's so true. So talking about the property itself as a whole, right, we have the venue, which is where we are right now and then the multiple spaces, but there's also the land. So we've got the field, the light, the cattle, which your babies.

Mikayla: 25:05

And why did this setting matter versus any other property? I know we talked about the power lines, but amongst other things, why did we settle on this?

Britt: 25:17

Yeah. I this was a long term decision. And we have not even been open two years. And I think, right, I could take this a million different ways, but I feel like one of the first things that's coming to mind right now is I am thinking thirty years down. And hello, a Target was just announced fifteen minutes from It's so true.

Britt: 25:38

Like, it'll come. Charlotte's going to continue to grow. And I think being positioned in a place where I think that we are I wanted it to feel like an escape. I wanted it to feel like you had to slow down to get here. I don't think that the best things are always the most convenient things.

Britt: 25:56

Right. And I don't think anyone actually thinks that, Like you just drive a little bit further, have a much more relaxed place to make one of the biggest covenants of your life.

Mikayla: 26:10

Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. And I think that kind of ties into where I'm going next is like the wedding day and the couple and building this around the couple. So when a couple first pulls up to the jive, what do you hope they feel before they've even walked in?

Britt: 26:31

I hope they feel inspired. And I do feel like a lot of them share that with me, which is really special. And, like, maybe not everyone will, like, start their own business or anything. And that's okay. But, like, it really was such a big dream that, obviously, you kind of saw the way it, like, took a couple twists and turns, but, like, the root of the dream was always the same.

Britt: 26:58

Like, knew I wanted to build something really cool. And maybe like in the early days, didn't exactly know that it was gonna be a wedding venue, but I hope that they feel

Mikayla: 27:09

inspired by I love that. I don't think I've heard you say that before. I think that's really sweet. And it's so true. So many couples come in here and they're like, oh, this reminds me of my home.

Mikayla: 27:19

And this is like what the home I'm building is. Yeah, yeah. And so just like being able to relate it back to like someone's home. I don't know. I think it's really special and cozy and yeah, really sweet.

Britt: 27:33

That's nice.

Mikayla: 27:34

So a couple touring five venues is trying to picture their day. What should they understand about what's possible here that they won't get anywhere else?

Britt: 27:47

I'm pausing because I think It really is just a feeling. Like, no matter what venue you pick, I think the practical side of it is either that venue is going to have what you want or you're going to have to rent it from somewhere else, and everyone's going to end up with tables and chairs and four walls and food and drinks. Mhmm. So I mean, technically, like, I don't I can't really think of anything. But I think weddings are kind of an emotional purchase, and you just have to emotionally be invested and don't force it.

Britt: 28:29

Just like with anything else, I mean, you shouldn't force it with your future spouse, and you really shouldn't force it with your vendors. And we've also, I feel like, been leaning into that the last couple of months when it comes to meeting with couples. It's like, I want you to love it. And if you don't love it, I want you to find a place that you do love. Like, we're gonna book out.

Britt: 28:49

Right. Right. I'm not worried about that. We will love on you and we will give you a ton of resources just like the resources that we're making now.

Mikayla: 29:00

Yeah, it's like championing every couple that walks through the door, regardless of the decision that they make and hoping that they have a fun experience here, have a loving experience here that we like steward the things that we've been given to serve every couple that walks in, regardless of if they like end up being a Lumen House couple or not.

Britt: 29:21

Yeah, and there has been times, I know for both of us, like, we have a bride who maybe needs something bigger. And I'm really quick to be like, have you looked at Crow Mansion? Have you looked at Fields Of Skycrest? Like, there are other options. Like, these are their numbers, go.

Britt: 29:34

Or maybe we don't have their date and it's the same thing. Like, I'm always, I'm really familiar with their choices and pointing them in what I believe to be like maybe a better direction.

Mikayla: 29:45

Right, exactly, exactly. You're here a lot on wedding days, which I think is so special because not a lot of venues have the founder, the owner here on a lot of wedding days. Is there a moment in a wedding day that like really resonates with you that gets you every time that you look for?

Britt: 30:03

On, I always liked the moment right before the aisle, which I think all vendors love. And I would say, like, the last six months has actually shifted to after, like, exit, which for those that don't know, a lot of times the bride and groom don't actually exit. So they, like, exit, party shuts down. Lately, nine times out of 10, the bride and groom come back.

Mikayla: 30:26

Mhmm. And I

Britt: 30:29

don't know what it is, but we have just been having the best time. We will stay after. And I don't expect couples to do that. Like, I expect them to leave. Nobody needs to come back and say bye to me.

Britt: 30:39

I am Okay. But the fact that they do, strike is happening all around us, we sit down and talk, or they tell me about how they knew that this was the venue or whatever. It's been the last four weddings I've worked that has happened completely spontaneously. And I just really cherish it because I'm getting some feedback that I don't get often on both sides. And I'm very quick to ask for their critical feedback too, of like, Oh, we changed this.

Britt: 31:06

What do you think about You know, like, we just changed the air freshener. And then I was like, did y'all notice? And they did. And that was really fun. But I, I really care about them.

Britt: 31:15

And I do those like really sweet couples, I really do get a little bit of wedding blues when their day is over. And so to have that, like, moment at the end of the night where you just get to connect

Mikayla: 31:24

is really fun. That's so sweet. I love that. Yeah, that's not an answer that you hear that often.

Britt: 31:29

No. And I think maybe it's just a new thing, or maybe it's just like a weird quirk with our summer brides, but man, I

Mikayla: 31:34

love it. I know, they've been so great. They've been so great. And I think that like shows the investment that you have in them too, that they like want to run back

Britt: 31:44

and be like,

Mikayla: 31:45

oh my gosh, we loved it. This is the best day ever. Yeah. Amazing. Last couple questions.

Mikayla: 31:56

If a couple is on the fence about trusting a place with the most important day of their lives, what would you say to them directly? I don't know why.

Britt: 32:05

I'm like feeling super deep, but I think that you what I'm starting to notice as I am, I do work weddings. I do do tours, and it's a really big decision to get married. And then I feel like this is one of their first decisions ever. And I don't personally find myself on the fence very often with really much of anything. I kind of press gas on almost everything.

Britt: 32:31

And so I think the biggest thing whenever I see those kinds of couples is like, you maybe don't think about it so much, you know? Like you can just follow your heart, like pick the venue that you felt good with. Don't overanalyze it. Don't worry about like when you're picking a venue, and I know that we actually just walked through a bunch of important questions. I believe all of those are really important questions.

Britt: 32:56

And don't overanalyze it so much that you're psyching yourself out. Like you're gonna have a beautiful wedding. You're gonna have a beautiful marriage. And I don't know, I do feel like the rest of it will really work itself out. And they're kind of starting their lives.

Britt: 33:08

And I feel like it's one of the first decisions. And I feel like that's where the hesitation comes from. Not so much of like, oh, I don't know if I want get married at venue A or venue B. I think they're feeling the weight of like, oh, my gracious. This is like the rest of my life.

Britt: 33:21

And I am hesitant. I believe that they're hesitating more so over that than about like, if they like my reception haul over someone else's

Mikayla: 33:32

reception. Exactly.

Britt: 33:33

And like pick one, you're gonna love it, move on, start making your other decisions, go get married.

Mikayla: 33:39

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like that saying, like, it's just not that deep sometimes.

Britt: 33:44

Yeah. Yeah. I know. Which I actually said like it's deep,

Mikayla: 33:47

but But like, it is deep to say that. Like and sometimes it's just yeah. Go based off a feeling. Obviously, make sure it checks the boxes of the things that it needs to check. But if this is where you're gonna get married or you're gonna get married somewhere else, then do it.

Britt: 34:02

Yeah. And like also we will lovingly guide you as much as we possibly can all along the way. Like there's so many times too, where I know like you stay late because someone wants to come show their mom, you know, or where we graciously like open up the space when it's supposed to be closed. Somebody else can like come measure it with their designer or whatever it is like, we're, we're here to help.

Mikayla: 34:30

Yep. Yep. I completely agree. I love it. Last one, thought provoking.

Mikayla: 34:39

Our tagline, if you will, often is you don't have to choose between what you want and what's available, which goes back to kind of what we're just saying. What does that line mean to you? And wrap all of this in a pretty bow on the build, on the, you know, decision making process and on now having weddings. What does that mean?

Britt: 35:13

Read it to me again.

Mikayla: 35:14

You don't have to choose between what you want and what's available.

Britt: 35:18

I feel like what we created is really unique. And we hear all the time that couples have been looking for something like this. I think that it is very different Mhmm. From kind of the other some of the other cookie cutter options, like whether it be, you know, a hotel ballroom or a banquet hall or, like we also don't really have that, like, old money estate vibe either. That's really popular right now.

Britt: 35:46

And so I think that we're just kind of opening up a whole other, like, type of venue space that is really unique, but also crafted towards venues. Yeah. Or, like, towards events.

Mikayla: 35:58

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Well, thanks for sharing your story.