Jeff and Bailey met on Bailey's first day farming in 2012. Jeff had worked on Riverbend Roots Farm the season before and came back to plant potatoes. The two hit it off and became fast friends. A week or two later, Jeff left for the summer, WWOOFing in Alaska, and the two were pen pals while he was away. Jeff loved his summer in Alaska, but decided to come back early, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to woo Bailey. It worked! 3 years and many adventures later, Jeff proposed to Bailey on the spring equinox in 2015. They were testing out the Old Wive's Tale that eggs balance on end only on the equinox and Bailey soon discovered one of the eggs had been hollowed out with a note inside. The two have now settled on cooperatively-owned land in rural southeastern Minnesota. They have 3 cats and lots of neighbors. They cannot wait to have you come visit their home and celebrate their love in June 2018! xoxo
Zephyr Valley Community Coop is our venue for the entirety of our wedding celebration. Zephyr is a 500-acre parcel of bluff and agricultural land in rural southeastern Minnesota. It is an intentional community and working farm. Zephyr is home to many unique individuals and families that have built their lives there. It is also our home! We are members of the Zephyr community. Our home (The Granary) is one of several located on the property and we are excited for you to get to know the neighborhood! Our neighbors are being incredibly generous, opening their homes & community to all of our guests, and we are so grateful. This is a beautiful place and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to share it with you! As we would with any venue, we ask you to be thoughtful, respectful guests. Our neighbors will be living their lives amidst our festivities, so we all have to be mindful of their need for a good night's rest! Some of our neighbors make their living off the land, as well, so parking and camping in designated areas will be absolutely key to making this a successful weekend. Zephyr also has a strict no pets policy for visitors. But let's be honest: we're not worried. Y'all are intelligent, respectful people! Thank you for bringing your best to our shared spaces. For more information on Zephyr Valley Community Cooperative, ask Jeff and Bailey, their neighbors, or check out these websites: http://www.zephyrvalleycoop.org/index.htm http://www.ic.org/directory/zephyr-valley-community-co-op/
We want to make this celebration as accessible as possible in order to involve all of you wonderful folks! That is why the camping dates we've set are flexible-- if it works best for you to travel on a random Tuesday (cheap! cheap!) we are happy to have you. If you can only stop by for an abbreviated visit on our wedding date itself, we'd love for you to do that, too. A schedule of events will be posted in coming weeks, so you can plan accordingly. Many fun activities will be available for you to do throughout the weekend, whenever you feel enticed. The venue is home to a pond-fed swimming pool, recreation field, sauna, hiking and biking trails, and more. We'd also love it if you brought your favorite yard game to play! The campout itself will take place on Zephyr land. There is plenty of space available for you to pop your tent. (Tents only, please.) The main camping area will be near the Community House's recreation field.
We will have a short & sweet ceremony at Zephyr on Saturday afternoon. We invite our guests to join us on a hilltop overlooking the valley that we call home. You are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on in order to view the ceremony. You are also welcome to hike further up the goat prairie to get the bird's eye view. We will be surrounding ourselves by our immediate family and wedding party for the ceremony.
After the intimate ceremony, we will head back downhill to eat and celebrate! In the true spirit of our community-based lifestyle, our reception meal will be a potluck. We will be providing the main course: lasagna! We ask that you bring a dish to share-- dessert, sides, salads, you name it. We hope that this will be a fun, stress-free way of collaborative feasting. There will be a few kitchen spaces available throughout the weekend for preparing and storing your dish. For those of you traveling from afar, there are some pots/pans/bowls for you to make and serve your dish in. If, for example, you are traveling vast expanses on a tight schedule and providing a dish would further complicate things, we encourage you come without a dish and join in the feast nevertheless-- we're so glad you made these valiant efforts to get to the celebration! The main course is lasagna: traditional meat or veggie alfredo. The special diet option will be vegan and gluten-free.