Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 218: Family Land to Dream Weddings: Amanda Brown's Splendor Valley Story
What makes Amanda Brown with Splendor Valley Events a good neighbor?
What happens when preserving family heritage becomes a thriving business? Amanda Brown never planned to own a wedding venue until her husband's family land needed protection. Now, five years later, Splendor Valley stands as one of Western North Carolina's most meaningful wedding destinations.
Amanda pulls back the curtain on wedding venue misconceptions, challenging the notion that ceremonies must follow rigid traditions. "A wedding is reflective of the couple," she explains, describing how today's celebrations increasingly showcase personality over convention. This refreshing perspective invites couples to reimagine their special day beyond the expected checklist of traditions.
The conversation takes a moving turn as Amanda reflects on resilience through adversity. Having purchased the property just before COVID devastated the wedding industry and recently weathered Hurricane Helene, her story resonates with anyone who's faced unexpected business challenges. "God spared our property," she shares gratefully, while expressing admiration for the community response throughout Western North Carolina—a powerful reminder of connection during difficult times.
What truly distinguishes Splendor Valley isn't just its picturesque setting but Amanda's philosophy toward weddings themselves. Rather than offering merely a beautiful backdrop, she creates an experience where families "disconnect, enjoy the day, enjoy the sanctity of the marriage." This vision transforms weddings from elaborate productions into sacred moments of authentic connection—something increasingly rare and precious in our distracted world.
Whether you're planning a wedding, running a small business, or simply appreciate stories of purpose-driven entrepreneurship, Amanda's journey offers both inspiration and practical wisdom. Connect with Splendor Valley at splendorvalleyevents.com and experience the difference of working directly with an owner who brings heart to every aspect of her business.
To learn more about Splendor Valley Events go to:
https://splendorvalleyevents.com/
Splendor Valley Events
(828) 329-6920
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monning.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today we've got a very special guest in our studio and I am super excited to learn all about them and their business. And I'm sure you will be as well, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, ms Amanda Brown, who is the owner-operator of Splendor Valley. Amanda, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hey, skip, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Well, we're thrilled to have you, Like I said, very interested to learn all about what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you tell us about your business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Obviously our venue is Splinter Valley is primarily a wedding venue. We do offer some other types of events as well on occasion, but primarily we focus on the weddings. So we have owned the venue a little over five years now. My husband and I bought it. It was actually familial land to him, so it was very important that we had that land and continued on with that in his family.
Speaker 2:Very good Been in the family for a while. So how did you get into this business, Amanda?
Speaker 3:Well, we really just fell into it. Like I said, it was family owned and so we, you know, we wanted to keep that in the family. We didn't want, you know, something to happen to the land. We didn't want a development or anything of that sort, just because it's such a beautiful and serene valley and it's, you know, it's a very precious piece of land to us. So we, you know, we kind of fell into it and once we bought it, we just kind of went running with the wedding venue.
Speaker 2:There you go. Well, speaking of wedding venues, what are some myths or misconceptions in the wedding venue business, If there are?
Speaker 3:any. I mean, I think that of course, there could be myths just about any type of business, but I think the myth is that a wedding has to be something very specific or very, you know, traditional. But I think that's a myth because I think a wedding is reflective of the couple and you know what they want to see out of their wedding day.
Speaker 2:I would agree. I just attended a wedding a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely not like any wedding I'd ever been to and I think that's a pretty common thing now. It's just depending on what the couples are interested in, I think.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I think the traditions of weddings have definitely shifted over the years. Of course, that can be good in some ways. In some ways, I think that that can also not be so good, but it is more of a reflection of the couple as opposed to a reflection of maybe their whole family or something that they're traditionalized in you know something that they're, you know, traditionalized in Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Well, we all know that marketing is critical to just about any kind of business. How do you guys market the venue?
Speaker 3:Yes, marketing is so hard. So primarily our source of marketing is, you know, social media. We do a lot of social media. Our presence on that is very important. Google is also, of course, a very important way of marketing, but I hope that our biggest way of marketing honestly is just word of mouth. I hope that you know the people that come and spend their wedding day with us. Can you know, go off and tell you know their friends and family how much they enjoyed their time with us and how you know much of an impact it was for them on their wedding day and hopefully that is it has served us well so far, so hopefully that will be continued.
Speaker 3:continue to be our biggest marketing part that we have.
Speaker 2:Word of mouth is by far the best, best thing you can get, for sure, most effective. So let's switch gears for just a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've gone through, either professionally or personally, that you came out stronger on the other side? Anything come to mind.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Of course, we all have personal ones for sure. We all have personal ones for sure. But just in the professional aspect, you know, like I said, we just kind of happened into the venue ownership.
Speaker 3:It has been an awesome journey and it has been a lot of learning. So within that I have had lots of you know mishaps and things to happen and lots of learning curves to you know work through in the last five years. So we've seen a couple of natural disasters I guess we bought just before COVID hit and we of course, just went through Hurricane Helene. So we've kind of seen our fair share of you know craziness within the wedding venue industry.
Speaker 2:I'm sure, speaking of that, were you guys impacted as far as damage to your property or your home.
Speaker 3:Ultimately, you know, God spared our property. We had a small portion of our fields and our fencing that was taken out by our creek that runs through our property, but we did not have any direct effects to our home or the venue, thankfully. So we really were fortunate compared to so many.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. I talked to a lot of folks in Asheville and you know a lot of folks were really hit hard.
Speaker 3:We are so thankful.
Speaker 2:But super proud of the folks of Asheville and Western North Carolina for being so resilient and coming together. That's been very heartwarming and a good thing to see since all this has happened.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I completely agree with that. It was definitely a coming together of people and churches and support and love and ultimately, I think it was just a great showing of God's grace and mercy and love that kind of swept through our western North Carolina area.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. Well, Amanda, if you could think of one thing that you would really like our listeners to remember about Splendor Valley, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I think the most important thing is that coming to Splendor Valley is not just about checking off the to-dos of a wedding and making sure that you have this and that and everything covered. I think coming to Splendor Valley is an experience. I think that we live in such a beautiful valley. It holds so much significance. It's serene, it is just beautiful. It is God's creation. You can't look at this area and not see that painted all over it. I think it's more of an experience. It's more of a time for families to come together and truly just disconnect, enjoy the day, enjoy the sanctity of the marriage that's happening and, you know, just spend time with one another and, you know, just be thankful for, you know, the family and friends that they get to come here and celebrate with.
Speaker 2:Awesome, great thing to remember. So, if any of our listeners are interested in learning more, they're potentially have a wedding coming up or it's that season. How can they? How can they learn more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, of course. We have a website that would be wwwsplendorvalleyeventscom. You can go on there. Our website's built with lots of great information and a great place to start to check us out. Um, you can inquire directly from the website or you can call me directly and I will take care of you. I, um, I am behind the scenes, I do all of the tours. I, you know, I'm the one that you contact. It's a small business, so it is me, so you'll definitely get that personal touch in that personal aspect of it.
Speaker 2:Wonderful and that's a that's a good thing. When I do business, I love to number one, do business with local people, local businesses that are locally owned and that are. You know, the person that runs the show is the person that answers the phone when you call.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that. Well, Amanda, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with us and telling our listeners all about Splendor Valley and wish you and your family and Splendor Valley all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Skip. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you and hopefully we can have you back sometime.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.