Sunshine on a rainy day

        Will and Rachel were married at Merry Hill Farm, surrounded by family, friends and a surprising number of peacocks. Merry Hill is a beautiful venue that is comprised of a large pole barn, an outdoor restroom with a men and women’s stall, a small building that is just a single room- used for the men’s changing area; and a two-story house with two bedrooms, several bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and dining room. The house was used for the women to prepare for the day in, and at the end of the night the couple stayed in the house.

      

  The weekend was forecasted to have showers throughout, and the couple added an extra tent over the ceremony area, and the reception area had a tent placed already. These came very much in handy as it began raining shortly after the start of the reception and continued to rain for the rest of the evening with short periods of time between showers.

       

After a beautiful ceremony and while the bridal party took photos their guests enjoyed cocktail hour with appetizers and drinks, the couple was introduced to their guests. As they entered and found their way to their seats an announcement was made that tables would be released individually to the buffet. As the tables were released our team helped older adults and small children make their plates, and we collected chargers from the tables. For the remainder of the night, among the rest of our normal responsibilities, we moved tables. A LOT. Almost every fifteen minutes to be exact the four tables that were just outside of the reception tent in the area, where lawn games and

the photo book were set up, were moved from their lawn placement to under the edge of the covered barn to keep them from being soaked.

        As guests enjoyed a unique menu that included four meats, five vegetables, four salads, apple cider doughnuts for desert, and for “loco hour” a taco truck to keep fueling the dancing guests! The tent was decorated with creams and blues and the lighting of the area could be brought up or down as they needed to be, making it easy to control the room’s feeling during toasts, dances, and garter and bouquet tosses.

Guests were given the opportunity to be chauffeured to and from the wedding and reception and the busses came in trips, so guests had multiple opportunities. After keeping a close eye on the weather, we saw a storm coming, and decided to do the sparkler exit early to prevent it from being rained out. It was not until the Taco truck was getting ready to leave, and last call for alcohol was made that the bottom finally dropped out of the sky; we couldn’t move quickly enough to save all the tables and guests left in a hurry. Guests were rushing to cars and busses; and catering and KYAE staff were rushing around to get the tables that weren’t under a tent in, and to save at least table cloths off the tables that were flooding near the edges of the tents they were under. We began to clean up the party and made sure the newlyweds were tucked in snug to their home for the night before heading out from a most eventful evening. 

*written by one of our summer interns