We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Dlouhy Bailey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Me and my husband met in 2006 and started dating. We were engaged in 2008 and started planning our wedding. We knew we wanted to get married on my family’s property and farm and when we started pricing out a tent large enough to hold our event, we realized it was quite a few thousand dollars to do that. We knew we were going to build our dream home on the property that my family had given us, so I went to my dad and said why don’t we build a barn we can get married and have the reception in the barn. So I saved my money and my dad saved money and we both put money into the barn and built the barn. The barn was built in 2011. My grandmother had passed away the day after Thanksgiving, and then my dad had cancer and my husband Branden and I both had to have surgery so we Pushed the wedding back until November 2013. We were then married a week and Gulf Coast spine contacted us and asked us to have their Christmas party here. So that was the very beginning of us having events in the white barn for other people besides our family and friends. We used all of the honeymoon money that we received from our wedding to buy 100-year-old church pews from a church in Tampa so that we could use those for the ceremony seating. We have had events for nine years, and it has been a journey. We learn something new from every wedding we have. We have added pavers and string lighting everywhere, and we continue to improve the property.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road. A dream is where it all began. We had to apply for permitting and go to the county. We were the very first venue in the county to be granted their use permit and they told us that we were the pioneer setting the example for the others to follow. It has been a wonderful experience with them, and then our neighbors have been wonderful. We really are blessed to be able to do what we love to do. It has not always been easy, but our family and friends and wedding couples have been a huge support system for us and are here for us whenever we need.

We offer full linen service, full florals from The White Barn Flower House. I love to do our planning meetings with our couples since every Wedding is different it gives me life to plan the perfect day! We are so proud that we are family owned and operated and we are here for every single event. We don’t just hand over the keys like other venues. We are here to make the day and days leading up to the Wedding flawless.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We work very hard to make the White barn feel like home for all of our couples. My husband Branden has laid every single paver on the property. I’ve passed him every single paver that’s been laid in the property. My dad Michael and mother, Linda have been a part of building the barn and maintaining the barn. They believed in the dream in the very beginning. As a local wedding venue we have been doing events for nine years. Our family has been doing events for over 30 years. We are also a Wedding Wire and Rustic Bride Member. We have won 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Wedding Wire couples choice award and have been recognized amongst the top 5% of wedding professionals nationwide. We also recently were featured in The Knot best of wedding venues. We also are featured at Rustic Weddings as a Top Barn Wedding Venue in Florida. The White Barn was chosen for the Best of Brooksville Awards in the category of Wedding Chapel. The Best of Brooksville Award was created to acknowledge the best businesses in our community. With only one wedding per day, our wedding venue can ensure that the Bride and Groom receive our undivided attention and have a day that they will never forget. We are not corporate run we’re family-owned and operated. I think that makes a huge difference in being genuine and giving of your time to couples. We have family and friends that work for us that we trust and that are reliable that are here every weekend for us and our couples.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience definitely came into play this year when I fell and broke my leg right in the middle of wedding season. I do all the ordering, linens, setup, florals, tours and of course rehearsals and weddings so it was quite a testament to faith and resilience to push through. Definitely couldn’t have gotten through without my incredible husband Branden, my family, our wonderful staff and friends who helped immensely. I wouldn’t give up- I ended up buying a motorized scooter to help get around the expansive property without relying on crutches the whole time. I give 100 percent to all our couples and I wasn’t going to let a broken leg stop me from that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TheWhiteBarnWedding.com
• Instagram: TheWhiteBarnWedding
• Facebook: TheWhiteBarnWedding
• Other: TikTok TheWhiteBarnFL

Image Credits
First photo: MAD IMAGES Other photos: MICHELLE COOMBS