Welcome Back!

It’s been a really long time since we have utilized this function of our website but I’ve made it a promise to myself to be more engaged this coming season with keeping people involved with what we are doing and all the fun behind the scenes changes that take place on the regular!

A lot has changed since our last post (complete barn remodel, lots of new brides, and we’ve even added two babies to our family since then) so let’s go over some basic things before we get to the fun stuff.

For all the newbies…

In 2016 my husband was working off and we were looking for ways to bring him home. Our oldest was 2 at the time and he was gone so much that it wasn’t worth it to us to have him gone and her miss out on knowing her daddy on the daily.  So one day I said, let’s build a barn. Now a little on this, we were married here in 2011, not in the barn, but on the property that the barns sits. We had a backyard wedding on the pre existing deck and we rented massive tents and hosted over 200 of our friends and family and had the best time!

At that time social media was just growing so “going viral” wasn’t even a thing, but our videographer posted our video on their Facebook and tagged us and the rest was history!

We had sooooo many people messaging us asking where we got married. Now at the time it was just the house so my reply was, it’s just our backyard! Never the less people still wanted to get married here just for the view. We had 5 weddings on property before we ever built the barn so  when we were trying to find ways to bring Daniel home I said, “Let’s build a barn!” And to my husband’s dismay he said Ok!! So we took everything that we had saved in 5 years and started building. Our first two years were wild, that’s when we realized this thing is going to be bigger than we realized, so year after year since then we have made continual changes to make the barn what is is now.

(Side note) I think that’s where most people see what it is now and do not realize the blood, sweat, tears, and occasional terrible wedding experience we had to endure to get here!

Now go back to 2020, we were smooth sailing, the barn was doing amazing, we were booked as much as we were wanting and life was good….. then the dreaded C word hit.

It shook us as an industry, we were not prepared for that, to just in one call be completely shut down, then cancel 7 weddings over night that were supposed to be happening the following month, to having to refund, waiting on restrictions to lift, it was just horrible. And what most people do not realize is there was no relief funds for our industry. We just ate the losses and went on. Then we got the phone call we were able to open up and 3 weeks later our barn was hit with a massssssive storm. In 7 minutes the whole top structure of the barn was gone. Mind you, it’s the morning of a wedding. I heard what sounded like a freight train, the pounding of hail thinking the windows were going to shatter then silence.

I looked out the window (at the time the venue house was still our personal house so we were living there when the storm hit) and all I could say was oh my gosh, the roof is gone!!!

The entire thing ripped off and scattered around the property, in trees, in the parking lot, across the road. It was something when even typing about it now makes my heart race.

Now I know what you are thinking, well isn’t that what insurance is for? Not a big deal right? Wrong! Also, gentle reminder to all Business owners, make sure you are covered enough to hold space for inflation. Because it’s a real thing and if not there’s a thing called under insurance penalties, and they will hit you hard. From when the storm hit on July 3rd 2020 material prices quadrupled and every bid we got was continually changing because of inflation. We ended up paying out 4 times the amount to repair then what we had initially thought because that $40 board was now $114 and we needed 84 of them, or there is a shortage of latex for that paint so now we have to go with this special one that is double the cost of the original. Just things like that no one thinks of when insuring their properties!

So while you see business owners as luxury vacationers to Bora Bora we are actually doing all we can just to keep prices affordable and also keep the lights on while trying to navigate the worst economy since opening. ( this is what zero dollars an hour looks like friends)

After everything 2020 threw our way we repaired, opened back up, and resumed business as usual!! Before and After of the barn front since the remodel. We added some classic black features and upgraded the decking.

I’ve learned a lot since 2020, I’ve grown as a business owner, as a wife, as a mom. One thing that I learned that I have taken into every season since 2020 is to just listen.

When a bride steps on our property to tour I immediately ask God, are they a right fit for us, and if not then we carry on. And through that we have had some of the most incredible brides and experiences (besides for the ones that I knew weren’t a fit but followed through anyways), our business has been amazing, and life here at The Pointe has been wonderful!

We are really looking forward to 2025, we plan to do wedding features, tips and tricks, behind the scenes, and all the fun things! We will be creating a new day of behind the scenes social media so you can be with us start to finish and really just make it fun for engagement!!

We really are all about fun here!!

So anyways!!! Make sure you subscribe to our blog, follow us on our new social media (we will announce that in January) and just hang around for some really cool stuff!!

Thanks for listening to me ramble!

I promise to not go so long next time!

Until then,

Nikki 🤍

The Pointe Lake Eufaula

McAlester, Oklahoma