The Fields of Blackberry Cove — Attraction in Weaverville

The venue itself is beautiful. The view of the mountains is gorgeous and the barn is charming and rustic. When you book this venue, you get to use in house catering, which was great for us because it made planning easier, and Doug is an amazing chef. We got multiple compliments from guests on the food and the views!

Doug also had backup options for us in case it rained — there are tents available in case the weather doesn’t hold out. They have decorations that are available for you to use as well, but they don’t keep an inventory of all their decor so there is no definitive list of what’s available for use. It all worked out in the end but a list would’ve been helpful.

With all the good there was booking this venue, I have a few warnings/recommendations as well.

There was a slight sewage smell that wafted through the barn. I don’t think the septic system is designed to handle events with 100+ people using the bathroom. One guest told us the toilets were not flushing at one point, which got fixed quickly. But I would definitely consider doing a bathroom rental! I would use a day of coordinator when booking with FBBC. Communication with Doug was okay but not great. There were lots of unanswered emails, which was frustrating, but he did answer my phone calls and he was incredibly friendly and helpful on the phone. I’d recommend using a day of coordinator to cover communications with Doug/the venue for you. I do not recommend their in house coordinator, Freda (Doug’s mom). Freda is an incredibly sweet lady, but she did not follow through on a few important things. For example, since Freda was our day of coordinator, you would think she would be around the entire day to ensure everything went according to plan. She completely disappeared after the ceremony and I didn’t have anyone to make sure the reception schedule was followed. It turned into me having to work with the DJ to make sure toasts/first dances/sparkler exit/etc happened. It was also disappointing that she left after the ceremony because she told us she would offer her golf cart to elderly/handicapped guests to get to the bathroom, which is in a lodge up a hill. Grandparents and handicapped guests had a hard time getting to the bathrooms in the lodge, which is another reason I recommend the bathroom rental. Since our day of coordinator was MIA at the reception, a lot of things didn’t happen when they were supposed to, which was not a huge deal to me as long as it all happened at some point. I asked the DJ to please announce the sparkler exit around 45 minutes after it was originally scheduled for. The FBBC staff got mad at the DJ for this, saying they needed a warning before announcing the sparkler exit. The bartender was quite rude to our DJ, which I didn’t appreciate at all. I found it unprofessional, especially since the reason we weren’t following the schedule was because of the venue’s in-house day of coordinator going missing to begin with. There was some weirdness with money/payments. I overlooked most of it but on hindsight, I probably should have spoken up. The rates for the venue vary depending on the time of year, with the fall being more expensive since it’s in higher demand. We booked for October, which was their most expensive month (understandably so). After hurricane Helene hit, we had no choice but to reschedule. We chose April in the following spring, which was a month with a low rate, but still had to pay the October rate for the venue. Not a huge deal but it wasn’t acknowledged at all. We also paid for two bartenders to staff the event but only got one, which felt like a way for them to profit more money. We were not scammed by any means, but there were definitely a few slightly shady things related to money, so I would be wary. Overall, our wedding was beautiful and we had a blast. Guests had fun and it was an amazing day. I’m sharing the negative aspects not to scare people away from booking with them, but to give others a heads up on a few things we think could have been fixed/avoided had we had a...

The reason why I booked this venue was because of the location and that it fit within my budget. Doug also let me run the show how I wanted. Every question that I had, was met with, "it's however you want it." I wanted a record ceremony under 10 mins, and I was done by 7 mins. My rehearsal definitely ran longer than that. I heard good praises from my guests on the food and the catering staff. The bartender hired for the night was nice as well.

Communication was an area of opportunity for Doug. There were instances that it took him 2-3 days to respond via WeddingWire, where I had originally found him. There was rain in the forecast on the day of our wedding and I had reached out the weekend before asking how quickly we good get a tent on standby. Lucky for us the rain held off until the end of the night, because he never responded back.

I DO NOT recommend their in house florist. I had originally went in with plans on doing my own florals, but Freda, their florist had me sold on her experience doing events at the Omni Grove Inn, and she was willing to work within my budget. My first red flag should have been when I had reached out via email, with pictures of what I wanted my bouquets to look like and my response was just an invoice for them. Not assurance that the job could be done to what I had in mind.

At our 45 day meeting we squared away some details and I showed her what I wanted my centerpieces to look like. The most basic centerpieces known to man, a wooden cookie with three cylinder vases of floating candles in each one, and strands of greenery across it.

The day of the wedding we all walked into the bridal suite and found three bouquets. Two of which were in vases not filled with water at all, and one with a plastic base/handle. I've never seen a bouquet put together that way so I picked it up to examine it only to have a flower fall off. That's when I noticed that all of the flower heads were superglued together, which there went any plans of preserving my bouquet. Because of its size, everyone was confused as to whose bouquets were whose so my maid of honor and mother in law went to take care of the situation. The interaction with Freda was not a pleasant one from what I heard. My mother in law had to keep her cool in order to get Freda to quickly whip up a new bouquet, which she was not willing to do at all. I also found out during the entire interaction she kept referring to me as "that girl" and that I had been rude to her during the entire process. My husband was in the room each meeting we had with her. Some of the flowers in the bouquet also had begun browning and wilting, as if she didn't refrigerate them prior to the event. Honestly, I was so appalled by the original bouquet that I didn't want any pictures or anything to do with it.

My centerpieces were nothing like we had agreed upon at our 45 day meeting. There were vases of flowers, and one vase of floating candles at the table, which if I had asked for it it would have been fine, but it wasn't what I envisioned.

The next day I couldn't help but wake up feeling as if I had been cheated on my florals. I trusted Freda, with all the experience that she had but should have just went an entirely different route.

Pros: location, catering staff, food Cons: communication, in house florist

If it wasn't for our experience with Freda, Doug would have received a much...

We just had our wedding here Sunday, October 23rd with 63 guests. This was the absolute most wonderful day of my life, and Doug and his team pulled off the most beautiful and well ran wedding I (and along with my guests reviews) have ever been to. Doug had mentioned that he’s been in this field of work for around 15 or 20 years or so, and it definitely shows! Doug was extremely easy to work with and made almost all of our requests come true unless there was something major that would’ve caused issues. Because it’s busy wedding season, we did have to wait a few bit days to hear back from Doug, but that is totally understandable considering he has other weddings to tend to. The grounds are absolutely beautiful, the drive into the venue is stunning and runs along a river. Surrounded by trees and mountains, the venue is a truly magical place. Keep in mind that this is a wild and rustic venue, grounds are not super manicured like you might see at a vineyard or golf course. The barn is a very special place and looks amazing lit up at night. Again, this is an actual used old horse barn, you can see where the horses have chewed down parts of the old stalls. Tons of character! For the ceremony, we used to love and wisdom and found an amazing officiant, Sarah Judy. For food, we use Doug and his Chef and, the food was absolutely wonderful! We did barbecue, smoked chicken, a pasta bar and sides. Truly, this with some of the best wedding food I have ever had. Guests agreed! We loved Doug’s flexibility with being able to bring in your own alcohol and wedding cake. We did have to hire a bartender but that made things run super smoothly. Also did cocktail hour appetizers which were fantastic. Service staff was amazing running behind folks and cleaning up and keeping everything tidy. Things to note: you do end up parking and having to walk into the ceremony space. After that, your guests do have to walk up a small hill to get to the reception space. We reminded all of our guests to wear boots. I think Doug would have transported anyone who needed any help or anyone with disabilities (they have a few golf carts on the property). And again, this is a truly rustic space; this is exactly what we were looking for but I can imagine that some people might be expecting something different (more manicured/up to date, not sure). I truly cannot recommend this anymore. This was the wedding of our dreams and Doug and his team or eager to make all of this happen for us. And icing on the cake- Doug is so funny and kept us laughing the whole time!! Doug, thank you so much, we will remember this day!!! We will miss you! 💜💜💜...