Chukkar Farm Wedding - Part I - Venue

I had the privilege of attending and helping with the most beautiful DIY wedding last weekend.  It was a fabulous event with the most lovely family at the coolest venue.  Are those enough superlatives?  Here's the happy couple.  I'm going to do several posts about this, and today's post is about the unique venue, Chukkar Farm Polo Club. 

This was founded in 1980 by Jack Cashin and his wife, Helen.  They wanted to make polo less elitist and more accessible to the public.  They started as a polo training facility and it is now a first class entertainment facility.  They host polo events, dog shows, corporate events, fundraisers, birthday parties, concerts, and of course, weddings. 

It is located not far from my house, about an hour north of Atlanta.  It is made up of 173 acres of pasture, woods, a river crossing, a 26 acre lake and these beautiful buildings and areas I'll show you here in this post.

Here's the view from the party pavilion of the polo field.  Look at that setting!  I should also mention that it was THE MOST PERFECT weather.  It can be very hot in Atlanta in mid-September, but that was not to be the case for this wedding.  It was cool and fresh and stunningly clear.

I snapped a picture of this giant polo mallet down by the entrance to the playing field.

Make no mistake!  This is a working farm with riders, horses, equipment, and poop! 

As we were setting up the wedding tables and décor, the horses and riders were walking through the tables constantly.  It was a thrilling feeling to know that this was an authentic polo farm and training facility, not a Ralph Lauren ad.

It's hard to fake this.

This unique piece hangs in the pavilion and is made of wood from the White House when Jimmy Carter (who was from Georgia, ya know) was president.

We were also graced by the presence of several of the most laid back dogs I ever met.  They were completely unphased by the busy group of wedding helpers that converged on the scene at 9 a.m.

I loved this boot scraper outside the club house.

Here's the outside of the party pavilion.

 

And here's the inside as they are starting to decorate.  It's the perfect mix of rustic and elegant.

Out in the fields, there is this simple structure which I'm sure many use for the wedding ceremony, but wait till you see what this bride and groom used.  I'll show you in tomorrow's post.

I love this hand-made parking sign in a cattle trough and planted with beautiful annuals.

Seen from the parking area, this is the club house.

I love the name of this club.  Do you know what a scuppernong is?  I didn't until I moved south.  It's a delicious white grape grown in this area and it's like none other I have ever tasted.

 

Here's a peek inside the prop closet at the event, and for a small fee, you are welcome to use their appropriate props.  The bride and her mom collected lots of lots of their own props and then they supplemented with some from this stash.

 

I also have to say that the staff here was delightful and I loved working with them.  They made everything so easy and we felt very welcome.

 

Come back tomorrow and see how we worker bees turned this unique place into the vision of this very creative bride.