It was a rainy spring morning as I headed up the hill to the beautiful bed and breakfast perched on top. Overlooking the New River and with the tulips poking their way through the soil it feels like the gardens at Nesselrod on the New River are about to bloom for wedding season. I sat down with Mark, the owner, and Gaby, the onsite wedding planner to talk a little more about what weddings look like at this beautiful location.

The bed and breakfast, in addition to the 5 rooms at the inn, has two different garden sites as well as a tented area and a patio to host your event. They can hold up to 250 guests but most events average between 120-150 guests comfortably. And, as you can tell with the different sites you have lots of options to customize your ceremony and reception look. The upper garden has the gazebo and the “sunken garden” has a raised stage, a waterfall, and gorgeous greenery enclosing it.

They offer several different packages for weddings, based on your needs of the property. But each package includes table, chair, and linen rentals for the first 50 guests and a lot of them offer the rooms at the bed and breakfast as well. The staff here will also take care of the set up and tear down so that you don’t have to worry about it. And while they don’t have a caterer on site there are several they work with on a regular basis.

If your interests are peeked, Gaby recommends booking them as soon as possible. They start booking in June for the next year but if you are interested then you can plan a site visit to help you decide before June so that when they open the bookings you can get the date you want right away. They also list all their packages online to help you decide, but a tour of the facility is recommended as well. And on your visit they have several sample albums you can view that show you different things you can do with the space.

One of Gaby and Marks favorite things are the uniqueness each wedding brings and how each bride brings her own touch. In one wedding the bride and groom stopped at each isle during the recessional and hugged and thanked their guests. It was different but so appreciated by everyone in attendance.

Another great thing about having your wedding here is that Gaby and her staff take care of the details for you – she likes to let the bride relax and worry about getting ready and she will take care of things and keep you stress free. Her staff does all the set up and can help with some of the decor, but setting up the centerpieces and other decorations are ultimately up to you (or maybe your florist team) so she recommends assigning a couple people that aren’t in the wedding party to oversee all this so you don’t have to. Either way – make sure it is not the brides responsibility so you don’t add stress. You can do some of the decorating the night before, but since it is an outdoor venue you won’t be able to set up everything.

I also asked them, after all the weddings they’ve seen what other tips they have. The main thing they said – and that I’ve heard from almost every venue – is book your vendors ASAP. Worry about the details later, but figure out the major vendors you want to work with so you don’t miss out on booking them. They also recommend that don’t have a part of your centerpieces that has to be finished right before the reception, unless you have someone that can take care of it or else it may not happen. The more you can have completed before your wedding day the better. But in the end their main tip was stop stressing, because at the end of the day you will be married and that’s what really matters. And I couldn’t agree more.