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# 229: Behind Twickenham House: Where Weddings Become Family
What makes Jocelyn Hunter with Twickenham House a good neighbor?
Tucked away in the breathtaking mountains of Western North Carolina sits Twickenham House, a wedding and events venue with a story as unique as the ceremonies it hosts. What began as a beloved family retreat has organically evolved into one of the region's premier wedding destinations through sixteen years of attentive listening and thoughtful growth.
Owner Jocelyn Hunter never set out to create a wedding venue. After building the house on 400 acres of family land in 1990, life circumstances led them to place it on the vacation rental market. When guests began requesting to host weddings on the property, they started with simple tented events. Each rainy season and muddy lawn became an opportunity to improve, leading to annual capital projects that have transformed the property into the comprehensive venue it is today. As Jocelyn explains, "If I had started out to plan and do a wedding venue, it probably wouldn't be what Twickenham is today. It's evolved by listening to our clients."
What sets Twickenham House apart is their all-inclusive approach. General Manager Leigh Powers, who discovered her passion for wedding planning during college, helps dispel the misconception that their pricing is prohibitive. The venue offers in-house planning, coordination, catering through Marcella Provisions, on-site accommodations, and extensive décor options – creating a seamless experience that often proves more valuable and less stressful than coordinating multiple vendors. Each client works with one dedicated planner from booking through departure, turning what could be an overwhelming process into a personalized journey.
Even through significant challenges like Hurricane Helene washing away their access road in 2023, the Twickenham team has demonstrated remarkable resilience. But perhaps their most significant achievement goes beyond physical structures or services – it's the family they've created. Relationships with couples often continue long after wedding days, with one bride even relocating from Florida to Western North Carolina after falling in love with the area during her celebration. As Jocelyn puts it, "We're family, not only with staff, but also with our clients."
Ready to experience the magic of Twickenham House? Visit twickenhamhouse.com to learn more about creating your unforgettable celebration in this extraordinary mountain setting.
To learn more about Twickenham House go to:
https://www.twickenhamhouse.com/
Twickenham House
828-783-8942
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I'm super excited today because I've got two special guests in our studio and I'm really excited to learn all about them and their business. And so today I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbors, ms Jocelyn Hunter, who is the owner operator, and Lee Powers, who is general manager of Twickenham House. Ladies, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hello, thank you.
Speaker 2:So, like I said, we're really excited to learn all about you guys and what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off one of you by telling us all about Twickenham House?
Speaker 3:Oh sure, so we've been running Twickenham House about 16 years. We are a wedding and events venue. We are a wedding and events venue and I guess around 2020, we added catering in to serve our clients all their meals on site and we mostly do weddings. But we also do corporate events and we've done a quinceanera and we do family retreats. A lot of times people who come for weddings will come back and do a different type of retreat, so we've done some business that way.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Well, how did you guys get into this business, into the wedding venue business?
Speaker 3:It's kind of an interesting story. I didn't start out doing a wedding and events business. My husband's from Ashe County many, many generations and he grew up there. His grandfather had a large like a 1600 acre farm which is now a golf course, but he just had a special love for the area. So we purchased the property like in 1990, we had 400 and some acres and we built which is now Twickenham house.
Speaker 3:We built the house just to be a family gathering place and we ended up living there for six years and during that time I homeschooled my children. When they were ready to be put into public school, we moved to Boone to put them in school there and the house sat empty. So, as everyone knows, it's not a good idea to leave a property vacant for any period of time. So we decided to put it on the vacation rental market to keep people in there and then we just kind of use the money to keep the house up, kept, and so it was in use and then we just people just started asking to host weddings there and we started with just doing tents on the lawn and after a rainy fall we decided that tents wouldn't work anymore because there was no grass left after a few weddings and we felt horrible for the brides having their reception on a muddy lawn.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 3:So really it's. We didn't intend on doing a wedding venue, but really it's like a product of all the brides that have been there. So we just listened, and on what people would suggest and ask for. And we we usually do a capital project each year just to improve on our, you know, on the property and better serve our guests. So we, it's, it's been a journey. So it's been a journey, but it's been a journey of just really just listening. If I had started out to plan and do a wedding venue, it probably wouldn't be what Twickenham is today. So it's, really is.
Speaker 2:It's just sort of evolved into what it is.
Speaker 3:It's evolved by listening to our clients.
Speaker 2:And awesome. Well, Lee, what about you? How'd you get into this business?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. So when I was in college changed my major quite a few times and no clue what I wanted to do. Eventually my dad, you know, kind of brought up wedding planning to me, said you've always loved people and planning events and designing. Have you ever thought about being a wedding planner? Of course, at that point I'd only seen a J-Lo movie called the Wedding Planner and had no clue what that actually looked like. So yeah, going into my senior year of college, I interned at another venue in Boone, absolutely fell in love with wedding planning and kind of you know all different sides of the venue, so stuck with them for a little bit, got a full time job right out of college, decided I was ready to move on and kind of put myself out there, applied with Twickenham on Indeed and she got back to me really quick so I'd come over for an interview. And history ever since.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 3:We weren't quite ready for a second wedding planner at the time, but I loved Lee and I was like I want to hire you.
Speaker 4:Can you just wait a?
Speaker 3:few months. So we found jobs for her to do to make money. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So App State.
Speaker 4:Yes, I went to App State in Boone. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice, Well, I'm an app dad. My daughter class of 24.
Speaker 4:So awesome Congrats.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. Same to you. So what are some myths or misconceptions in the wedding venue industry? I'm sure there are some.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely there's plenty. I would say, you know, one that we receive a lot is that our venue is quite pricey or clients worry that you know they don't have the budget for us. You know we offer a lot on in-house. We offer in-house planning coordination. Of course we mentioned our catering company, marcella Provisions. We offer on-site accommodations.
Speaker 4:So you know, when you kind of see that big number together, it can be a little intimidating. However, you know a lot of people don't realize when they're booking a venue or booking an outside planner, booking an outside caterer, you know, renting decor, buying decor, that adds up really, really quick. So when you kind of compare those two totals you realize, oh, you know, we're actually not that expensive. It's actually a lot easier, you know, to use everything kind of in-house through us, which is again kind of like Jocelyn mentioned something we've evolved into after you know, kind of hearing what clients really need. We also offer a lot of decor on site. I always joke, you know, someone came to us and wanted a wedding tomorrow. We could, we could do it because we do yeah.
Speaker 2:Don't we offer one-stop shop exactly, absolutely very cool, very cool well and the other thing that's.
Speaker 3:I always think that's kind of interesting on the wedding, when you're always on the industry, when you're trying to compare apples to apples like our wedding planners that they have they do. When we compare with other outside planners we do so much more but sometimes it's it's hard to get to get across what you do because people they get married once and it's a learning process the whole time but it's, but you're learning something you'll never do again. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right Hopefully.
Speaker 4:Hopefully yeah, or if you do it'd be different so.
Speaker 3:So, it's so hard to convey just the level of service that we provide. We have one person right from the beginning that you're assigned to as soon as you book, and they walk you through till you pack your bags and leave.
Speaker 2:Wow, very nice, very nice. Well, service makes all the difference in the world, especially with word of mouth advertising, which is some of the best advertising you can get.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I have to say, when Lee was doing more planning, she planned one lady's wedding and then her sister the following year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, decided to get married with us. I think that is pretty, pretty huge.
Speaker 2:For sure. Well, ladies, outside of work, what do y'all, what do y'all like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I have four children, so they they are my fun Getting close to empty nesting, so that'll be sad, but now I just visit them in other places, yeah.
Speaker 4:I love being outside hiking, of course, taking advantage of the beautiful area we live in, and I love working out. So those are some of my fun activities outside of work.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool. Now is the Blue Ridge Parkway open, now.
Speaker 4:It is Now. There's still some trails, different spots, that are closed or being maintained, but the parkway itself is open again, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can, there's been quite a few. I like to do a lot of hikes as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome, same here. That's a beautiful area where you guys, live Sounds great for it. Well, if, jocelyn, if could you describe or think of a hardship or a life challenge? Actually, either one of you want to take a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger in the end, either professionally or personally.
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean, the hugest one was the Hurricane Helene last fall. We lost our road completely and had to either move or cancel weddings and, as you can imagine, weddings are such an emotional time. I mean we would just spend days crying in the office. I mean, same thing with COVID. I mean I guess we're a little better prepared, having gone through COVID and similar situation and trying to accommodate people and maintain the business.
Speaker 2:So did you guys, as far as your facilities were okay, except for the road, or yeah, the facilities were fine.
Speaker 3:I mean we were really blessed with, like, the department of transportation. They came in and we I was shocked, yeah, I mean we had canceled weddings, thinking that it would take like six months. I mean, there literally was no road, it was a river.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 3:And they were really awesome. I mean they were so amazing. But the NDC came in and rebuilt it and took about six weeks. I mean they didn't start for right away because we are secondary road, but yeah Still six weeks is no short time frame when it's your road. Six weeks was a rebuild. It probably took them a couple of months before they could get to it.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, oh wow. So it was a while. Well, we were very fortunate to. I live in a neighborhood on the Nolichucky river which flooded and on the Tennessee side, and very fortunate, and it's been amazing to me how the community has come together. You know, all over Western North Carolina, especially Asheville, you know Boone Marshall, you know it's been amazing to me how people, how resilient Western North Carolina is.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's huge with our church. Samaritan's Purse was stationed at our church.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So we were kind of like the hub and my son now works on the rebuild project that they're rebuilding 500 homes.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 3:So it's been an amazing process.
Speaker 2:Please thank your son for us. We want to support what he's doing. So if you guys could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Tickenham House, what would that be? I?
Speaker 3:think cause we're like a family. I have four sons, so this has been a fun business to get daughters.
Speaker 4:Staff is like family, even the you know the couples that come through and get married with us very rarely is, are we not, you know, maintaining that relationship after a wedding. You actually had a bride move here, I actually did, yeah. A bride that got married with me several years ago. We're now really great friends. She just attended my baby shower. She was at my wedding, moved from Florida to this area after her wedding because she fell in love with it so much. So, yeah, we're family, not only with staff, but also with our clients.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, it's all family. That's awesome. So for those of us, if we have some listeners who were thinking about getting hitched, having a family reunion, just checking your place out, how can they learn more?
Speaker 4:Yeah, our website is a great place for that. So that's twickenhamhousecom. There's different links. You can click on there to shoot us an email or hop on a call, but that's definitely the best place to reach us or find more information. And you will reach Lee. Yeah, you'll probably be talking with me, awesome.
Speaker 2:Awesome, good to remember, very cool. Well, ladies, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend with me and with our listeners and telling us all about Twickenham House and moving forward. We wish you and your family and colleagues and Twickenham House all the best.
Speaker 3:Thank you, oh, thank you.
Speaker 2:And maybe we can have you back sometime when you got a really big event going on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. Thanks so much, ladies.
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 GNP. Try dash citiescom. That's GNP. Try dash citiescom. That's GNPtry-Citiescom. Or call 423-719-5873.