We recently connected with Amy Stanfield and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Something we do different in the wedding venue industry is we (my husband and I) actually work/attend almost every wedding. I’ve had numerous clients, guests and vendors say how surprised they are that the owners are there for the weddings. From booking to wedding day, I get to know and care about our couples. We love sharing in the joy of their big day and want to help make it be the best it can be. While we have wonderful and capable staff, we feel it’s that little extra care and attention shown by the owners that helps our couples feel extra special. From making sure they always have a cocktail in hand to enjoy to driving them down to the field for golden hour photos, we enjoy pampering them for a memorable and enjoyable experience on their wedding day.

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

I’m the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Harper Hill Ranch, a wedding and events venue located in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Right out of college, I started working in the marketing industry and loved it. Over the years, I volunteered a lot with local organizations and helped put on their events. I dreamed of having my own event center someday that was more unique than what the hotels could offer. In the Fall of 2017, that dream started becoming a reality when my husband and I found a piece of property with a Barn and a beautiful, historical house on it. We purchased the property and began renovations on the Barn to turn it into an event center. After about a year, we opened our doors and started marketing our place for events. Most of our bookings were for weddings, which I really wasn’t expecting. I was scared at first, not having worked in the wedding industry before. But I dove in trying to learn as much as I could and started to make friends in the industry, who were a great resource. To date, we’ve hosted over 200 weddings and are continuing to evolve our brand of making wedding dreams come true.

Something that helps set us apart in the industry is we are family-owned and operated, as well as service-oriented. There is an abundance of wedding venues in the area, but a lot of them are corporate-owned, charge extra for everything and have many restrictions. We try to be as accommodating as possible with our couples when planning their wedding. Our packages are pretty comprehensive and affordable, and our staff provides top-notch service. We love making wedding dreams come true!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

First and foremost, I believe our kindness has helped build our reputation within the wedding industry. Not only are we kind to our customers, but we are also kind to other vendors whom we work with and that really matters. You can pay all the money in the world to market your business, but word of mouth referrals are priceless. We don’t get a lot of repeat customers in the wedding industry, but we do get “hey, my friend or co-worker got married at your place and loved it. I want to get married there, too!”

Secondly, we are constantly re-investing in making our place better. We make regular upgrades to our facilities to improve what we have to offer. A lot of our clients book a year or so out and tell me they get excited watching our progress and knowing that each one is going to make their wedding day that much better.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We were able to secure a loan from our bank to purchase the property. For the renovations to the Barn, I talked my husband into cashing out some stocks to finance that. He was hesitant and wanted me to rent out the house to come up with the money, but I knew that would take a long time. I wanted my dream to take off faster and was confident if we built it, they would come. Lol. The risk panned out and over the last few years, we’ve been able to replenish what we took out of the stock market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.harperhillranch.com
• Instagram: @harperhillranch
• Facebook: @harperhillranch

Image Credits
Under the Sun Photography Snap Chic Photography Rae Vision Photography Tara Williams Photography Jessica Chole Photography