Photo courtesy Chelsea Moring
More than 350 couples have wed at Fairview Farm Events over its 10-year history, but the heritage of the property extends much further back. Founded in the early 1920s by co-owner Blanton Gordon’s grandfather Robert Lee Blanton (for whom he’s named), the property retains remnants of the dairy farming that once took place there, including a silo and barns.
Located in Powhatan County at 1660 Ballsville Road, the venue feels like a step back in time until you peel back the layers and realize the modernization of the buildings, from the dairy barn turned five-bedroom inn to the activity-infused game room. But getting the grounds to where they are today has been no easy feat.
Several years of renovations were necessary to maintain the historic integrity of the century-old buildings while bringing them up to code and creating a rustic chic aesthetic. Barns that once housed dairy cows, farming equipment and stacks of hay are now equipped with rustically elegant bedrooms, gathering spaces and full kitchens. The changes have given the farm new life, even as it welcomes couples who are beginning new lives together.
Managing the property is not just a job for husband and wife Blanton and Debora “Debbie” Gordon; it’s a reimagining of their home and a vision for the future — and it’s also a fight. In 2019, Blanton suffered a stroke that left him hospitalized for 40 days. At the same time Debbie was commuting to Front Royal, about a 2 1/2-hour drive from Powhatan, to help her mother transition to a nursing home. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in postponements of multiple weddings, compounded by another health crisis for a close family member.
The Gordons have had to persevere through several trying years, but through it all their wedding couples have remained a priority. “You get to meet and spend time with so many people that really appreciate what you have made, and I tell you, that is just the most rewarding thing in the world for me,” Blanton says.
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Debbie and Blanton Gordon at Fairview Farm (Photo courtesy Fairview Farm Events)
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An early 1940s photo of the historic three-bedroom cottage (Photo courtesy Fairview Farm Events)
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Prior to its 2018 renovation, the circa 1920s dairy barn had fallen into disrepair (Photo courtesy Fairview Farm Events)
From Farm to Weddings
The impetus for the Gordons to turn their home into a wedding venue was to maintain the 115-acre property. Debbie has a background in marketing, and her wheels started turning, trying to find ways for the land to generate revenue. They tried renting out the vacant farmhouse using a vacation rental website, but it failed to generate enough income to justify the expense of being landlords. Then an idea sparked for Debbie: What if they transformed the farm into a destination wedding venue? Blanton agreed, and in 2013 they began making her vision a reality.
Debbie laughs as she thinks back to that decision. When they were renting, they enlisted a part-time groundskeeper, Colon (pronounced like the punctuation mark). Debbie says, “I told him I was going to do the venue and he said, ‘Y’all are crazy! Ain’t nobody coming out here!’ And I was like, ‘You know, I think they would come.’”
Colon has since had a change of heart. “I admit it, I was wrong,” he says. He is now facility manager of Fairview Farm — the go-to guy for making sure weddings go off without a hitch. He’s responsible for a variety of tasks, including overseeing setup and break down of each event, directing vendors and even answering late-night phone calls if the couple has a last-minute or urgent question. “I enjoy the people, I just want to click with them,” Colon says. “People are usually in a good mood when they’re here. What’s not to love out here?”
The Gordons began transforming the grounds in 2013 by constructing the reception barn. Climate controlled and ADA-compliant, the elegant farm-style two-story space has bistro lighting, chandeliers, a bar, a TV and a prep kitchen. The Gordons professionally decorate the barn by season, including centerpieces, linens and other accents.
In 2015, the couple added an ADA-compliant pavilion as one of many ceremony locations. Recently fitted with adjustable paneling so it can be enclosed in inclement weather, the pavilion also serves as a cocktail space. A three-bedroom cottage renovated in 2016 includes a full kitchen.
Perhaps the two largest transformations came in 2017 and 2018, when the Gordons turned the hayloft and dairy barns into accommodation spaces. True to its name, the 2,000-square-foot hayloft barn is where Blanton’s grandfather stored hay for livestock. Rehabbed to maintain its historic foundation, the outside still resembles a barn, while the interior offers two bedrooms, a full kitchen and two bathrooms.
The 4,000-square-foot dairy barn that once housed dozens of cows is now a five-bedroom overnight accommodation with four bathrooms, a utility room, a full kitchen, an open living space and a deck. The original rafters, tin roofing and hay bailer track were salvaged and are visible in the living space.
Also available on the property is a renovated circa-1915 farmhouse. Its 2,000-square-foot game room includes air hockey, pool, foosball and more. Sleeper sofas turn the recreational space into additional accommodations. Overall, the venue can house up to 50 overnight guests.
The farm has been truly transformed. “Having a background in construction was a big help in getting everything built and getting Debbie’s vision designed in a way that would work,” Blanton says. “It was neat to see how it all came together and that we were able to bring it back from [considering] demolishing to what it is now. We basically saved it and made it unique.”
The venue offers multiple wedding packages, including single-day and weekend options. Weddings for up to 245 people include amenities such as planning services beyond a traditional day-of coordinator, a DJ, a facility manager and discounts on preferred vendors. Multiple ceremony sites are available on the property, including a cleared wooded area, a gazebo and a 5-acre pond.
Wedding planner Chelsea Moring, owner of Illumination Events Studio and a preferred vendor at Fairview Farm, says, “It’s like ‘Downton Abbey.’ They’re trying to do what they can to save the family farm. What a Cinderella story.” She says the Gordons, who live on the property, make people feel like part of their family. “They used to live in that farmhouse, they raised their children there, so you definitely get those vibes when you’re there, that you can make it your home, too. At least, that’s what my couples say to me.”
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Photo courtesy Fairview Farm Events
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Photo courtesy Chelsea Moring
Turnkey Service
Moring says couples enjoy stress-free events at Fairview Farm. “Debbie and Blanton have really fought tooth and nail to create an experience for their clients where everything is smooth. They’ve done so much work in finding these preferred vendors,” she says.
Moring often works with the same vendors at Fairview Farm, which establishes teamwork, she says. “You’re 10 steps ahead before you even start at a venue like that, because everyone knows how each other works… Way fewer problems pop up on your wedding day.”
That turnkey service is what drew Keith Hart and Leah Tschantz to the property. Initially unsure if they would be able to afford the venue, the couple is planning a November wedding at Fairview Farm. They fell in love with the property after touring the grounds and were originally considering booking on a Sunday to take advantage of single-day savings. However, realizing that the cost of paying separately for wedding necessities like planning, decorations and a DJ was comparable to the farm’s weekend package, they decided to book the extra days.
“We’re definitely people who love to spend time with family and friends and get everyone together, but we didn’t want it to only be five hours long,” Tschantz says, adding, “What drew us to their venue is that it’s a whole weekend experience. It’s not rushed or shortened by any means; you get a full weekend out of it, so that’s really special.”
The couple will have about 50 friends and family members staying on the grounds. In addition to the ceremony and reception, they’re planning a welcome dinner on Friday with family and out-of-town guests, which will feature a performance by the Richmond-based band The Mitras, who are friends of the couple.
“[The Gordons] have put so much work into making it easy for us. They give you a binder which is pretty much a to-do list and has recommendations for what they offer or what they recommend based on their experience,” Hart says. “So far, Leah and I haven’t had any stress planning our wedding. We’ve been to, I think, 12 weddings in the last year, and everyone talked about how stressful it was. We’re not experiencing that.”
They’re trying to do what they can to save the family farm. What a Cinderella story.
—Chelsea Moring
The ease of the planning process also drew Kerstin Allen and Evan Roberts to the property. They hosted a wedding at Fairview Farm for nearly 200 people in August 2022. “I had friends and family that had gotten married, and I remember how stressed out they were about finding vendors and trying to get everything coordinated. The fact that Debbie handed me a packet of any vendor I could possibly think of … that made things so much easier,” Allen says. “There is not one time that I was stressed out. Between the wedding coordinator and the vendors having worked so well together and worked together so many times, there was not one single hiccup.”
Planning assistance turned out to be essential for Allen and Roberts. Allen’s father, Kerry Allen, experienced back-to-back strokes and spent two weeks at Sheltering Arms Institute just two months prior to his daughter’s wedding, then stayed with the couple while receiving outpatient therapy. Determined to walk his daughter down the aisle, Kerry recovered enough to achieve his goal. Sheltering Arms even created a short video featuring the Fairview Farm wedding (on YouTube under the title “Father of the Bride”).
“If I could relive that day multiple times, I would,” Allen says of her wedding. “Not one thing went wrong. All the food tasted great, the venue was beautiful, everything was turnkey as soon as you arrived. I might be biased, but it was the best wedding I’ve ever been to.”
Renovated in 2018, the dairy barn still has the original tin roofing and hay bailer track. Today the barn serves as guest accommodations. (Photo courtesy Fairview Farm Events)
Navigating Challenges
Blanton suffered a stroke in 2019 on the Friday morning of a two-wedding weekend. He was rushed to Johnston-Willis Hospital, where he spent the next 40 days. “I can only imagine what the couples were thinking,” Debbie says. “If I were a bride, I would be freaking out that the owner has had a stroke.”
The Gordons credit their staff and family members with ensuring the weekend events continued as planned. They note that Colon, their son-in-law Brett and their son, Brice, stepped up while Blanton was in the hospital.
Blanton continues physical therapy to this day. He’s regained much of his mobility but can’t resume all of his former activities and duties. “It’s a slow process, but I always see improvements,” Blanton says. “I was a very active person and now I can’t run. There’s so many things you can’t do, but it’s getting better.”
As Blanton worked to recover, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the postponements of many weddings and putting the farm in financial jeopardy. “The only thing that saved us is the Small Business Administration loan, and we’ll owe that for the next 30 years,” Debbie says. They also received two small grants from the federal government and Powhatan County.
“You adapt as needed,” Blanton says. “You worry about the monetary aspect that keeps everything going, but with me the biggest worry is, if they’re not booking, why is that? Is there something we’re doing that’s not right or needs to be changed? Before the stroke, before the pandemic, it seems like people were here all the time, and now something has changed.”
With staffing and supply shortages, rising costs and spreading financial insecurity, Blanton believes the economy hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic. “There’s still plenty of things for people to worry about. The economy is really the biggest one, and the jury’s still out on whether the economy is going to get better or not.”
Fortunately, given the trials of the past few years, the Gordons have finished rehabbing the historic structures. “We’ve had to go through such a challenging time, we really need to just not spend a bunch of money for a while, anyway,” Blanton says with a rueful chuckle.
When You’re Here, You’re Family
Fairview Farm continues to be a family affair. The Gordons’ oldest daughter, Mallory, lives behind the venue, and a cousin runs a farming operation on the edge of the land. Blanton enjoys welcoming couples who come on tours by sharing the farm’s family history.
“I was so involved with it for so long as my home and a farm when my grandfather did it,” Blanton says. “I’m just telling people what it was and how it was, and a lot of people have appreciated that fact. They like the fact that it’s not just a venue.”
The welcoming environment appeals to clients and vendors alike. Cinematographer Keith Reagan of Reagan Studios, a videographer and preferred vendor at the farm, says one of his favorite things about the venue is being greeted with a smile.
“One of the neat things about Fairview is, every time we roll up in our van … you can almost start the clock: 5, 4, 3, and a little golf cart is going to pull up and the owner, Blanton, or the manager, Colon, would greet us,” Reagan says. “Before we even finish getting our equipment out of that car, they roll up on us and make sure we have everything we need and make sure everything is OK. We get to start the day feeling special.”
As for the future, the Gordons plan to continue sharing their home, allowing others to make precious memories — just as they have with their own family.
Chelsea Moring, the wedding planner, says, “Their 10-year anniversary, that’s a big milestone. I’m excited to see where it goes, what the future holds and what other clients come to Fairview, because they’re going to get a really, really great experience.”
Hay There
Bucolic farms provide a picturesque backdrop for the big day
The barn and farm-style wedding trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Couples still love mason jar table settings, string light decor and cowboy boot apparel. However, working farms offer added interest to these rustic affairs, often featuring expansive fields of crops and pastures of livestock. These pastoral settings present opportunities for one-of-a-kind wedding portraits and creative engagement photo shoots. And farm life, from bunnies to horses, often delights guests of all ages. These agricultural businesses turned event destinations dot the commonwealth, including several within and surrounding the Richmond region. Read on for a sampling of sites within an hour of the River City that are both working farms and wedding venues.
Photo courtesy Running Mare farm
Running Mare farm’s co-owners, Robin Caspari and husband Austin Lee, inherited the 50-year-old Goochland County property from her parents. It began as an Angus calf operation, which was eventually fenced out to another farm. About 20 years ago, they transitioned to rodeo cattle farming. In 2018, Caspari and Lee began hosting weddings on the property.
A builder by trade, Lee renovated the farm’s original barn and transformed it into the bridal suite. He also renovated the hay barn into a large reception space, incorporating salvaged materials from the property’s original residence, which had burned down.
As a working farm, Running Mare’s animal residents include longhorn cattle, cows, goats and four horses. “They come up and they want to be a part of the party as well,” Caspari says. The cattle are like family and share lineage. “Some of our mama cows are really old. We’ve known them since they were babies, and they still are here,” she says.
Caspari notes that there is a division between the farming enterprise and wedding area. “The venue is arranged around a 20-acre lake, so it’s just got beautiful views, and then the other side of the barn is the animals, so you kind of have animals and an extremely scenic beautiful lakefront.”
And while the farming side houses the heavy equipment and livestock, the event site’s grounds are well manicured and landscaped with beautiful florals for the big day.
Caspari says the setting is a draw for clients. “We are just beautiful, absolutely stunning, with the lake and the pastoral feel we have here, the views and then the service that they get. They get a lot of attention from me and from my husband.”
Seven Springs (Photo by Alexandria Photography)
Father-and-son duo Robert and Brett Hunnicutt opened Seven Springs in King William County as an event venue and working farm in 2015, but the property dates back to 1725 under the care of the prominent Dabney family. When the Hunnicutts took ownership, they bred a large herd of the endangered Hog Island sheep for a number of years. They scaled back the farming operations during the pandemic, maintaining their focus on weddings and events. However, there are still a few resident livestock — and they make guest appearances.
“We bring one or two [sheep] out and parade them around at the cocktail hour, the bride and groom get photos, the guests want to get photos,” Brett Hunnicutt says. “I bought a miniature cow recently. There’s a handful of goats, there’s some chickens, we’ve got a little pig out there — it’s just all for fun.”
Venue Manager Tracy Gilland says they can essentially create a petting zoo. “All of the guests can feed the animals during cocktail hour, and occasionally we will put one on a leash and put a saddlebag on it and we have beer sheep walking around for cocktail hour, if the sheep are agreeable,” she says, with a laugh.
Gilland notes that while Seven Springs is rural, it’s not exactly rustic. “Even though it’s a farm venue, we actually don’t like to be called that … because I think it’s such a classy place that when people think farm, they think barn, and there’s really no barn that people get married in here, it’s a beautiful outdoor pavilion.”
The all-inclusive venue offers multiple wedding packages and Colonial-style houses as guest accommodations, among other services.
Alturia Farm (Photo by Brian Godsey/Profound Wedding Films)
King William County’s Alturia Farm is a family-owned and operated event venue that dates back over 20 years, to when co-owner Ken Brooks purchased the land and introduced a residence and equestrian center. Adding event services in 2015, the property has since hosted hundreds of weddings.
Brooks’ wife and co-owner, Janean Brooks, says, “We’ve been blessed to have this property and to be able to share it with so many people, not just the couples, but their families and their friends. We bring them together and they get to share such a special time. It’s a privilege to be a part of it.”
Some of the resident animals at Alturia include horses, ponies, bunnies, cows and a lamb. The venue offers farm experiences such as a horse-drawn carriage led by stallions Nick and Mason. Janean Brooks says, laughing, “That’s their job.” There is also a petting zoo on the property. “It’s just an educational opportunity for a lot of people,” she says.
For weddings, Alturia offers a 4,000-square-foot, climate-controlled event barn; a covered wedding chapel; a bridal suite and a groom’s loft. The Carriage Barn houses a large decor inventory and often serves as a location for the rehearsal dinner and/or cocktail hour. More than 10 ceremony sites on the grounds include a pergola, garden gazebo and stone gazebo. An outdoor bar, patio and fire pit dubbed “The Sippin’ Spot” provides a refreshing respite under the stars.
“We just love doing this, and so when we hear that we’ve made somebody’s day, or their group of people just loved being here, that just means so much to us,” Janean says.
