Couple creates wedding magic in barn

CINDY WOOD/independent feature writer

Annette Haines had her doubts, no doubt.

Her husband, Aaron, was even more perplexed. “He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy,” Haines said, describing the moment she told her then-fiancé that she wanted their wedding reception in a dairy barn.

Pardon me … what?

But Haines had a vision, and her parents, Dan and Janet Bonifas, were 100 percent on board. In fact, it was Haines’s parents, who are both active in the Van Wert County Farm Bureau and the county fair, who eased their daughter’s initial concerns.

“My dad’s a farmer and my mom’s been on the fair board and the county fair was always a big part of our lives growing up,” Haines said.

Initially, the family considered other venues, but found limited options. “We didn’t necessarily want a barn at the beginning, but we really wanted to do something non-traditional,” Haines said. “But our only options were a hall or possibly a golf course.”

Haines quickly found that a non-traditional route came with the traditional, astronomical costs normally associated with a wedding reception. “To rent a tent big enough for my family, not to mention my husband’s family, we were looking at a lot of money,” Haines said, adding, “and we also would have had to worry about the weather.”

Determined to find the perfect place, the family kept brainstorming and Haines’s mom noticed an old barn while out driving one day. “We started thinking about that and how we could have the reception possibly in a barn,” Haines said, adding, though, that her family’s barns were not available, as they were all in use. “There are a lot of beautiful barns around, but almost all of them are active and used by families,” she said. “And then we realized the dairy barn at the fairgrounds is quite large, and was empty.”

It was exactly the type of blank slate Haines was looking for. Ideas for decorations came flowing in, and Haines quickly formed a picture in her head. Her husband, though, still wasn’t convinced.

“He couldn’t picture it at all and he still thought I was crazy,” she said with a laugh.

Haines admitted that, for a moment, she thought she had gone off the deep end as well. “When I first pictured it, I just kept remembering the fair and I could almost smell those animal smells coming back to me,” she said with a laugh. “I was probably more doubtful than my husband at first.”

Regardless, Haines’s mother went to the fair board office to inquire about the barn rental, and office staff there naturally assumed she was interested in renting the commercial building.

“When she told them that she wanted to rent the dairy barn, they looked at her like she was crazy,” Haines quipped.

Undeterred, the family began the months-long process of putting together a wedding reception in a livestock barn. “When we first went in there, I have to say I was a little worried. I was picturing this old wood floor in a nostalgic barn. But all we had to work with was a dirt floor, and it had that lovely livestock smell in there. So I guess we were still both a little apprehensive.”

That apprehension stayed with the couple until they actually began the process of decorating. Haines admits, though, it was hard work transforming an animal barn into the beautiful, serene setting she was hoping for. “When we decided to have it there I was excited, but there were so many things we didn’t think of initially,” Haines said.

The couple had to rent a dance floor, and also needed a stage for a live band. They also had to find tables, chairs, kitchen items and all the other incidentals normally included in a hall rental. “Everything literally had to be brought in,” she said, adding that there were also power concerns that had to be dealt with. “The power to the dairy barn is limited, so my dad actually had an electrician come in and install more power for the band.”

Lighting would play a key role in the ambience of the reception and, because the couple became engaged around Christmas, they scored big deals on Christmas lights after the holidays had passed. “My dad and husband rented a lift and strung the lights through the rafters,” Haines said, adding her mother also scored deals at the Habitat for Humanity rehab store in Lima. “We spray-painted these old chandeliers my mom had bought and hung those from the rafters as well.”

Additionally, Mason jars were hung throughout to help create the nostalgic environment Haines was looking for. “A lot of the beauty actually just came from the natural wood inside the barn,” Haines added.

By the time the big day rolled around, Haines’s fears had been put to rest. “I think I didn’t stop worrying until we actually got done decorating,” Haines said, while also noting that some detours along the way actually worked to the couple’s advantage.

A piece of antique farm equipment could not be moved out of the barn, but the couple made it work. “There was a thrasher in there that we couldn’t move, so instead of hiding it, we decorated it with lights,” she said. “A lot of my grandpa’s friends actually enjoyed it.”

Because there was no running water in the barn, the couple arranged for a caterer who brought a trailer to the event and catered the meal for the evening. By the end of the evening, the couple’s friends and family were more than impressed with the event.

“We got so much positive feedback from people who said it was so interesting,” Haines said. “Random people were stopping by the night before the reception and were amazed it turned out so beautiful.”

Despite the tremendous amount of work and creative effort involved, Haines said she wouldn’t have changed a thing. “After everything was said and done, it was pretty much exactly what I had pictured in my mind,” she added.

After successfully pulling off their non-traditional reception, the couple now lives in Columbus, where Haines works as a registered nurse and her husband is a chemical sales representative.