When I got engaged in July there was no doubt where I wanted to have my wedding and reception. I had been dreaming of the blue dress barn for years. The staff replied right away after I had emailed an inquiry and in 1 week I had gone to visit the barn, selected a date, signed the contract and made the deposit for my October wedding. Amy was great when I would write her questions via email. She would reply promptly and always had a thorough answer. They are busy people, running 2 very popular venues, but they do it with friendliness and professionalism. My wedding day was the best day of my life and I wouldn't change a thing about it. I would highly recommend the BDB as your venue. You will not regret it.

In January my daughter became engaged, she is my first child to marry and this would be my first party of any sort that I would have to help plan. ( my mother planned most of mine). About a month later she found "The Blue Dress Barn" on the internet and said it was 4 hours away for all of the guests if we decided on it, but that she really loved what she saw. So we looked at it together on the internet and I too loved what I saw. I called, asked a few questions, drove down in the middle of winter, and we were sold. They were booked through October except for a few Friday nights, so we went for Oct. 1, 2010.
I cannot possibly tell you how great the wedding was, you would have to experience it for yourself. But if you love the outdoors and yet the protection of indoors, the beauty of old architecture, it is the perfect place for both. I don't know if it is common for guests to say, "This is the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to", but it was heard often, even weeks after the wedding (myself being one of them).
And from the moment we met Amy ( the owner), she was very professional in every way. Being so far away she gave us a list and recommendations, #'s...etc. If we had any questions, we would email her and she would quickly reply. We chose Country Kitchen (CK Catering) for our caterer and we had the same great experience with them. They were only minutes from the barn and not only were the displays, service, and food AWESOME, they couldn't have been more helpful and polite when I called with questions or concerns.
Obviously I HIGHLY recommend both.
My husband, daughter, son-in-law, myself & others had one of the best days of our lives.
Thanks

This is a MAGICAL venue - absolutely amazing. It exceeded my dreams of what it could be. Amy was a delight to work with. She was super quick and willing to respond - even to the smallest questions. She gave great recommendations and was really helpful. The barn was worth every penny. Our guests said it was the most beautiful wedding and reception they had ever been to. Thanks to the Blue Dress Barn I will have the best memories of the best night of my life! - Laura

The Blue Dress Barn was absolutely wonderful. Our family was so impressed with the uniqueness of the barn. The setup is beautiful. The grounds are well taken care of and make for beautiful pictures. The staff were very helpful and responsive with any questions I had. Everything went very smoothly. I highly recommend the Blue Dress Barn to anyone who is looking for a beautiful and unique venue for their wedding.

Gorgeous venue that requires you to find your own vendors which allows for maximum flexibility.

They are a small operation, so expect that kind of responsiveness. They don't call back the same day, but they do call back and in time for whatever you were asking.

Use a coordinator or planner and you'll not stress over anything though.

My friends and family said they had never been in a venue that beautiful and everyone loved it.

Although it is a barn, there are restrooms and a dance floor, bar and stage for a band or dj. Tables and chairs are included. You can also rent cocktail tables as well.

Drove from Chicago 2 hours to see the place for ourselves. We get there and the owner Amy had no clue who we were or why we were even there. THANK GOD someone was there, we had a 5:15 appointment and drove 2 hours to see the place so at least we got to look around. She was really too busy to spend much time with us because she had other appointments and they obviously forgot about us. That was the first red flag.

We asked for pricing and dates available, and everything seemed to be "give me a deposit, give me a deposit" - I mean, can you answer some questions for me first? My fiance' asked Amy some questions, and her reply was "I think the contract will answer most of your questions"

So - we get emailed the contract, and WOW ! Upcharges on there for EVERYTHING ! ! !

This is a DO-IT-YOURSELF venue. WE provide the food, WE provide the alcohol, WE do everything. We are paying THEM for the use of their barn. So why do they charge PER PERSON ? Also, if you have LESS people, they charge you MORE per person.

The contract was ridiculous, upcharges and fees for everything. I also love how when we went to see the place and she told us available dates and we chose one, how they neglected to mention to us that in the contract ""HEATING A $250.00 surcharge (paid with the balance at four months prior to the event) will be required for events scheduled between April 1 and June 1 and events scheduled between October 1 and November 1. " - WHAT ? ? So I have to pay $250 EXTRA to have some heat ? Does it really cost that much ? What if I dont need it ?

Overall - the owners are not helpful at all and only seemed concerned with getting money. You are renting their barn for a wedding, and doing everything yourself - but yet the owners seem to want you to pay them for everything even though you are doing everything yourself.

I think it is a gorgeous place, and unique setting for an event. BUT - for the amount of money these bloodhounds want from you the value is definately not there. You can get soooooo much more for your money elsewhere.

The Blue Dress Barn is a beautiful venue for a wedding ceremony and reception! If you are looking for a perfect countryside feel for your wedding this is the venue for you. The ceremony grounds are simple, yet elegant, and the decor of the barn has a vintage midwestern charm just right for a reception. The huge room and fun lighting (paper lanterns, chandeliers, and twinkle lights) make it beautiful, without having to do a thing to it. The owners are laid back, yet helpful. The down side of this laid back attitude is that you are really on your own to make sure everything goes smoothly. You won't have much assistance from the venue. The up side of the laid back attitude is that you will have the freedom to bring in all your own vendors and add anything to the space that you choose. This can be really great because it enables you to really make your day unique and personalized. Also, the acoustics of the wood barn give live bands an even fuller sound. Highly recommended!

We recently had our wedding at Blue Dress Barn. My wife really liked the barn and the decorations for their rustic feel. Although the decorations are nice, they will nickel and dime you to death. For example, if you want to use an extra cocktail table or an easel that is already in the barn, no hauling necessary, it's $10 each for the tables and another $20 for the easel. If you want to use the paper lanterns they are included in your price, but if you don't want them, they will take them down, but they don't deduct that from your cost. My advice, leave them up to get the most bang for your buck, I mean you end paying thousands for those 14-15 lanterns anyway. When we had our wedding, they promised us that we would have a person from their staff taking care of the trash beginning at 6 pm. However, when we got there, trash from the previous night was still there. Since it had been raining all day, we ended up walking up the muddy hill to their residence to ask for trash bags. That's when one of the owner's decided to come down and help. Our bartender ended up changing trash bags behind the bar all night. We were also promised that the napkins would be folded and ready on the tables, but to our surprise none of the napkins were folded. They were folded in simple squares, but that's not what we went over with the owner. In fact, she folded an example napkin for us and "noted" in our file that's what she would do; didn't happen and we just so happen to have the picture to prove our work. During set up and delivery the owner's are no where to be found. My aunt and cousin who were setting up, had to call her on her cell phone in order to get the other vendor's questions answered. At the end of the night we had everything packed up and ready to go and we asked the staffer if it was ok to run home and grab a truck to haul some of the things back (5 minutes away), she said no problem. We did end up leaving about 1 hour late, but everything was packed and ready to go we just didn't have enough vehicles. And what do you do here when their staff is telling you it's okay? The next day we had a $215 charge to our credit card for being late....which again the staffer stated was fine and she stated this to 4 different people in my family. However, we were not notified this charge was taking place and we received the receipt and invoice for this charge 3 days later. In my opinion this is very sneaky and not the correct way to go about billing. We tried contacting the Blue Dress Barn 4 times before they answered, which was a week and a half later. The owners may seem laid back, but they have very poor social skills. He was rude... likes to yell a lot and ends up hanging up on you. On top of this when we owed our balance we asked them if he preferred a check or a card for payment. We only live 5 minutes from the barn and didn't mind dropping a check off to him in order to avoid the $15 charge for every time he swipes your card. His response to every thing was, "It's in the contract." There is a right way and a wrong way to do business and these people do it the wrong way. They are awful business people and although I had a wonderful wedding there, their actions have overshadowed all of that. Although the wife (Amy) seemed very nice and easy to work with, the husband (Kirby) is a complete jerk. We had heard this from other people but had not experienced it so we thought it was fine... we should have listened to our friends. He will monitor every step you take in an effort to make a dime. Before the final charges, we had paid $2700 for the venue, so the extra $215 is just a drop in the bucket compared to what he already had from us.

They are hard to contact and will only return calls or emails when they are booking new customers. It took me several attempts to reach them on every occasion. On top of that, they have both sent me nasty emails and letters in the mail when I complained about the $215 charge.

I suggest you visit the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org before you give these people your business.

My suggestion, go somewhere else if you want to avoid hidden charges and headaches!

The Blue Dress Barn provided us with a beautiful location for our wedding reception on 7/25. Everything turned out better than we had hoped! The staff did a great job taking care of things and it was wonderful to get so many compliments on finding such a beautiful barn to throw our party in. Dan and I couldn't have found a better venue to share one of the most important days of our life with our friends and family. Since the wedding, the glowing impressions of your farm have been non-stop. From the caterer to the guests to the couple ourselves, everyone loved spending the evening at the Blue Dress Barn. Our photographer (Ben Pancoast) was even able to capture some of the fun and much of the beauty of the evening.

I would highly recommend the Blue Dress for a venue. It's absolutely gorgeous, the perfect setting for an outdoor wedding and a unique reception.

After receiving a very unprofessional and rude email following my original review of the Blue Dress Barn, I informed Amy, the owner, that I would remove the review, which I did. However, after reading other questionable reviews (and realizing we were not overreacting), I changed my mind which, as a consumer of their "services", I have right to do. Regrettably, I do not have a copy of my original review, but the highlights are below.

Nearly everything was satisfactory with the BDB until the day of and day after our wedding.

--A few months prior to our wedding, we were interested in having our rehearsal dinner there the night before but Amy informed us there was a wedding taking place and it was unavailable unless we wanted to do it at 2 p.m. (This was not feasible for us since most of our bridal party would not arrive in town until much later). At the reception, my husband asked her how the wedding the night before went, and she said, “What wedding?” He told her that she previously mentioned there was a wedding the night before so we couldn't use the barn for a rehearsal. Her reply was that the wedding was canceled and, "Well, some things just don't work out....you know how that goes.” Would've been nice to know ahead of time in case we wanted to have the rehearsal there. (In hindsight, I'm glad we didn't, given their unprofessionalism.)

--I specifically asked for no tulle decorations in the barn. While Amy maintained she removed it all with the exception from one wall, we have the pictures to prove otherwise. Yes, this was a very minor detail, but if you ask for something--for a wedding nonetheless--a business owner should provide it.

--It rained ALOT on our big day and a few hours into the reception, there was condensation dripping on the floor, and a small puddle had formed near the bar. Amy denied this after the fact, but when it was mentioned to her during the reception, she said something to the effect of, “Well, since it's been pouring down rain for so long, what do you expect?” I was standing at the bar and felt water drip on my head. I initially made this part of my review to inform other brides about taking precautions should it rain on their wedding day. It would've been nice if the staff had cleaned up the puddle so no one slipped or got hurt.

--The reception staff threw away all of our leftover cupcakes, the small cake for me and my husband as well as the cupcake stand which was not ours, but the bakery’s. Her staff person asked, and I quote, “someone in a suit” if they could throw all of it away. That person said “yes.” There was no effort made to ask me or my husband (pretty easy to spot the bride and groom at a wedding). My husband had to climb into the BDB dumpster the next morning, in the pouring rain, to try and salvage the cupcake stand. However, it was already broken so my mom had to pay the bakery the full loss of the stand.

--What really blew me away was their continuous denial of any wrongdoing. Never was there an apology or an offer made by the owners to reimburse my mom for the cupcake stand; in her email, she maintained she and her staff did nothing wrong. Nothing is their fault; everything is ours. They said our review our “threatened” their livelihood. Yeah, their livelihood was so threatened that they opened another barn location for weddings in the summer of 2009.

While I will ALWAYS maintain the grounds of the BDB are gorgeous and worth it, I would caution brides and grooms about potential difficulties with the owners.

The grounds and decorations of the Blue Dress Barn are beautiful. Amy and Kirby are pretty laid back and are very nice to work with. The day we got married was pretty warm and there is no air conditioning in the barn. They do have fans and 2 very nice decks but the warm air stayed in the barn most of the night. You are able to bring in your own caterer and alcohol and we were able to save a lot of money that way. There is a flat fee and then a per person fee that they charge which are fairly reasonable.

The barn is absolutely beautiful. Everyone was so impressed. I do agree with others, though. Management could be better and the pricing just doesn't make you feel like you are getting a good deal. The husband was very rude the next morning when we went back to retrieve an heirloom item that had been forgotten.

It is a husband and wife team that own the blue dress barn and it seems that they are not on the same page. While the wife seemed very nice, the husband was VERY anal. He kept changing the price of things and tacking on additional fees and finding every way possible to make things more expensive. Renting out the blue dress barn is not a package deal. if you want somewhere for the girls to change and hang out while waiting for pictures, you can rent the small studio room in the basement of the barn for $50 an hour. want the wooden arbour as a wedding arch, that will be $70. Want lights strung from the ceiling so that you can actually see inside the reception hall, that's extra too. And it's not a package price as far as how many people come either. You have to pay for each person that comes to your wedding, and this doesn't even include paying for the caterer. I could go on for ever, but basically beautiful place, bad experience (needs new management)

I was married at the Blue Dress Barn on a beautiful September day

I Love the look of the barn. with the natural gardens around the edge and
the more formal gardens by the ceremony site. the fire pit was a great addition!

I know our guest loved it!


The owners Amy and kirby are wonderful people and very happy to help in any way.