Every new year brings new opportunities for us and with those opportunities we meet new friends and get to go to some pretty amazing new places! One of those new places to us this year has been the Rex Allen Events center in Hickory, NC! Being based out of a beautiful area like Asheville, most of our wedding photography and engagement photography is centered around local venues in the area. But of course, if you venture just outside of Asheville in just any direction, you’ll soon find that we are surrounded by some pretty remarkable areas and Hickory, NC is fast becoming one of the areas we are blessed to travel to quite often for weddings! This year was our first time getting to shoot a wedding at the Rex Allen Event center and the experience was nothing short of stellar! Interestingly enough, we actually had two weddings on back to back Saturdays at Rex Allen Events, which is the first time this have ever happened!
One of things we mentally go through before every wedding is the of planning process of where we’re are going to do certain shots when the time comes! There are so many variables as wedding photographers when it comes to backgrounds, lighting, surroundings, client preference, that if you haven’t been to a venue before, you’re always hopeful there’s at least one or two spots you can work with for your couples and their loved ones. At Rex Allen Events, you definitely don’t have that problem, in fact, if anything, you may have to narrow down your selection as Rex Allen Events has a ton of beautiful spots to choose from! Our personal favorite was the little hideaway down by the river! As you wind along one of the small paths on the property into the lush greenery, which eventually opens up into a beautiful little hidden spot on the property. It happens to be located next to a river, there are old church steeples emerging from the ground across the way, the tree line provides a beautiful backdrop, and they have a small path which creates what we call the tunnel effect topped by hanging lights. It has a romantic nature feel and the color, oh the color this time of the year! We can only imagine how it looks in the fall!
In addition to the hideaway by the river, you also have the exterior of the theater itself which is a striking big red barn, an outdoor covered pavilion, the option to do your ceremony down by their pond and water fall, or indoors for that matter! Another one of our favorite little spots is The Old Homeplace as they call it. It was the original house of the Lail farm built in the 1800s. We love it because it gives you an authentic rustic look whether you’re trying to grab a few photos with your groomsmen, your bridesmaids, or just the two of you!
Another cool inclusion of having your wedding at Rex Allen Events is they have separate, dedicated areas for the Bride and groom to get ready. I say dedicated because some venues have a “space” but we’ve seen in the past with some wedding venues, it kind of feels like they’re just throwing you in a closet (true story) so actually having a space set up for getting ready is such a convenience that cannot be overlooked when searching for your wedding venue as it also prevents you from having to get a hotel or two for the bridal party to get ready.
Last but certainly not least, we could not forget about the kind and super helpful staff! Hannah and Rex are available as are the rest of the team to make sure even the smallest of requests can be fulfilled in a timely manner. Everyone on their team is pleasant and you really get the feeling that they are as just as happy to be there as the bride and groom! One of the other cool features about having your wedding at Rex Allen Events is they will golf cart you across their 60 acre property at the drop of the hat! If you’re a bride and groom that value multiple shots at varied locations on your wedding day, it can be quite the inconvenience having to trek all across a hilly woodsy venue in a wedding dress, dress shoes, heels, tux, etc. Having this option also saves you time, allowing you to get in more shots, and spend more time with your friends and family!
One of the reasons we love to highlight some of the slightly out of town venues is because many times we find that some of the couples we work with for their wedding day may not have a venue already picked out, but they have a date. Then they soon realize that they cannot find a venue in Asheville. Since Asheville is a popular destination wedding area, the wonderful wedding venues around here fill up fast and they fill up early! Hickory is a short hour trip and not too far off the beaten path so you can still get all of your wedding party and guests there easily! Having spent two weekends in a row at Rex Allen Events center this past March, we could not be more delighted to recommend them to anyone reading this blog post or anyone currently searching for a venue!
Thank you all for following and as a little bonus, we’ve added a video link from the amazingly talented Heartistree Studios to this blog of one of the recent weddings we had the pleasure of being a part of! In addition to telling Bryan & Delaney’s beautiful wedding day story, it gives a good moving representation of all Rex Allen Events has to offer! So check it out here
Joe & Jenny