Hoping to ride the newfound popularity of barn weddings, Flaherty’s Family Farm in Scarborough is readying to open its new Event Barn later this summer.
The idea to turn the farm’s cow barn, at the corner of Payne and Beech Ridge roads, into a venue for weddings and other special events was that of 23-year-old Cindy Flaherty, daughter of Jim Flaherty who owns the farm along with his older brother, Jack.
Cindy Flaherty said having her own wedding at the barn two years ago was what gave her father the final push to “get going on the project.” What the family did not anticipate, however, Flaherty said, was just how long it would take to get all the approvals in place.
The family did most of barn renovations themselves. The site also includes a newly built gazebo and a lush field of clover and grass, all of which guests can use however they wish.
Flaherty, who is the third generation of the family to work on the farm, is hopeful the Event Barn will attract new business and help the farm support its other endeavors, including growing and selling seasonal produce.
While her uncle Jack Flaherty misses his cows, he also acknowledges that to stay in business the farm must move with the times. “We have to make changes to keep up,” he said this week. “I hope this will be good.”
Jim Flaherty agreed with his brother and said that the farm “must change with the times.” However, he is also excited about the new venture, even though it took a lot of work, including many nights and weekends throughout the winter and spring.
The renovated barn, which has a cement floor, wagon wheel chandeliers and wooden slatted walls, can hold about 100 people, according to Cindy Flaherty, but an event tent that can go up just outside the barn doors, allows for a larger venue, she said.
The Event Barn will be officially open in August, although the Flaherty family did offer the barn to a friend for a recent wedding. Flaherty said three weekends in August are already booked and that all of September and a couple weekends in October are also reserved, so far.
She said the cost for renting the Event Barn depends on how much of the facility people want to use, as well as whether they want any decorative items from the farm, including flowers, straw bales, cornstalks and more.
The barn is rented from Wednesday to Sunday, which gives people a chance to set up and take down without being in a rush, Flaherty said. In terms of food, she said, groups must either bring in their own treats or hire a separate caterer.
On its website, Flaherty’s Family Farm touts the new Event Barn as “picture perfect,” adding “with stunning woods on one side and a lovely corn field on the other, the barn makes a perfect backdrop to any wedding ceremony.”
One of the first groups set to use the new Event Barn is the Town & Country Federal Credit Union, which will hold its annual employee summer outing there in August.
Linda Halleran, the marketing manager for the credit union, said there are several reasons the farm location was chosen for the bank’s event, but one is that the credit union likes to support local businesses.
Another reason is it “sounded like a wonderful setting and that it would be a perfect fit for our outing, which has a country theme,” Halleran said.
In addition, the Flaherty family is well known to the credit union staff. The family is a member of the bank and John Flaherty Sr. was also a president of the board of directors before his death five years ago.
“The Flahertys are a prominent family in the community and the farm is a big part of the community and we just wanted to support that,” Halleran added.
Originally a cow pasture and barn, Cindy Flaherty said the family initially thought one day it might turn the barn into an ice cream stand and plant a pick-your-own fruit orchard on the surrounding land.
But, after Flaherty asked to be married there, the family realized the barn might make an excellent event venue instead. Flaherty said the orchard may still get planted some day, but for now the focus is on getting the Event Barn up and running.
Flaherty got married at the barn because she wanted the ceremony to be held where she grew up, but according to an article in the Patriot-News, barn weddings are making headlines all across the country.
That story, published in the central Pennsylvania newspaper last fall, said the rise in barn weddings is part of a national trend and, according to The Knot, one of the top wedding research websites, of the 14,000 brides surveyed last year, 6 percent had a barn or farm reception.
All of this is part of an even bigger trend toward more casual, personalized weddings, according to the editor of The Knot, who told the Patriot-News, “The days of the black tie wedding are kind-of over.”
That could mean great things for the new Event Barn at Flaherty’s Farm. Cindy Flaherty called farming “a hard living” this week and recalled days of working inside the barn this past winter when it was 10 below outside and all they had was a space heater.
The Flaherty Farm got its start in 1941 with poultry and since the 1980s it’s mostly been a vegetable farm, with greenhouses added for perennial and annual plants of all kinds.
The farm consists of about 200 acres of land, but not all of the land is located on Payne Road. The Flahertys grow a variety of vegetables from corn to potatoes and carrots to peas. The family also had a handful of beef cattle at the barn, but Cindy Flaherty said “unfortunately there is not much money in beef anymore.”
She said it was during her own wedding at the barn in 2013 that four couples stopped to ask if the farm had a wedding venue. Originally Flaherty said her wedding was “just a one-time thing, but after (my) wedding, we had more people contact us about weddings and special events (and) we decided to go for it and diversify that 16-acre piece of land on 128 Payne Road into a beautiful event barn and outdoor venue.”
She added, “I think what makes us different is that we are still a working farm, but we are able to offer a separate piece of land and large barn with a woodland gazebo in an ideal location (that’s) close to hotels and the airport.”
After a lot of work, the new Event Barn at Flaherty’s Family Farm in Scarborough is just about ready to be rented out. Standing in front of the barn, from left, are Jack, Cindy and Jim Flaherty.
Cindy Flaherty and her father, Jim, stand in the new gazebo at Flaherty’s Family Farm in Scarborough. In the distance is the farm’s new Event Barn.
In addition to its new Event Barn, Flaherty’s Family Farm is also providing this “woodland” gazebo to wedding parties and others.Staff photos by Kate Irish Collins
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