Sam & Deker
June 15, 2019
How it Started
To give you real context on how we came about hosting the first wedding at Arlington Acres, we need to give you a little bit of back story.
We (John and Sarah) were married in a barn in 2017 on Sarah's family farm in southern Ohio. When we moved to John's family farm in Tiffin we were always talking about what a great place it would be for a wedding and how we should really take the time to clean the barn out and offer it for weddings. However, life was busy and it wasn't really a priority.
Unbeknownst to Sarah, John had offered the barn as a wedding venue to several of his co-workers and low and behold one of them actually took us up on the offer!
In December of 2018 we got the official ask and for better or for worse (we think better!) committed to hosting Sam and Deker's wedding in June of 2019.
Preparing for the wedding
We spent most of the spring of 2019 preparing for our June wedding.
The barn hadn't been cleaned in years and was full of decades of old farm equipment, junk, dirt, animal droppings and all kinds of nasty things. So the first thing we had to do was clean. We carried everything out, swept, scraped, blew out and finally pressure sprayed the interior multiple times before we felt it was as clean as it could ever be.
Then there was electrical work to do and we also added a stair case to the loft (there wasn't a staircase originally, just a ladder) and made some minor repairs to make sure everything was safe for our guests.
The Day Arrived
Wedding weekend arrived and we were all ready to go for Sam & Deker's big day.
The barn was spotless. The string lights and chandelier's sparkled and we were anxious and nervous and excited all at the same time.
It was a gloomy, rainy, early summer day but the weather didn't dampen anyone's mood.
The Details
Sam chose a dusty blue for her colors. It was just beautiful and perfect for the rainy day.
She had also made her bouquets out of wooden flowers and we thought they were such a fun and unique touch, especially because they were blue!
The Ceremony
Right around the time for the wedding ceremony it began to pour. Most of the guests had already arrived and were seated by the time it started raining, but we did have to get a bit creative on how to get Sam inside without getting wet (we did not have our lower level and our staircases back then).
She made it into the barn unscathed and the pitter patter of the rain was a soothing touch to the ceremony.
After the ceremony they went on to Camden Falls a few miles down the road for their reception (in 2019 we were not set up for both ceremony and reception, we didn't even have bathrooms!).
Sam & Deker's wedding was magical and wonderful in so many ways. We are eternally grateful for their grace, optimism and trust that we would give them an amazing day. We wouldn't be here today without them!
The Team
Ceremony Venue: Arlington Acres
DJ: Class Act by Bob Norris , DJ Ben
Photographer: Ashley D. Photography
Reception Venue: Camden Falls
Videographer: Jacob Welly Videography