Earlier, Carole and I wrote the Ultimate Guide to Wedding Venues in the Roanoke Valley and we provided a great deal of information about them.

Today, we’re going to explore barn style wedding venues, they’re known by two styles, ‘country rustic venues’ or ‘luxury rustic’ venues depending on what they offer to couple’s getting married.

Let’s learn a little more about them and provide you some basic information and guidelines about them too.

Why are there so many Barn Wedding venues in Roanoke?

Well, I can first tell you, it wasn’t always that way, in fact, back in the 1990’s, I don’t recall a single venue that was a barn.

Today, with more than 120+ venues in our region, about 21 barn wedding venues and of that 3 are luxury rustic style.

Over the last 12 years roughly 20 wedding venues have popped up and just about all of them have a common theme, a large wooden barn with two front doors.

Some are actually old barns that have been updated with electric power and a just about all have a concrete surface for dancing or receptions.

We can tell you that the country rustic theme is just an popular and affordable option for couples in rural regions of the United States, ours included.

Barn style wedding venues tend to be less costly than the dedicated ones or those that are estates. It’s a popular option in the region to save some money and it makes a great backdrop for your wedding and reception too.

As to why they’ve popped up more-so in the last several years is due to a quick cash-in.

Places that have barns figure they can try to capitalize on the wedding marketplace by offering a cheaper alternative to weddings.

It’s also much cheaper to take an existing barn and turn it into a wedding venue than it is to build one from scratch.

The downfall however is that a saturation of barn wedding venues does two things, it drives down the cost of venues in general, which is great for couples getting married! Another downfall however is that is makes it harder to compete among other venues.

Is a Barn Wedding Venue Worth the Cost?

Well, yes and no, it generally depends on what they have to offer couples.

For example, if the venue is only has a barn and nothing else, then no, it’s NOT worth the cost.

You need to figure in other variables for your wedding venue.

They include:

• Plenty of parking for guests

• A room for bridal prep and a second one for groom prep

• A good amount of restroom facilities. For example, a single stall bathroom will not be enough for 200 guests.

• A prep area for your catering. This doesn’t need to be a full kitchen, but it does need to be a good area for them to prep everything you are eating or drinking.

• Power. Believe it or not, some venues have no power and that is an issue. DJ’s need power, you’ll need lighting for outdoors or tents and photographer’s and videographers may need it to recharge their gear too.

• A backup location in case of rain. This IS important, I’ve been to so many weddings in my career where they had an outdoor wedding with NO indoor backup plan. This could be a building, a barn, a house, a tent, whatever. Just make sure the venue has a weather proof backup plan if you are getting married outdoors.

What Does a Barn Wedding Venue in Roanoke typically cost?

Of the barn wedding venues we collected, we only had pricing information available from 8 of them ranging from $500 to $4,600 in price.

The overall average price was $3,150 for a barn wedding venue.

We can compare that to the other categories and you can see where they fall in the lineup.

From the data shown, Barn venues are generally cheaper than the estates, hotels and wineries in our region. The dedicated wedding venue section is greatly skewed by Sierra Vista and their high end price point of $19,500 for 150 wedding guests as well as The Seclusion in Lexington with their price point of $16,500.

If you take them out of the equation, it drops the average price point to roughly $4,700. The average price point is not what people are paying for the venues, it’s what the average price is in each category.

What is a ‘luxury rustic’ venue and how is it different than a ‘country rustic’ one?

There are some differences between these two types.

Luxury Rustic

A luxury rustic wedding venue is one that elevates the country rustic barn and added in amenities that cater to high classes. For example, the bridal suite would not simply be a room to get dresses in, it would feature name brand furniture, expensive rugs, chandliers’s and décor and provide you a sense of being pampered.

We have only two venues in Southwest Virginia that fall into that category, The Seclusion and Silver Hearth Lodge. Both locations offer over-the-top amenities and are dedicated wedding venues, meaning they are a wedding venue first and something else second.

When you visit one of these venues, you’ll be amazed at all the level of detail at the venue and all the thought they’ve put behind it too.

Country Rustic

A country rustic venues is more basic, they’ll have a barn, a few rooms to get ready, maybe a few firepits and the like too, but they are more elementary when you compare them to their luxury rustic cousins.

That doesn’t mean barn venues are cheap or poor in quality either, it just means they focus more on the venue being in the rural regions of the state and focus more on the simplicity of the venue.

Most all barn wedding venues across the United States will fall into this category.

Not All Barn Wedding Venues are the Same

While they all have a common theme, a rustic barn, not all barn venues in our region are the same.

Some are going to fit your needs while others, not so much.

Maybe having a concrete or wooden floor is important to you, maybe its not.

Maybe you want lots of room for your bridal prep or maybe you’d be happy with just a room with a few chairs.

Each wedding venue offers different amenities and that’s where you’ll need to do your homework in order to find the one that best suits your needs.

What is Our Thoughts on Barn Wedding Venues?

We love these style venues because they are charming and they offer a true sense of what life is like in South Western Virginia. We like some better than others, especially those with good lighting inside.

We can tell you of all the venues we’ve covered over the year, all the barn venues in our region offer a great choice when it comes to having a country rustic wedding.

Just be sure that the venue offers all the amenities that your wedding needs.

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