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Welcoming back weddings as COVID restrictions lessen

OLIVIA MALLEY THE NEWS olivia.malley@saltwire.com @OliviaMalley

Wedding bells are ringing again.

Parker’s Barn, a wedding and event venue in Hopewell, is finally getting back into wedding season.

Operated by wife and husband duo Andrea and Jeff Parker, Andrea says they are excited to welcome people back to their property.

“Just helping people make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible. That is our ultimate goal,” says Parker.

Parker’s Barn offers a relaxed and unregimented experience. As of late, they try to do this while still following public health guidelines.

They had their first weddings of the year earlier this month when Final Touch Party Rentals hosted pop-up weddings.

Couples had a window of time to use the space and were flowed between ceremony, reception and pictures while maintaining social distancing and allowing time for sanitation.

Mercedes Hughes, owner of Final Touch Party Rentals, says the big thing in the industry right now is elopements and micro-weddings.

That, on top of the pandemic impacting many people’s finances, Final Touch and a few others in the industry thought pop-up weddings would be a good option for people.

With pop-up weddings,

couples share their day with other couples, but they also share the cost.

She said having the pop-up weddings at Parker’s barn was tremendous.

“The people there are awesome to deal with and it’s such a beautiful location there is very little you have to do to it,” says Hughes.

Now gearing up for the rest of the weddings this year, Andrea says she is also excited to see more vendors come back, many of whom she and her husband have formed great friendships.

“Seeing all those people again, it’s going to be good, it’s going to be good for the soul because when you see people enjoying something you worked so hard on, that’s the reward that’s what makes it worthwhile,” she says.

Vendors were able to provide them with an invaluable amount of information, Parker says, as they sort of got into wedding hosting by accident.

It all started in 2015 when Parker and Jeff got engaged. Mostly as a joke, she suggested they get married in the barn on their property.

The barn at the time was being used for storage and was home to two pigs.

“But then I thought why not use the space, it’s here and it’s free, so why not?” says Parker.

Cleaning it up and getting it ready, they had their wedding there that year. Then taking it a few steps further like adding a concrete floor, her sister-inlaw got married in the barn shortly after.

Between the two weddings people kept telling them they could rent the space, and Parker thought maybe they were right, but really they had just transformed the barn for their family.

“Then we saw there was sort of a niche like there was an empty spot where we could fill in and so that is sort of how it evolved. We just put it out there into the universe and lo and behold we had about six weddings in 2016,” Parker says.

Parker is a teacher and Jeff is a purchaser for a plumbing and heating company, but almost anyone would probably experience the steep learning curve they did.

“We always joke that we could write a book about the things we’ve experienced and seen and done,” says Parker.

Since 2015, they have done countless renovations and maintenance, purchased furniture and decor and learned through trial and error.

The number of weddings has also grown since they started, having around 15 in 2019. Including Final Touch’s pop-up weddings, Parker’s Barn will host around 12 weddings this year.

New Glasgow News

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2021-07-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281655373095790

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