6 minute read
Destination wedding
From left, Greg and Sarah Nelson and Anne and Kraig Anderson pose for a picture in one of two grain bin silos that are part of their wedding venue, The Grainary at Lake Valley Farm, in Poplar, on Sunday, Jan. 8. Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
The Grainary at Lake Valley Farm has grown in popularity
BY MARIA LOCKWOOD | SUPERIOR TELEGRAM
POPLAR, Wis. — A wedding venue based on a family farm has garnered a fan base, and not just among the couples who’ve been married there. The Grainary at Lake Valley Farm is a favorite for MidCoast Catering Co. out of Duluth.
“They’re on the top of our preferred venue list,” said Kelsey Auran, office manager and event coordinator for MidCoast Catering. “If people are ever looking around town, I highly recommend them. It’s fantastic working with them, and it’s wonderful being out there.”
The space was created by four educators — Kraig and Anne Anderson, of Poplar; and Greg and Sarah Nelson, who now live in Iron River. Kraig and Greg, who are cousins, both teach sixth grade at Northwestern Middle School; Anne teaches first grade. Sarah, a former first-grade teacher, now works for CESA-12.
Auran called the wedding venue their passion project.
“I love the place,” said Cory Bonneville, of Sounds Unlimited. “Every time I go there, it’s just nice, smooth. The four of them are owner/ operators. They’re like hands-on. They have a personal interest in the venue, and it makes it just that much better for the client.”
The site is versatile, with a range of indoor and outdoor spaces.
“You can open the doors on the sides and you can have all the air come in, or else you can put down partitions and turn the heat on inside,” Bonneville said. “What sets it apart, I think, is obviously the outdoor portion where they have their patio and it’s set up with furniture and really neat decor.”
Sarah and Anne toured other wedding venues to create a plan for theirs that was intentional and offered a smooth flow. Every zone at The Grainary is tied together.
“People have options,” Greg said. “A lot of times people come to a wedding and then they leave, but it seems like a lot of people here stay because there is that space where they can visit with people they haven’t seen for a long time and still be a part of it.”
Custom venue
The bridal cottage and barn at the site date back to the 1920s, while the pavilion and patio area are new. The silos — one of which serves as the bar and the other as a space for the groomsmen to gather — came from Iowa.
“We took them down bolt by bolt on different trips, then brought them back on trailers,” Anne said.
The four built the venue together, literally.
“We did it all ourselves,” Sarah said.
“I always tell people we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it, and it was literally blood, sweat and tears,” Greg said.
They stood together Sunday, Jan. 8, in the pavilion, discussing the site’s various components. Used bricks from Globe Elevator in Superior were used for the brick wall; they made the tables out of hemlock reclaimed from the bottom of Lake Superior. The wooden doors, which can be pulled back to open up the space, were a Facebook Marketplace find. The pews in the barn came from churches in Ashland and Durand. All of it is available to the wedding party.
“It’s their space for the day. We can be as involved or disappear as much as we need to,” Kraig said.
The site’s wood, brick and neutral colors were an intentional choice, creating a blank slate for couples to build their dream wedding. Auran, who has worked 20 weddings at the Poplar venue, has seen everything from rustic, outdoorsy weddings to “super duper upscale” events there.
“We love it, because how we cater is basically whatever the customer wants, we’re more than happy to provide it. We’re down to do custom menus and stuff like that. And I feel like they’re pretty similar to that, where they’re happy to do completely custom looks and just really, really wonderful work,” Auran said.
Farm and family
The idea for the wedding venue started when Kraig and Anne’s son asked to hold his graduation party in the barn. So they cleaned it out. Shortly after, a niece asked to get married on the property.
By 2019, The Grainary at Lake Valley Farm hosted its first wedding. Sixteen weddings were planned for 2020, but
the pandemic shutdown whittled that down to nine, and ended plans for a grand opening. It was, Greg said, a nice soft opening for them.
The site now hosts about 20 weddings a year, sometimes back-toback. It is a family business. Family members, including the couples’ six children, help out with cleaning and turnaround. Kraig’s sister and her husband sometimes tend bar.
Although it’s become a destination venue for couples from Minneapolis and St. Paul, local residents have also been married there.
“A really cool thing that happened this season is one of my first graders actually got married (here),” Sarah said.
Anne and Kraig’s son got married at the venue over the summer, as well.
The Grainary at Lake Valley Farm is more than a wedding venue, though. It’s a working beef farm, with up to 40 head of cattle.
“After the season’s done, it was like, they were all vaccinating cows,” Anne said. “It was like, the last wedding was one weekend, and the next week, it turns back to farm.”
On Monday, Jan. 9, the site hibernated under a blanket of snow, waiting to welcome a new batch of weddings in the spring.
The venue has already been booked up for 2023 weddings, but there is availability in 2024. For more information, visit www. thegrainaryatlakevalleyfarm.com. ■
