Cover Story

Business od Brider THE

Bride-to-be Mackenzie Skinner stood at the counter in Plum Southern, a weddingfocused gift shop on Main Street in LaGrange, balancing a stack of smartly-wrapped presents and beaming from ear to ear. “I should get married more often!” she said happily. “It feels like Christmas morning every day.” Indeed, for local businesses with connections to the bridal industry, weddings are every bit as important as Christmas to their bottom lines. Troup County issued 481 marriage licenses in 2020 and 456 the year before. Chamber members who work with weddings believe most people “would be amazed“ at how much Troup County’s economy benefits from the “business of brides.” “A lot of people make their living or a significant portion of their living off weddings,” said Tulla White of Tulla White Cuisine and Catering. That includes, for starters, event venues, retail shops, florists, caterers, photographers, musicians, jewelers, hotels, printing companies and equipment rentals. “Weddings have been an absolutely huge boon for our downtown,” said Bill Hunnicutt, director of the Downtown LaGrange Development Authority. Perhaps the biggest impact – and another factor that surprises many – is the impressive number of out-of-town brides who choose Troup County locations for their weddings. Highly successful venues, like Victoria Belle in Hogansville and Del’avant in LaGrange, stay booked year round with mostly out-of-town weddings. “Local people have no idea how important it is to bring weddings from out-of-town. They come in, use local caterers, local florists, photographers, hotels and restaurants. It’s very big for the local community,” said Mechelle Wheless of Sweet Peas Floral Designs of Distinction. From a business perspective, another benefit of out-of-town weddings, said

Anna Knight, event/wedding coordinator at Del’avant, is that the wedding party, family and guests often spend an entire weekend here, patronizing local lodging, restaurants, shops and attractions. Peggy Scott, owner of Plum Southern, sees that routinely. “I can always tell when there’s a wedding. Guests come into the store, buy a gift from the registry and take it to the wedding,” she said. “Weddings are our bread and butter. During the pandemic, when few people were coming out to shop, we had 35 brides on our wedding registry. It was a lifesaver.” Cathy Winslow of Splash Kitchens and Baths said her Broad Street business started an online wedding registry when they realized guests staying at the nearby Courtyard by Marriott were coming in to look for gifts. Now local brides also use the registry and Splash stocks items suitable for hostess gifts, showers and more. “It’s really blossomed,” Winslow said. “Gifts are a huge part of the wedding industry. People look online and when they come in, we can have something wrapped, well presented and ready.” Amy Warren, whose formal-wear boutique, Affair to Remember, features eye-catching, frequentlychanging window displays on Lafayette Square, said her 14-year-old business has definitely become a “regional destination for brides.” Social media “is huge,” Warren said, and brides from Atlanta, Columbus and all points in between shop with her. Many of them are getting married in local venues and find it more convenient to buy their bridal and bridesmaids attire and rent tuxedos and other wedding apparel here. It wasn’t typical, but this spring Affair To Remember even sent a wedding gown to Uganda for the sister of a local resident. Warren recently renovated the upstairs of her store into an elegantly-appointed bridal salon and offers an array of choices in multiple price categories. “We had our best year ever in 2020, despite the pandemic,” Warren said. She attributes her success to location, a strong team and a focus on treating people “with love and kindness.” “Buying a wedding dress is an emotional purchase. It’s where your heart meets your mind, a momentous life moment that we get to be a part of,” she said. Indeed, the happy nature of the wedding business is a big part of what makes it satisfying for local vendors. “I like the love that’s displayed and the excitement of the couple,” said Tiffani Bray of Tiffani Bray Photography.”It gives me great satisfaction and pleasure to capture the moment.” The daughter of a photographer, Bray opened her business in 2012 and now has a studio on Daniel Street. This time every year, Bray shoots a lot of graduation pictures and has had the pleasure of seeing those grads come back for wedding photos, too.

At Traylor’s Jewelry, a family-owned business on Greenville Street, rings and wedding-related engraving are not just a year round source of revenue but an opportunity to be part of a joyful event. Sheena Whitten, whose father Darrell Traylor owns the business, likes their being one of the first stops couples make when deciding to wed. “Many brides today want something a little different in an engagement ring. “ she said. “Some are choosing nontradtional stones, like opals. We enjoy working with them to find exactly what they want.” Vickie Brown, who has built Victoria Belle Mansion and Vintage White Barn in Hogansville into an ultra popular wedding destination, said “giving brides the event they have envisioned for years” is her primary motivation. “Staging weddings is hard work. You have to have a passion for it,” Brown said. Caterer White said he manages the stress of serving at weddings by reminding himself and his staff that “every wedding is somebody’s most special day of their life.” White marvels that he’s now getting calls from brides in towns where he’s never done an event, including Griffin, Carrollton and even Blue Ridge. Often, the callers have attended a wedding in LaGrange and liked his food. “That’s been an unexpected benefit of our community being a destination for weddings,” he said. Wheless, who says weddings make up about a third of her business at Sweet Peas, enjoys developing relationships with brides, some of whom she keeps in touch with long after the flowers have faded. “Weddings are important for revenue, but also because I enjoy doing them. I like the challenge,” she said. Troup native Mallory Jeter DeNuzzia of Wildflower MJ started working as a wedding and event florist in 2014 while still a horticulture student at LSU. She liked helping her college friends with their weddings so much, she continued it after moving back to LaGrange and fulfilled a longtime dream by opening her shop on Hill Street last year. “We pride ourselves on freshness. It’s one of the things I love, and we mainly do ‘designer’s choice,’ which allows us to use whatever flowers are most seasonal and beautiful each week,” she said. “If a bride has a specific idea, we definitely accommodate that, but many times it makes it easier for them to have us come up with something. They select a color palette and let us take it from there.” DeNuzzia also promotes other small businesses by providing space in her shop for vendors who make custom items for weddings, like matching clay earrings

for bridesmaids or T-shirts and hats for bachelor and bachelorette outings. Rehearsal dinners have become a niche for C’Sons and Mare Sol, downtown restaurants that will close on occasion to host rehearsal dinners. “We customize the menus with the bride and offer an intimate evening for the guests. It’s so sweet seeing the magic of the families coming together,” said Lauren McClung, event manager for the restaurants. Affordability is a huge advantage for Troup County venues in attracting out-of-town weddings, said Ed Yeargan, who with his wife Ann has been operating Crème Fraiche Catering in Lafayette, Ala. for 31 years. About 75 percent of their work is in LaGrange. “It’s dollars and cents,” Yeargan said. “People from other places find out they can get really high quality events for much less money.” After more than three decades as caterers, the Yeargans are now doing second generation weddings. “We did the wedding food for the mothers, and now we are doing it for their daughters’ weddings,” Ed Yeargan said. Yeargan works frequently at Hills and Dales, the Callaway estate and historic garden, which doesn’t host wedding ceremonies, but provides a spectacular and comparably affordable setting for rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions. The estate’s historic gardens have also become a popular photo destination for out-of- town couples.

“It always amazes me how far people come to have their engagement or wedding photos made in the garden,” said Carrie Mills, Visitor Center manager at Hills and Dales.

Amy Lipham Rhodes, catering manager at Kimble’s Events by Design, says Troup County’s impressive array of affordable wedding venues is a big advantage. A local native who came back last year after 20 years working in the catering and hospitality industry in

Athens and Atlanta, Rhodes said outof-town brides “are getting such a deal to get this level of venues at a fraction of the cost.”

“I’ve been awed by the way LaGrange has blossomed in what it has to offer, in general, but especially the venues that create opportunities for a business like ours to work destination weddings,” she said. Rhodes has also found “very good networking,” among the vendors who recommend each other and look for ways to be sure revenue stays local. “The wedding industry here is growing and growing fast.,” Rhodes said. “It’s really good for us and for a lot of people.” Troup County’s abundance of widely varying wedding venues includes several new ones that hope to emulate the longevity and success of Victoria Belle, Highland Country Club, Hills and Dales, the Fields, Del’avant and others.. Newer venues in the Chamber membership include Burrow Warehouse in West Point and CreekLodge, an 18-acre wooded site located 1.5 miles from downtown. Kesha Edwards Coniglio opened Burrow Warehouse last year in a renovated industrial space in downtown West Point. Located near I-85, “right in the center of Newnan/Columbus/Auburn,” she expects to draw customers who want something a little different and like the opportunity to take the “blank slate” of the 10,000-square -foot facility and give it a oneof-a-kind look. A popular feature of Burrow is its “something borrowed” room where brides can select props, ranging from whiskey barrels to Victorian chairs, to give their weddings a distinctive look. Coniglio, who has a background in design set up, hopes to fill a need in the West Point community and recently hosted a “Merry Market,” featuring area vendors. She holds monthly open houses for potential brides to check out the facility without appointment. “I really don’t do a sales pitch,” she said. “Brides come and see our look and decide if the vibe is right, and they can envision their wedding here.” Marlon and Kay Stargell, who opened CreekLodge about two and a half years ago, call it LaGrange’s best kept secret. The facility does not host weddings, but provides a comfortable and attractive private home for families and wedding party members to stay. The.facility sleeps up to 16 and is available for short term rentals through Airbnb. “We are unique,” Marlon Stargell said. “We have a 900- square- foot deck, a pond, rustic barns that make great photos, fruit trees, azaleas. It’s a country feel but close to everything.” Troup County will have a new wedding venue on West Point Lake when the newly-announced Oakfuskee Conservation Center is completed at Pyne Road Park. “Weddings are a part of the plans for that facility,” said tourism director Kathy Tilley. “It will be a gorgeous place to get married.” Tilley sees destination weddings as an important piece of the tourism puzzle in Troup County, with significant potential for growth. “It’s definitely a market that should continue to be cultivated. It really is big business, and it also helps small businesses, so it makes a difference. As tourism promoters, we love weddings and we want them here.”

Victoria Belle

It’s been more than 20 years, but Vickie Brown remembers the exact moment she first saw the “big house on the hill” that is now known as Victoria Belle Mansion, a popular wedding venue in Hogansville. Then a hairdresser in Cobb County, Brown had a thriving business but an itch to follow a lifelong dream of planning weddings. Her husband, Roger, had leased hunting property in Meriwether County, and she came down with him one day and, at his suggestion, they rode over to Hogansville. As the couple drove along East Main Street, there it was, a white-columned, 1897 neoclassical Greek Revival home with a For Sale sign on the spacious lawn. Brown’s wheels started turning. She called and learned the selling price was below her expectations. She stewed on it for a few days, prayed about it, then made an offer. It both thrilled and terrified her when the offer was accepted. “It was a brave thing to do,” she admits, two decades after envisioning an event center in the stately, but rundown, residence. “I marvel every day that I took a chance, and it worked out. Sometimes you just have to step out.” Step out, she did. The home required major renovation, made possible but certainly not easy because Roger Brown was in the remodeling business. They spent 18 months getting the facility ready, gutting the interior, rewiring, repairing, repiping, restoring, refinishing, replacing. “My mother is a brave soul,” Brown remembers, “but when she saw it, she said,’What have you done?’” What she had done was open the first event facility of its kind on the south side of the Atlanta metro area. It offered what she likes to describe as “timeless elegance with a touch of rustic grace.” The classic interior features antique décor, a baby grand piano, brilliant crystal chandeliers, ornate mantels and gleaming hardwood floors. Brown’s timing was perfect, but bookings came slowly. She continued doing hair, praying that her business would take off. Her big break came when Adam Wright, nephew of country superstar Alan Jackson, booked Victoria Belle for his wedding to Shannon Tanner. It was a big deal, and a major success. “They were brave to book with us. It really helped. The trust they put in me helped me get off to a good start,” Brown said. She’s never looked back and she’s never stopped improving the facility. The biggest addition was the rustic-chic Vintage White Barn,, added in 2012. “The barn has been a huge asset. It gives us more coverage and works for both elegant and rustic events,” Brown said. Other amenities, including a vineyard, gazebo and waterfall, create multiple options for outdoor settings. About 90 percent of her couples choose to marry on the front lawn, with the mansion as backdrop, then have the reception in the barn or garden. Victoria Belle offers a variety of packages, depending on budget and what the bride wants, and even has an elopement package for couples who want a simple but lovely wedding with fewer than 20 guests. Victoria Belle also hosts parties, corporate functions and charitable events. And while the gorgeous facility is what attracts many brides, Brown believes it’s the personal attention that makes the business successful.

Del’avanp

Generations of LaGrange residents cherish memories of going to the Kress and McLellan stores on Main Street “way back” in the 20th Century. Now descendants of those early shoppers make their own cherished memories at Del’avant, a charming adaptation of the historic five-and-dime stores that is marking its 10th anniversary as an event center this spring. During its first decade, Del’avant hosted thousands upon thousands of guests for more than 2,000 special occasions – from weddings to cotillion balls, corporate functions to charity fundraisers, gardening lectures to rooftop galas.. Last month, in a single week, Del’Avant welcomed more than 1,000 people: a Chamber breakfast, several meetings, a scholarship program, Greenville High School’s prom on Thursday and two weddings, one on Saturday and another on Sunday. “We average between 280 and 300 events a year, including about 60 weddings,” said Anna Knight, who has been event/ wedding coordinator for all but the first six months of Del’Avant’s history. A majority of the weddings and many events are for outof-towners, bringing people who spend the night or weekend and patronize local businesses. The benefit to the community is hard to exaggerate, said Bill Hunnicutt, executive director of the LaGrange Downtown Development Authority (DLDA). “The out-of-town weddings are a game changer. I can’t think of one business in LaGrange that doesn’t benefit,” he said. Today, the decision to develop Del’avant seems like a slam dunk. It’s hard to imagine downtown LaGrange without it, said Speer Burdette, former president of the Callaway Foundation, but the choice to create a beautiful and versatile event facility from the century-old stores was not at all obvious at first.

Burdette explains how the project came to be: “Del’avant was part of the Foundation’s commitment to the revitalization of downtown LaGrange. When the Kress building came up for sale, we knew it was integral to our mission, but we didn’t know what to do with it.” Several possibilities were explored, including retail and restaurant options, but nothing clicked. One day, almost off the cuff, Burdette recalls, then-downtown manager Suzanne Foody said, “We ought to do an event center.” Bingo. Well, not exactly, but foundation and downtown leaders recognized it as an idea worth considering. They’d also been looking to add residential space downtown and saw the opportunity to create loft condominiums above the possible event center. “We put the two ideas together and thought, ‘Wow! This might work,” Burdette said. Work it did, but not without a lengthy process and much creative planning by architect Skip Smith and project manager Rick Waterhouse, then with the Callaway Foundation. It was a huge challenge to bring two old buildings together, modernizing and adding amenities, while preserving the look and feel of the vintage structure. They had a lot to work with. Originally built in 1913, the former five-and-dimes featured the fine craftsmanship associated with the period – tin ceilings, an iron balcony, hardwood floors and handsome brick. Kress stores, in particular, were known nationwide for their architecture, a point emphasized in 2000 when a traveling exhibit on the architectural heritage of the S.H. Kress Corporation was displayed at Troup County Archives. As it has done with other projects, the Callaway Foundation covered the costs, then donated Del’avant to the LaGrange Downtown Development Authority, which operates it and uses the proceeds for ongoing revitalization of downtown. Community events, like Sunsets at Sweetland, the Farmers Market and Mingle with Kringle, are supported by proceeds of DLDA properties. Downtown businesses also can apply for façade grants to help with signage and awnings. Being debt-free allows Del’Avant to offer more affordable rentals than many facilities, Burdette said, but “why we are different,” adds Knight, is that brides or others can hire their own vendors, use whoever they want, thus managing their costs. “Most venues make money from the food and beverage side,” she said. “We don’t do that.” That’s not an accident. “Keeping Del’Avant affordable, especially for our community, is part of our commission from the Callaway Foundation,” Hunnicutt said. They offer a weekday non-profit rate, for example, that benefits many organizations. All of which adds to a win win – good for the community, good for the customers, a debt-free, first class facility built with the high quality and commitment to excellence that characterizes all Callaway Foundation projects, Hunnicutt adds. Even the choice of the name Del’avant reflects the dedication to detail that went into the project. The Foundation hired brand strategist Andy Fritchley and his associates to research and recommend a name. After developing multiple “threads,” based on research into the history of the buildings, the town, the hospitality industry and more, they eventually were intrigued by the French phrase “avant-garde” often used in English to mean forward-looking. “Del’avant has been translated as ‘from those who are forward-looking,’” Fritchley said, “a most fitting description of such a revitalization project.” The first decade has brought continued forward-looking to Del’avant. A recent upgrade enhanced the rooftop garden, used for a variety of parties and wedding celebrations, and added lighting visible to passers by. “People tell me they look up and go, ‘Ah!’” Knight said. The large number of out-of-town weddings prompted the 2015 addition of Knight’s services as “weekend wedding coordinator,”as an extra option for brides and families. As coordinator, she directs the rehearsal, ceremony and reception and handles endless details. “A lot of times it just makes sense to hire me as coordinator. I know all the vendors, know the town, know every inch of the building,” Knight said. “It takes a lot of stress off the family.” One of her more memorable experiences was the wedding of a couple of Indian background, a two-day affair featuring elaborate dress, Indian cuisine and much ceremony. “I learned so much,” Knight said. “Every single event is different, but with weddings, the one thing in common is that each is a happy event.” Burdette, who credits Knight and former DLDA director Bobby Carmichael with launching and maintaining Del’avant on the path to success, considers the 10th anniversary as a time to celebrate. “It’s so rewarding when you come up with an idea, take it to completion and see it succeed as one of the major anchors of downtown. It’s a true feel-good moment.”