Mountain Willow Manor

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From Dream Wedding to Dream Venue

My name is Adam. I’ve grown up in Tennessee my whole life. Chattanooga has always been my home and my family’s home. Another human, named Melody, had also lived her whole life in Chattanooga, yet we had never met or even crossed paths all these years. One night we happened to both be in the same place, at the Tivoli, Valentine’s Day 2015, for a big band swing dance concert. From out of the audience she joined the dancing up on stage after a random invitation from one of my best friends. Friend group excursions down the Hiawassee River and CFC soccer games, soon led to one on one dinner dates and hikes on Stringer’s Ridge. It wasn’t long before we fell in love. We dated for the following year and in July of 2016 I got up the courage and asked her to marry me. She actually said “YES!” and made me as happy as any person can be.

We decided together that we wanted to get married that year, and set the wedding date for November (only 4 months later!). We knew the wedding planning would need to move fast. We both knew we wanted to find an outdoor venue and after searching, we found a lovely venue right along the Tennessee River. Once the time and place was set, we got to work planning the wedding we had always wanted. We would spend many evenings after work researching vendors, building our guestlist, discussing reception options, layouts, schedules, etc...the list goes on. Although, the to-do lists were long and seemed to encompass all our time, we both truly enjoyed the process of building an event together. We knew that we were creating something special and lasting for ourselves, our families and our guests. The day finally arrived and all the worry, stress, and busyness seemed to fade away. We were so very fortunate to have so many wonderful family members and friends surround us in celebration and love. The day was perfect. It was the dream wedding we had always wanted. Not due to any specific detail or logistics-- but because of the way it felt. It felt too good to be true and was like a real life fairytale. We couldn’t have been more happy, relieved, excited, and thankful.

Over the following months of our new marriage, we looked back on the entire wedding planning and event process with fond memories. In reflecting on our experience, it wasn’t long after that we began thinking how incredible it would be to actually be a part of other people’s special day as well. The idea of being involved with operating a wedding venue came into our minds as a “maybe one day” pipe dream-- fantastic but not practical, and certainly not anytime soon...Fast forward just several months down the road, and without any knowledge of this dream, my parents began discussing the idea of selling a rental property in Florida to find a vacation rental property closer to home and in Tennessee. They brought this up to Melody and me and we laughed as we had just been discussing the idea of a venue. I shared our dream with my parents and they were excited by the idea. We began to discuss if we could find the right place and somewhere close enough to Chattanooga as well. After searching every property with acreage we could find less than an hour of Chattanooga, we found one that stood out instantly. It was one of the most unique places we had ever seen. An 1860’s era style farmhouse, surrounded by plenty of land on the side of a mountain with views all over, a little rustic cabin, a spring-fed pond and it had a vintage barn already as well. The entire property felt like stepping back in time and was surrounded by nature. It was meant to be. It worked out for our family to get the property in the Summer of 2017. We couldn’t believe it actually happened. We got to work right away in a family effort converting the property into a venue where people could actually hold events. There were many steps along the way, though it really was a labor of love. We couldn’t have done this without our family. Working together, we were all excited to see the outcome. Finally, after a lot of work and sweat (only some blood and tears), we were able to host our first wedding in November of 2018. It actually happened, a dream come true. It was quite a surreal feeling seeing the guests arrive and a ceremony take place right in front of us. The guests, families and wedding vendors were all very complimentary of the property and we were encouraged to keep moving forward. We continued to make improvements to the venue over the coming months and in the Spring of 2019 we became ready to open our doors to new couples. We believe Mountain Willow Manor is a special place and deserving of the sacred beauty that only weddings can bring. We hope to share this place from our hearts to yours and allow it to become the backdrop to your dream come true.

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