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Rural and Refined Weddings



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Story by Lee Rennick 
Photos by Erin Kosko, Jo’s Cakes and Catering, Ellie Kay Photography,  Stacy Preston Photography, TMT Weddings, John Myers Photography,  Kelsey Young Photography, Melissa Massengill, Makenzie Hamilton and White Dove Barn 

On the road to Wartrace, there is a small white sign not too far from I-24 marking the location of White Dove Barn. While the sign is elegant, yet simple, the venue is located on 10 acres of rolling hills and offers expansive facilities providing romantic sunsets and country charm. The road to the facility curves past the chapel pavilion, which backs up to a small lake with a fountain and then twists up a hill to the whitewashed barn serving as the main facility. 

The 6,000 square foot main space is tastefully draped with creamy sweeps of organza and exquisite white wrought iron candelabras delicately wrapped with eucalyptus vines. Twenty-two white-washed custom farmhouse tables and white chairs are available for up to 250 guests, which are available to be decorated to bring any bride and groom’s wedding dreams to fruition. 

Customizing Weddings to Fulfill Bridal Visions

“Some couples decide they want to do full linens that are customizable,” explained Caroline Glass, General Manager of White Dove Barn. “They can customize the runner to their colors and use any of our décor, which [includes items like] lanterns…votives…[miniature vases]. We have an assortment of silver, gold and rose gold rimmed china table settings, [chargers], flatware and…assorted glassware.”

“People, especially our guests from California, love it because the venue feels country, but then they can get to Nashville in an hour,” said office coordinator Haley Althoff.

In 2024, they hosted 107 weddings with about half of them for folks from out of the state, including guests coming from as far away as Great Britain. 

“That one was really fun,” noted Althoff.

While most people would think June would be this destination’s busiest month, they actually have more weddings occurring in September and October. 

“That is when we see a lot of four wedding weekends,” added Glass, “then during the rest of the year, it is usually three wedding weekends. But we did have a good bit in September with weddings on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our fall books fill up fast, as we are almost fully booked for fall 2025. We have some couples who have opted to get married on a Thursday to be able to do their wedding here in the fall.”

Multiple locations on the grounds are available for a wedding. There is the outdoor pavilion chapel, in front of the 30-foot stone fireplace near the barn, inside the barn or on the lawn. 
Cocktail hour usually takes place on the side patio of the barn with games set up on the lawn in front of the fireplace if the wedding doesn’t occur there. And almost all receptions happen inside the barn, even if the ceremony occurs in the same space. During the cocktail hour on the patio, White Dove Barn’s team of nine can flip the area from the wedding venue to the reception space complete with a dance floor and a live band.

Located in the barn are rooms for the groom’s party and the bride’s party to get ready. The groom’s room has leather upholstered seating and a table with cards and chips for a few games of poker before the wedding. The bride’s area has six spaces instead of the usual three for the ladies to get their hair and make-up done.

White Dove Barn offers planners, event coordinators and designers to help couples create their perfect nuptial look. For anything the venue does not offer as part of their all-inclusive package, they have a complete list of vetted, local, preferred caterers, cake bakers, photographers, videographers, florists, liquor distributors, officiants, entertainers, hair and make-up stylists and the hottest new trend, social media content creators like Macy Speight. Speight provides six hours of wedding coverage unedited live and, within 24 hours, edited photos and videos ready to be shared on Facebook, Instagram and X. 

“We also have specialty vendors like live painters,” explained Glass. “Our live painter, Lauren O’Brien, sets up her easel and paints both during the wedding and during the reception presenting a completed work of art at the end of the event that captures the essence of the activities.”

Sparkler wedding send-offs are part of their regular wedding package, with the bride and groom leaving in everything from a limousine to a vintage car. Two vintage car rental favorites are a 1958 Bel Air Chevrolet convertible and a rusty 1950’s Chevrolet truck known as “Old Rusty” provided by award-winning Vintage Auto Props. Although the craziest getaway vehicle was a helicopter.

White Dove Barn Handles Many Different Wedding Sizes

The venue offers everything from complicated affairs for 250 to Micro Weddings for 30 guests or less with an offsite reception. Their sweet spot is about 150 to 175 guests.

“Micro Weddings have to be on a Tuesday or a Wednesday,” said Glass. “We have a lot of those booked for next year…A lot of times it is for couples who want to use the venue, but then do something small for a reception. They will do their ceremony here, then their cake cutting and a toast, then the [couple] will leave and go do their reception at a restaurant or somewhere else.” 

Gaining traction during the pandemic, Micro Weddings are growing in popularity. “Like its name suggests, a micro-wedding is a smaller version of a 'regular' wedding, typically with a guest list of no more than 50 people—usually immediate family and super-close friends only,” explained an article in The Knot.

“Micro Weddings are for couples who don't necessarily want a big event with hundreds of guests, but they don't want to compromise on experience or smaller details, either.” 
Neither a minimony nor an elopement, Micro Weddings still offer all of the elements of a larger wedding, like flowers, cake and sophisticated entertainment, but everything is more intimate and focused on the parts of a wedding that are important the couple getting married. A minimony is more like a civil ceremony and an elopement is usually ‘spur of the moment’ or it has an air of secrecy with few or no family or friends involved.

Staff Stays on Top of Latest Trends

The newest trend is for more colorful weddings, something that Glass and Althoff first started seeing last year. “It makes sense that couples are looking for a [color pop] after the popularity of neutrals and dried floral arrangements peaked,” said hitched.com, “2025 is all about bright and bold statements.” 

“We saw a lot of really colorful weddings [last year],” said Glass. “They would pick a base color, like pink, but then they would do wildflower, really whimsical florals and bouquets. We saw a lot of different colored candle sticks. [There was] a wedding that used a hot pink runner, and they had baby blue and orange and white candle sticks. It was really pretty.”

Brides are also getting away from traditional bridesmaid’s dresses and doing florals, mismatched styles that complement the wearer with each dress in a different shade of a single color or they are a rainbow of colors.

“Florals may seem like nothing new,” according to The Knot, “but fall 2025's … blooms immediately up the romance factor.”

Brides are picking up on the floral theme by choosing dresses that have texture in the form of 3D appliques or embroidery. 

Ceremonies are getting shorter and reception parties are getting longer. The focus is shifting to memorable experiences for guests. 

"Many couples seem to realize that the guest experience is the whole picture," Ashley Smith, owner of Ashely Smith Events, told The Wed. "They want their guests to have the best time possible and be as relaxed, comfortable and harmonious with the setting and group as possible.”

While weddings are still very traditional, things are changing, like walking order formalities going away and no longer doing the bouquet toss and garter fling. 

Instead of eating a piece of the big wedding cake, the bride and groom are choosing to have special small heart-shaped cakes made just for them and then doing a fun dessert for their guests. But wedding cakes and groom’s cakes are getting pretty extravagant. A cake made in the shape of Neyland Stadium by Jo’s Cakes and Catering for one of the weddings at White Dove Barn even went viral.

“Another trend is a late-night snack,” said Glass, “but they will do food trucks. The two most popular we have seen is hot dogs or an ice cream truck.”

People are getting a lot more creative with their weddings, doing what they want instead of the traditional formalized activities of the past. 

“We had a Hispanic wedding that had a Mariachi band come down as we opened the barn doors,” added Althoff.

“We have a lot of people bring out their animals, we had one person bring their horse, another had their dog be their ring bearer,” explained Glass “Then there was a couple that were farm people who branded a leather rug during the ceremony with their new initials.”

Owner and Operator Brings Passion to the Business

White Dove Barn is owned by Jacqueline Embry and her husband, Daniel. While they have owned it since 2018 and expanded the facilities extensively, the barn was originally opened about six months earlier by someone else. 

“The first owner was an attorney, I think,” said Glass. “She bought the land and did this on a dream, but then it got to be too expensive for her so she sold it to the Embrys. And they really revamped everything.”

“The barn was the only thing here, so they added the pavilion, driveway and parking lot,” explained Althoff.

Embry loves the wedding and event industry and is a certified wedding planner. She and her team have coordinated more than 500 weddings at the venue.

“The White Dove Barn is one of the most beautiful and well-run venues in all of Tennessee,” said a reviewer. “Jackie and her husband are the sweetest people to work with. The bridal suite is straight out of a movie. Space is large and beautiful without any decor, but since it's white you can let your creativity thrive!” “Words wouldn't do justice how magical of a place this is,” said another reviewer. [The]venue is absolutely stunning, high-class and has everything you could ever think of for your dream wedding...but it's so much more than that. They…make your wedding a fairytale. Alexis was my coordinator, and I can't say enough amazing things about her. She was like my guardian angel, cheerleader and strategic advisor all in one. From top to bottom, if I could do my wedding over, I would pick The White Dove Barn a thousand times over again AND shout it from the rooftops to anyone looking for a venue for their dream wedding.”

 

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