We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amelia Briske a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amelia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

21 years ago the thought of turning a 1930 dairy barn into a Wedding Venue was not heard of. I remember telling friends and family about the idea….they had less then excited feelings about it. Once we had the barn renovated and tours schedule we found Mothers crying in the parking lot and refusing to come in to view the barn with their engaged daughters. Now in 2022 we have Mothers asking us to please place them on our waiting list. Blue dress barn was the first Wedding barn model for hundreds & hundreds of others to follow. My Husband and I led the way to a worldwide trend where today there is about 30 Wedding Barns per state and others all over the world.

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

1988 at 18 I moved from a small village in Michigan called Wacousta to the big city of Chicago to attend School of the Art institute.

1998 I was working as a professional Artist painting murals in the city and designing restaurants on a regular basis. Although I loved Chicago and the city life I soon found myself wanting the country life for my children and myself.. I decided it was time to find us “weekend place” in Michigan so my children could also play in the woods and river like I did as a child.. On days off I would take my jeep that had a compass – randomly get off the expressway and take country roads in hopes to find a special place. On one of my journeys I found an abandoned farm house and very large diary barn. ( remember these are not the days of “save this old house” with some investigation I wrote a letter to the tax payer and found out they were willing to sell the property ( as it did not have a for sale sign in the yard )

2000 I had started the renovation as a single Mother with two children. First thing I did was put a new roof on the Barn ( as there were gapping 20ft holes creating so much damage ) The Farmhouse was not livable as most windows were gone, the toilet gone, no furnace, no pipes and no wiring, It seemed others had decided it was so far gone it was up for grabs, on weekends I would take on small tasks, replace a light fixture, install pipes, put a sink in – until I had it in a semi livable state, it was small baby steps each visit. I remember my children feeling confused when I would say ” just go out and play in the woods …. make a tee pee or something”. Already being ”city kids” – they didn’t know what that meant. It took a couple of years and they finally relaxed and fell in love with nature.

2001 Twin towers happened! I was no longer willing to wait to live in the countryside of Michigan . Soon after I met my  Husband Kirby Briske ….and said “Im moving Michigan now – which including commuting back n forth – happily he came along and we were engaged! .. – While dreaming of our Wedding Day we really had a hard time envisioning ourselves in a “Banquet Hall” or any kind of indoor venue. I suggested that we take the diary barn and clean it up for our Wedding. Kirby didn’t say no but also didn’t say yes to the idea. It took many conversations, his paper & pencil and eventually Kirby was in for the idea. I defiantly needed his help with this as he was a draftsman’s in Chicago and Master Carpenter,

2002 Kirby and I found it increasing harder and harder to leave the country side and trek back to Chicago – we started leaving the city on Thursday evenings and heading back to the Chicago on Monday mornings. Anything we could do to stretch our stay out in the country! We needed to find a way to live full time in the country… it was then we realized that we could convert our wedding day celebrations barn into a full fledge Wedding Barn Business by bringing it up to local codes. With that thought we bought our tables and chairs being used for our wedding day and the dance floor was actually a gift from my Mother on our wedding day! 2003 on a beautiful September day we married and celebrated our Wedding inside what is now the Blue Dress Barn, The name Blue Dress Barn is taken from the original name of our small family getaway.. While back on my journey in the country looking for our special place – I would take breaks at local Antique markets and purchase lovely vintage prints of women working on a farm – to hopes one day I would place in my dream farm house. Once I did have the property -I was placing these prints on the wall and noticed all the women in them had blue dresses or blue frocks,..and soon I made us a pretty little sign for our getaway. That read ” Blue Dress Farm”\

2022 We have been open for 20 seasons! ( We are open May-October ) Our first year we had 6 bookings which felt like we had to twist everyones arms to book the barn. ;) lol – Year 2 we had 16 bookings, year 3 – 40 bookings and now we have 2 sister venues that are a few miles away from Blue Dres barn. On average 190 weddings a year between the three venues! We have literally created a “wedding belt” in our corner of Michigan. When we host 190 weddings this brings is 35,000 people into our community. These guests book hotels, cabins,Air Bnbs, go out to breakfast, lunch, dinner, go to rehearsal parties, have their hair, makeup and nails done, order from florist, hire a photographer, rent decor, hire a caterer, a band or Dj, stop for gas and the list goes on and on.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Kirby Briske is my business partner and Husband

We met as neighbors in a neighbor in Chicago called Pilsen while gardening in our back courtyard. We were both originally from Michigan so I believe we both needed to garden and be outside anytime we could. Moving to Michigan to open a Wedding Venue was a dream come true. We still garden together and remember just how special this connection is to us.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When Kirby I decide to turn our barn into a legit business. Our first step was to ask the township for permit to do so, The farm was not commercial. It was Agriculture,

We receive a special use permit by doing the following

These are the steps we took to obtain our special use permit and open our business

1. Purchase a stake survey of the barn and the property that will be included in the business

2. Site plan drawn up by a Professional Architect

-location of building within the property
-where dumpsters will go
– location of ceremony site
– where parking is placed – including handicap spots
– where the ramp is going for handicap
– driveway enter and exit spots
– lighting for parking

3. We presented this site plan at a Township at meeting and get approval for this Business.

4. Once we had a permission – which includes how many people you are allowed to have inside your business
we then hired an Architect to draw plans:

– the dimension of the Barn
– placements of bathrooms with Handicap codes
– electric layout
– plumbing
– fire codes

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bluedressbarn.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluedressbarn/?hl=en

Image Credits
Abbigayle Behan Photos By Gayle https://photosbygayle27.pixieset.com/madiandduran-1/