Can weddings help save Vermont family farms?

April Burbank | The (Burlington, Vt.) Free Press

When Sarah Waterman Manning and her husband decided to hold their wedding at the Isham Family Farm in Williston, they had no idea that the farm's red antique tractor would steal the show. The 1953 Farmall H tractor became a novelty with their wedding guests -- "the destination place for people to take photos," Manning said.

She and her husband, Will Manning, hadn't originally planned to get married on a farm, but when days of heavy rain in July washed out the possibility of an outdoor ceremony elsewhere, the Vermont couple moved their plans so they could use the farm's historic wedding barn.

"We walked in, and it was like, if the clouds could have parted, they would have," Manning said. "It's this absolutely gorgeous venue, and it's the real deal."

Mike Isham finished restoring the wedding barn last year as a way to preserve the family legacy that had been passed down in the barn's wood beams and hand-forged nails. The barn had fallen into disrepair and was being used for storage; before that, it was a dairy barn, and Isham had milked cows there as a child. Now Isham, a fifth-generation farmer, helps brides and grooms to plan their weddings there.

"I knew I needed to do something different with the barn," Isham said. "I didn't want to lose it on my watch. It's got a lot of history in it."

Isham is one of several Vermont farmers entering the wedding business, responding to a wave of demand for rustic wedding venues by holding ceremonies and receptions on their working farms. And it can be big business.

"I think it's real important because the weather now is so hard to predict. We've had droughts, we've had floods and wind storms," Isham said. But the farm can hold weddings no matter the weather, bringing in thousands of dollars. "I think it'll be more of a predictable income," he said.

Farmers can face a learning curve as they enter the wedding business: making plans to host large groups of guests, coordinating with caterers and talking with couples while they continue normal farm operations. But aside from any logistical headaches, weddings and events have become a way to share their farms with the public while supplementing their income.

"It's easy money. It really is, in comparison," said Emilee Smalley of The Swallows Nest in Brandon, where May through October is haying season -- which is still the farm's primary source of income -- as well as wedding season.

Smalley, who manages the 1,200-acre former dairy farm that was originally settled in the late 1700s, said the property has hosted five weddings in the past year. They don't have a wedding barn yet, but couples can rent the farm and bring their own tents and amenities.

"You kind of hold your breath that it's not going to rain," Smalley said. But so far, she said, the weddings have worked out well for couples and for the farm itself.

"It's such a huge part of our landscape to keep farms working, and I think if you can do both, it's a perfect fit, actually," Smalley said.

Growing demand

Many small Vermont farms did not originally set out to host weddings until they realized that their property fit many couples' storybook country wedding ideal.

"I think a lot of that has to do with photography," said said Lorin Holmes, co-founder of VermontWeddings.com. "When couples are getting married, they're really looking for interesting, unusual, different details for their weddings, so a barn is a perfect place ... They want their pictures to be something out of a magazine."

At the Alerin Barn in St. Johnsbury, most of those couples come from Massachusetts, especially the Boston area. Co-owner Christy Tomlinson and her husband entered the wedding business when they rebuilt an old barn that had burned down in the 1990s, shortly after they bought the farm.

"They want a barn. That's the first thing they want -- they want a rustic but elegant barn," Tomlinson said. "They want their formal pictures taken with the background of the fence with the cows."

But when held within the daily reality of a working farm, weddings are not guaranteed to be picture-perfect. Beth Kennett, chair of the Vermont Farms Association board of directors, said she used to tell couples that she would not host weddings at her dairy farm in Rochester.

"I always said no because that's the day that all the cows are going to get out of the barn, or we'll have a thousand bales of hay to put in, or the gutter cleaner will break, or something like that," Kennett said.

She made an exception for one couple who wanted to hold a small indoor ceremony on the farm in November. Sure enough, things did not exactly go as planned.

"I was busy cooking their dinner and getting ready for their wedding, and at about 4:30 that afternoon I looked out the window, and all of the cows had gotten out of the barn and were running circles around my house," Kennett said. Fortunately, she said, the guests took it in stride. "It's a farm, it's a real farm, and the cows get out," she said.

Likewise, the first wedding in the apple orchard at Allenholm Farm in South Hero was memorable because the bride wanted the farm's two Nigerian dwarf baby goats to be part of the ceremony.

"I had to at one point divert the goats' attention because they were chewing on the bottom of her wedding dress -- which she was completely oblivious to," said Pam Allen, who runs Allenholm Farm with her husband.

The balancing act

Farmers who begin hosting weddings on a regular basis have to develop a "rhythm" to balance the two types of work, according to Tim Piper, president of the board of directors of the Vermont Association of Wedding Professionals.

"You usually want to do your haying, you want to do your manure spreading on a Monday or a Tuesday," Piper said. That way, he said, farms can prioritize weddings on the weekends.

On the other hand, some farmers say they have specifically chosen not to host weddings because it would put strain on their staffs and require too much time away from farm work.

The possible tension between special events and normal farm operations is not unique to weddings; it applies to any small farm that diversifies with farm tours or other agritourism activities, said Lisa Chase, a natural resources specialist with UVM Extension and director of the Vermont Tourism Data Center.

"There can sometimes be a blurry line between whether you're really a farm or whether you're really in the tourism business, and you're doing some farming on the side," Chase said. "There are places that maybe aren't first and foremost farms, but you know, they have some cows in the pasture and sort of add some agricultural touches."

The Vermont Land Trust, which conserves historic working farms, tries to ensure that weddings and other events don't interfere too much with crops and animals. The land trust does not want fields matted down into permanent parking lots, for example, because of frequent special events.

"We're always trying to accommodate those kinds of requests that help to make the farms viable, but doing it in the context of the overall conservation values," said Dennis Shaffer, vice president for stewardship at the Vermont Land Trust. He said requests to host weddings on land trust farms are considered on a case-by-case basis.

At some weddings, like the Manning wedding at Isham Family Farm, that rich history is meaningful for the couple, too. She said couples were looking for a venue that fit their personality -- and for people like her who were raised in Vermont, choosing a farm is personally significant.

"I think for people from Vermont, we have a real sense of history of the farm piece," Manning said of her wedding. "It was certainly part of our general family history, so I think there was some appeal to even commemorate that."

Holmes offered a similar explanation of the trend.

"I feel the surge in barn weddings is really due to the fact that people want the celebration to feel like they're stepping out of time." Holmes said. "It takes you back to a different world, and that's what we're selling here in Vermont. It's something that you don't get anywhere else."