Our Story
A question we are often asked is ‘Where did the idea for owning a wedding venue come from?’ and we jokingly always answer ‘a mental breakdown’. But the funny truth of it is just that exactly. So let me tell you a story.
When I was a kid growing up in West Point on our family land, I always thought it was a beautiful place and deserved to be highlighted. At age 13, I may have been a bit biased. I believed someday I would be living here and opening a wedding venue or at least renting out space for wedding ceremonies as a retirement job. Fast forward 12 years and I have now been a bridesmaid in 4 weddings myself with a 5th one soon since I helped my childhood best friend’s boyfriend propose to her. I was currently living and working in Washington, D.C., and seeing the struggle of my friends to find unique, beautiful wedding venues at a decent price without additional costs.
My little girl's dream of someday owning a wedding venue on our family property was still a fun idea I fantasized about while walking to and from work at Corporate America. I quickly realized if I was going to work to build something, I wanted it to be for me and my family, not another set of C Suite people. Mom came out to visit and spend the 4th of July with me, because really, nowhere goes hard for Independence Day than the Capital. We had gone to the local ma and pa café up the block from my house share for lunch when she asked the question “What’s next”.
I want to retire and open a wedding venue back home in Iowa. My mom has always been the true champ of never being shocked by the random things I say, and she took it in stride by simply responding with “What does that look like?”.
A seemingly innocent question from a mother who is curious about what her daughter's next career move options could be and what direction to go. In the 2 years I had been working with my company, it had been sold, acquired, and merged a total of three times. Each time, not knowing exactly what that meant for my team or my role. A constant state of anxiety I was growing quickly exhausted from. I remember sitting back and sighing and simply saying.
So, over a plate of eggplant parmesan, I explained my vision for a wedding venue and the business plan I would use on a napkin. Later the next week, Mom left D.C. and went to visit Iowa and just get some ideas and numbers to maybe move up the dream we now both had. I had been dealt another blow from work and was talking to her on the phone while walking to the metro. She was so excited about what she had been learning and working on for possibly building a venue and I lost it. Broke down and started crying in the middle of the sidewalk. I was done with corporate and knew I needed to find that excitement and joy she had in just talking about my dream. I told her on the phone we were doing the damn thing. Move forward with all of it and we will figure it out.
I began pulling all-nighters like I was back in college and I took our napkin plans and wrote a formal business plan. And we did figure it all out. Even the name. We were both struggling to find a name to capture what we wanted to provide. A place for all love stories to have a start. We knew we weren’t an exclusive chateau in Italy or a historic downtown rooftop in New York City. During this time we both read a book and a quote from our favorite author struck us. “If I cannot do great things, I will do small things in a great way.” That was it. We could not be those grand places, but we could offer small things in a grand way for every couple. And our napkin business had a name. Small Grand Things.
I was packed and moved back to Iowa in October. For the next 11 months, we busted our asses and backs working on projects, landscaping, and building a business while our contractors were physically building our business. We were able to book weddings off blueprints and renderings of our vision. We will forever be beyond grateful for those couples who took a chance on us and decided to plan their weddings in a venue they couldn’t walk through.
