Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gina Hill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Gina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I love the idea of helping brides create the wedding of their dreams. So building a venue on my land was not a difficult decision. With the support and help of my family, we created a beautiful open concept venue. We started this build at the beginning of 2020 right before the pandemic. This helped us to plan for situations like COVID. We put large bi-fold glass doors on both sides of the venue so that it could be opened up to become a pavilion or be closed to shelter events from the elements. This design was not the original plan, but it turned out to be our clients favorite thing about the venue. The large glass bi-fold doors create an open air feel and allows the outside courtyard to flow into the reception area if desired. We opened January 2021 and booked 66 events our first year which exceeded our expectations. 2022 was an even better year, completing 120 events, and 2023 looks to be a very successful year as well.

Pinehill Pavilion is expanding and building a second smaller greenhouse style venue which will be named Pinehill Plantera. This venue is expected to be complete sometime in 2024. Plantera is going to be designed for more intimate events with guest counts of less than 120.

Our family’s goal is to build a wedding empire so that we can accommodate events of all types, sizes, and price points. This will be accomplished with the future purchase of surrounding venues that may need some alterations or a better business plan.

Gina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have owned my own businesses since I was 22 years old. I have owned an art and frame shop, an interior design business, a mobile bartending service, and a grading company. I have acted as my own GC on building projects and worked in multiple industries, but the wedding industry is by far my favorite.

Two of my three children work for Pinehill Pavilion and also love what they do. We are creating a company that embraces a family style atmosphere. I believe that if you spend so much of your life at work, it should feel like your second home and your coworkers should feel like a second family.

My goal is for every client to be excited about having their wedding/event at Pinehill Pavilion and to feel that we are honored that they have chosen us.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My former husband and I sold our grading business of 25 years and retired in 2017. This was our dream and never in a million years would I have imagined opening a wedding venue. After retiring, I became very bored and needed something that would inspire me to get up in the morning. Loving to learn new things, we decided to go to bartending school and open a mobile bartending business. This was a huge success and after servicing hundreds of weddings at local venues and corporate events, I thought we could open a venue on our land and that is how Pinehill Pavilion came into existence.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Building during COVID was a scary challenge. We were unsure of the future of the events industry due to all the restrictions on gatherings and social distancing. People were clearly scared and rightfully so. We were too far into the build process to stop so I thought well this pandemic can’t last forever and continued to stay on course. We quickly made changes to align with the new rules and restrictions presented by COVID, things such as changing the floorpan to include bi-fold doors that would make the venue space flexible for indoor and outdoor events, as well as adding the addition of our courtyard to allow a more open social area.

Contact Info:

• Website: pinehillpavilion.com
• Instagram: @pinehillpavilion
• Facebook: @pinehillpavilion
• Other: TikTok. @pinehillpavilion

Image Credits
Timmester Photography This Darling Life Imagery Doug Burke Photography Wagner Photography & Film Bellagala