The Brief History of Cold Spring Barn | A New Hampshire Wedding Venue
Pictured: Cedar barn doors built by Alan Loudon – the last touch he put on before moving his focus to the house.
Our journey to becoming a New Hampshire wedding venue has been a remarkable one. We take pride in the years spent building up what was once raw land into the 2nd place winner of New Hampshire Lakes Region Best Wedding Venue of 2024. While building a barn wedding venue was not originally in our plans as we purchased this land, the theme of building and fostering community ran deep through every step of our evolution. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity we have to care for this land, the community that has helped and supported us throughout this journey, and the bonds we have created and strengthened throughout the process.
Our history on this ~280-acre property began in 2003 when we purchased it from a local logging company. The land had been cleared where the house and barn sit now, with massive piles of brush, roots, rocks, etc. scattered throughout. There was nothing here besides land that incredible view. It was overwhelming, but one day at a time, with the support of our loved ones, many bonfires, and tons of sweat equity, it began to take shape.
In 2008, after five years of clearing, burning, preparing, and saving, we began to build the barn. It was masterfully designed by our dear friends who also happen to be incredibly skilled architects, and was the first structure that we built on the property. There are several existing stone foundations around the property that date back 200+ years, but there were no standing buildings present upon our arrival.
The barn is a true post and beam structure and was built in 12’x12’ squares. Although we had plenty of building experience and DIY energy, we employed the help of a local post and beam expert on this as we had never tackled a project like this before. Our intention was to do this in a traditional manner with our family and learn from the process. The result is a beautiful, solid, strong barn reminiscent of barns that far pre-date it.
Pictured: Fiona the mini and the season she spent inside the barn.
Pictured: Trail clearing
We originally built the barn with the idea that it would be a home for horses in the future, but our horses never ended up stepping foot inside, except for one season when we housed a mini horse inside with her goat companion due to her fragile state. (Find out more about our horses’ stories here.) Without the need to home our animals inside, we wound up mostly using the barn as storage and workshop space. Occasionally, we would have gatherings – live music, community bonfires, etc. for which we would gather in the unfinished upstairs space of the barn. Despite the lack of finishings and heat, it was always a memorable time.
Pictured: Hay tent construction
Pictured: Garage construction
Years went by as we redirected our energy toward building our home and establishing trails, pastures, and gardens. During this time, the barn remained an unfinished flex space for us to house our projects, tools, and equipment. Being who we are, it took every bit of the next several years for us and our willing and loving family to build our house. Everyone we know and love had a hand in building what you see at Cold Spring Farm today, and that is a legacy we are so grateful for and proud of.
In 2018, just before he passed, Alan (Husband, Dad, Stepfather, Papa to us and builder of most things at CSF) expressed an urgency to ‘finish the barn.’ He had shared many different ideas of how to use the space over the years, including using it as studio space and/or event space. As a photographer by hobby, he loved the idea of people gathering in the barn. He left us the name of a carpenter he trusted, and together, we developed a plan to create our venue.
This process was cathartic for us after his loss. Throughout all our time together as a family, I don’t think any of us can remember a time when we weren’t deeply invested in some kind of project. When he passed, finishing the barn he began building was like working on one last project together.
The first step was building new storage for hay, equipment, and our little workshop. We settled on constructing a large tent structure for hay and equipment and a garage for the workshop and indoor storage. Quite the undertaking to do both at the same time, so we enlisted the help of our family, friends, and some local businesses to help us get it done.
We began with a plan to create two sizable bathrooms downstairs and finish the concrete floors (some parts were still dirt), a bar/service area upstairs, and to install shiplap on all walls throughout the entire space. Our relationship with Goosebay Lumber in Chichester, NH became significant as truckloads of beautiful wood showed up week after week for walls, flooring, and doors. By spring of 2019, we were complete enough to host a family wedding reception at the barn. It was a beautiful success, but progress has continued moving since then!
Pictured: Dirt floors in the barn and family efforts to bring in lumber deliveries
Pictured: The bathrooms being constructed and handmade doors being installed.
Pictured: Barn progress – new floors, new bar space, and family helpers.
It became clear that our round pen, goat pen, and mini-horse enclosure, all located very close to the barn, should be relocated to make room for future wedding guests. In the summer of 2019, we relocated the round pen (an enclosure used for horse training) from where the fire pit/patio/bocce court is now to a new spot in the yard, tucked just into the tree line. Not long after, we were also able to integrate our remaining mini horse into the larger herd, and the couple of goats we had left were accepted into a farm with many more goats for them to socialize with. While we were sad to see our buddies go, they were happy to be in a larger space with more friends.
Originally, we planned to scrape up the sand and stone dust ground material inside the round pen and plant gardens and grass. However, we realized that was actually the perfect base for creating a patio and bocce court, so we just left it there instead. In keeping with our desire to utilize as much of our natural resources as possible, we tried to find stones around the property that would fit well as patio stones. We placed several large stones in the patio from around the property, but the process was slow and painstaking. With weddings on the horizon, we did wind up speeding up the process by finishing the job with a few loads of store-bought pavers, resulting in a unique and natural-looking patio. We completed the job by adding whimsical winding paths through the woods that led from the parking lot to the patio and onto the barn, a large, recessed fire pit, and some found boulders that resemble Flintstone furniture.
Pictured: Mini horse in the ceremony area and round pen in the current patio area.
Pictured: Patio Building
The next step was lighting. Originally, we relied on solar lighting. We loved the ambiance but quickly learned it was not consistently reliable as the only light source for our guests’ walk back to their cars. If it was an overcast or rainy day, the lights would be very dim or not turn on at all, posing a safety risk. It was then that we found New England Holiday Lighting Company, and they did a beautiful job lighting up our exterior, paths, and patio. With their touches, our space looks truly magical at night. All of our lighting is now LED and wired underground right to our cute Jamaica Cottage shed, which houses wood for the firepit and our extensive collection of outdoor games.
Pictured: Left: Original solar lighting in the pathway and woodshed. Right: LED café lights and uplighting currently installed at the patio.
While we were shopping Jamaica Cottage Shop in Jamaica, VT we became inspired. We needed a special spot for our future brides to stay out of sight until the right moment during their ceremonies, something we were told is often missing from outdoor ceremony sites. We fell in love with their quaint storybook cottage for this purpose and purchased kits to build the cottage, the woodshed, and the cabin all at the same time. (More on the cabin later, as this build is still underway.) You can tell by now that one project always leads to the next!
Bob, our amazing General Manager worked diligently to create the patio and build all three of those structures by 2021. While our cottage is quaint, it is thoughtfully decorated and equipped with everything you might need while you wait for your entrance. It has electricity, heat, AC, ample comfortable seating, and makeup mirrors for touchups. It is located directly across the driveway from the beginning of the aisle in our ceremony area.
Pictured: Cottage shots then and now.
In the winter of 2021, we ventured to Maine as a family to claim 20 live-edge benches we found on Facebook marketplace. We dug them out of the snow and hauled them home in a rented trailer and went to work refinishing them to make them wedding-ready. A true labor of love, these benches were each hand-sanded several times over and sealed with several layers of finishes.
Our ceremony area has moved around a little bit but settled into a spot that had once been home to our goats and mini horses in the years before. It sits on a high point in the yard, visible from the barn, overlooking the horse pastures and mountains. We worked tirelessly to reclaim this spot by May of 2021 before an early wedding that year. With the clock ticking down, we excavated, leveled, and planted grass and gardens as soon as the spring weather allowed us to that year.
A few beautiful weddings later it became clear that our barn, beautiful as it was, could benefit from some more light inside (and climate control.) The stable doors were no longer functional as they were covered over with shiplap on the inside (despite still being visible from the outside), and our traditional sliding cedar barn doors were the only thing between the newly finished indoor space and the elements outside. We had fashioned some inserts for the winter months, but this was extremely challenging to set up and take down each year, was not very attractive, and was hard to call when exactly to install as we all know New England weather is unpredictable.
Pictured: Our handmade insulated insert to help us keep the heat in before the glass doors.
The answer to all these challenges was to install glass doors. We envisioned full-length, true divided light doors that would match the existing windows and span the expansive openings in the front and back of the barn as well as take the place of each of the faux stable doors, exposing the indoors to the mountain view outside in every direction, no matter the weather. Our dear friend and amazing architect Nancy Downing drew up exactly what we were dreaming of, and we started to contact companies to collect quotes. This was a much larger undertaking than we had originally considered. The responses included, ‘You’re crazy’, ‘We can’t do that, but what about this?’, and quotes that were so astronomical we would never be able to afford them.
After enduring many disappointing meetings, we settled on Granite State Glass, who agreed to custom order two 12’x12’ sets of French doors for the larger openings and five 9’x42” doors for each stable opening with transoms on top. Our dear friends at Meredith Village Savings Bank came to the rescue by helping us obtain our first commercial loan to fund this improvement. The doors were ordered in the spring of 2022 and were all installed by January of 2023. This elevated our barn wedding venue look as well as our function, providing us the ability to heat the barn as well now that it was sealed.
Pictured: Glass doors @cliffordphotographynh
Immediately after we installed the doors, we realized that while all five of the side doors opened us up to the gorgeous view, they also led out into a bumpy side yard that we had not done much work on. The logical next step was a patio space they could open out to. (Remember, one thing always leads to the next.) As soon as the ground thawed that spring, we began excavation for the side patio. We affectionately refer to this space as the FFP, which stands for Fran’s Front Porch. Fran, our beloved matriarch, Mom, Nana, Great Nana, and best friend, passed away just before this was completed, so we dedicated it to her memory as she would have loved this special outdoor space surrounded by flowers overlooking the view.
Pictured: Left: Frost wall being poured to prep for patio. Right: Patio drying/setting after being poured.
Construction on this space had to be finished quickly in between weddings that year. We ran into a few snags (accidentally digging up a buried electrical line, weather, etc.), but it was completed with the help of local contractors Andrew Morse Excavating and Dave Gibson from Granite Waves Electrical. We shared videos of our progress on this to our social media daily, from the concrete pour to mulching/planting.
Pictured: Family efforts to plant and spread mulch around “The FFP.”
While all this was going on, we got into the detail work for our cabin and began construction on another home for family on the property. Never a dull moment. Those two projects are both nearing completion now and will likely be the subject of a future blog for any interested.
Just in case we needed one more thing, we also had a vision for the horse pasture. We began the process of constructing and installing our often-photographed split rail fence during the spring/summer of 2023. We believe this adds so much to the view in addition to adding security for the horses and all of you.
Every season, we undertake improvements simply because we live for them. Each idea begets the next, and we are deeply invested in creating a truly unique, fresh, and authentic space for all of you (and us) to enjoy! I don’t know if we will ever be done churning ideas, learning how to DIY the things we can, and saving up for the things we can’t. Each year, we learn more about how to make this property function even better for our guests and our business, and we are driven to keep growing and improving as we learn.
The projects currently on the horizon include a potential roof over the side patio (The FFP), so that we may have a covered outdoor space for ceremonies in the event of rain, a small roof over the front door to protect our wooden doors, and offer protected loading/unloading, an expansion for our upstairs deck to include storage and perhaps a 3-season space, and running built-in sound throughout the barn for better coverage.
As always, we add strategic plantings every year. We expand our wildflower gardens, perennial gardens, pathways, and thoughtful bits that will hopefully brighten everything and add to the available photo opportunities. We also plan to focus more on the upkeep of our extensive trail system in the future in hopes of opening trails to the public.
Building this New Hampshire wedding venue has been a years-long journey that has provided us with purpose, a place to direct our creativity, and a means of sharing a bit of ourselves with the world. We are so grateful for the opportunity it has provided us to build, learn, and grow together. We are committed to improving, expanding, and sharing this amazing space with you all.
Thank you so much for stopping by our blog. This story will never be finished, but we hope you enjoyed this brief explanation of how we got to where we are now. We wouldn’t be here without the help and support of our amazing community and the many locally owned small businesses within it. If you’ve been here a while, you know we use this space to share helpful information and wedding inspiration and as a means of supporting other small, locally owned businesses. Check out some other amazing locally owned wedding venues out there also working to create unique spaces and perfect wedding days.
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