We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annastasia Hicks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annastasia below.
Annastasia, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
My sister, Sonia, had always wanted to own the house that is Ashford Acres Inn now and to make it a B&B, but lived in L.A. and at the time I was a senior in college with aspirations to be a lawyer. May of my senior year, I decided I wanted to run an event venue instead, and so we combined our ideas and set up an appointment to see the house- that thankfully was still up for sell in Cynthiana, KY!
At the time, there were very few venues, other than ballrooms and hotels, that had lodging, a venue, a chef, and the whole private wedding weekend experience. For this reason, we knew it would be a hit! We based a lot of our management planning and goals off of being ‘Disney-like’ in our approach to guest services, failures, branding, and really nailing down what the experience would be like at Ashford.
We offer 64 acres of rolling hills, indoor venue space, outdoor venue space, Chef-prepared meals on site, and really branded ourselves as a blank canvas but with high standards and extensive services to help bring your vision and dream to life.
We were most excited about utilizing the property in a fashion that honors the home and the families that have lived in it; the home was built as a wedding gift and has hosted many different family weddings throughout its history. It was also a part of the Civil War battles fought in Cynthiana and acted as half Union hospital and half Union headquarters, according to historical accounts of the property.
Annastasia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
In high school, my job was at another wedding venue and that really was my only ‘wedding venue’ experience. My sister and I started Ashford Acres Inn immediately out of college in 2015, the renovations took a year and a half, and we opened in December of 2016.
I had majored in Politics at Centre College in Danville, KY, and immediately came back to Cynthiana to begin joining some civic organizations in order to gain experience. I quickly became president of the Community Events Community locally, and then by age 24 was the President of the Cynthiana Chamber of Commerce, and at 25 was the President of the Cynthiana Tourism Commission.
Ashford Acres Inn is a wedding and event venue, a bed and breakfast, as well as a ‘restaurant’ on Thursdays. We have had weddings published in several publications such as Kentucky Bride Magazine, Green Wedding Shoes’ blog, Ruffled’s blog, Tops in Lex Magazine, Vie Magazine, listed number one as one of the top ten wedding venues in Kentucky, and more recently won the ABC 36 News Viewer’s Choice Award for Best Wedding Venue, and placed second for Best Hotel/B&B.
We also host events such as ‘Christmas on the Farm’ – which is the most Hallmark-like experience you will find in Kentucky- as well as The Local Market, the perfect mix of farmer’s market and festival, rooted in Bluegrass cuisine and music.
Since the success that Ashford Acres Inn has had, we have then opened up a cafe and restaurant in downtown Cynthiana, The Sweet Boutique, and purchased the building that it is in. We have hopes to renovate that building into a ’boutique hotel’ experience over the next few years, and have space downstairs for another storefront, as well.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I would say that the branding was very intentionally done, with the utilization of social media as the main location to reach our clients and to create an expectation of what an ‘Ashford Acres Experience’ was to be – whether it be an overnight stay here, a wedding, or just simply dining with us. We then curated our business goals, decisions, and training to match that brand that we were putting out; if we wanted everyone to know that we were the ‘Disney’ of wedding venues, then we had to sell that in the branding on social media, and then we had to BE the ‘Disney’ of wedding venues throughout the entire experience, and then we had to get guests to want to leave a review talking about the magic that Ashford creates – thus creating more branding and support for the claim we were making.
Therefore, I would say the follow through on our branding being reflected in what the actual Ashford Experience is plays a massive role in our success within the market. It is currently hard, and as a recent guest told us, “is unbelievable” to find a venue that provides the kind of services and attention to detail that we do.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Ashford Acres Inn has continued to grow and become more refined throughout many years of adversity. We made it through the year of COVID restrictions without having to let any of our full time employees go, and have gone through several instances of employee turnover, as many wedding vendors experience. In these occurrences, we are typically in mid-wedding season, or have even had a wedding the following day, and have always pulled together as a team, performed at the same level we always do, and been better on the other end of it.
Being a small team, losing a single team member can be extremely difficult and tragic to your brand, so always getting to the other side of those adverse instances would be one of the proudest aspects of our management team, and ultimately speaks volumes for the people at the heart of the business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashfordacresinn.com
- Instagram: @ashfordacresinn
- Other: TikTok: @ashfordacresinn
Image Credits
The first two images uploaded (white blazer and team in front of barn): Madison Renee Photography 3rd image of two sisters looking at house: Against the Grain Creative 4th and 5th photos of reception that Annastasia was wedding planner for: Elisa Lopez Photography 6th, 7th and 8th photos of Annastasia’s wedding: Sarah Katherine Davis Photography