Hello Friends, oh my word, our heads are still spinning a bit after finishing up our wedding season this year. We cannot get over the many beautiful couples who celebrated their marriages here at the farm. Our hearts are overwhelmed at seeing our hopes and dreams come together as 100’s, and 100’s, of people have come to this place to celebrate with their friends and families on their special day. I think our very favorite part has been getting to know our brides and grooms and their families, so many of them have become so dear to our family.

Many years ago ( I think 2010) Ben and I started dreaming of this place, my Mom had just come home from a trip where she stayed in a B&B and sipped wine from local vineyards with beautiful barns. My Mom started sharing with us (oh the power of suggestion) how she could see us bringing a barn back to life for a venue or bed and breakfast. We had always wanted to start something, that entrepreneurial spirit was definitely on us since early in our marriage. We were young dreamers traveling the East coast and to Italy, staying in B&B’s or eating meals in wonderful restaurants here and there (inspired us to want to share our experience abroad with others). It’s funny when you’re dreaming, we’d say, “maybe someday we’ll do something” but then one day, we starting saying “why not today, why not us?” One day while checking our mail, I pulled out a fine furniture catalog, on the front cover there was a picture of a large farm table, in a barn, it was set for a gorgeous gathering, that my friends was the final sign for my heart to say, now is the time! Of course there were many years of prayers and planning, but that picture, it set my heart dreaming so-so BIG! We dreamt of gathering people around that proverbial table, all kinds of people, from every nation, from every community, we wanted a place to gather and welcome people, to be able to feed them and to love them well, and also to provide a beautiful place to host other’s special events. The past year or so, we have seen that dream come to pass, it has been surreal and incredible! We are so very thankful to so many that have come along side of us to make this dream a reality, and so thankful for my Momma and for her always believing we could do anything!!

As we move forward planning for our spring season, we’d love to bring you along for our next big adventure! We are adding permanent bathrooms and a prep kitchen to the back of the barn. The bathroom will be located on the back upper level right outside the new back door. It will be an easy stroll from the main dining area of the barn to the bathrooms now, which we are thrilled to be able to offer our guests. The kitchen will be located directly under the bathrooms on the ground level, it will be the perfect place for caterers to prep your delicious meals! We are very excited for this project, finalizing our architectural drawings and interviewing contractors now, and although Ohio Code is making this improvement mandatory for our venue to function (and finances are tight as we have just launched our little business) we are going to make the very best of it, budgeting and doing as much labor as we can, and making these additions as gorgeous as can be! You might already know this, but Ben and I have renovated a handful of homes over the years, including the farm house on the property. I have vision for seeing life in places that might seem dead, and Ben is so amazing at making our visions come to life. We are so excited to bring our skills to this big project. Stay tuned to our social media for updates as we continue to document this journey! Dream BIG friends!!

Happy Christmas Season from all of us at Cedar Bay Farm!

Kelly Woodall