Listen to the Podcast About Ainsworth House & Gardens
Podcast Summary
In a recent edition of Eventful Endeavors, host Katie Louise engaged in a candid and intriguing conversation with Christie Shyne, the current owner of Ainsworth House & Gardens, a historic wedding and event center based in Oregon City, Oregon. Christie narrated the unique tale of her purchase of this grand venue, recounting how she first learned of its availability and sharing the process she and her husband went through to acquire it.
Christie and her husband took ownership of Ainsworth House & Gardens about three and a half years ago. The journey started unexpectedly during a Thanksgiving family visit. Through a connection to the real estate broker managing the quiet sale process, the couple was presented with the opportunity to invest in this reputable venue. Despite seeing the property in late November, when Oregon’s lush greenery was dormant, they were captivated by the potential the venue offered.
An impromptu tour of the venue during a live wedding event further piqued their interest, spurring a lengthy drive home filled with wonder, brainstorming, and the exciting prospect of buying the Ainsworth House & Gardens. Christie’s passion for the venue was evident throughout the conversation, demonstrating her commitment to maintaining its legacy and the promise it holds for soon-to-be-wed couples seeking the perfect venue.
Overall, the interview provided a fascinating insight into the behind-the-scenes operations and ownership journey of the well-known and much-loved Ainsworth House & Gardens. Christie’s shared experiences provide a unique glimpse into the venue’s history, invaluable for anyone interested in the landscape of local venues or considering Ainsworth House & Gardens for their unforgettable event. Whether you’re planning a wedding or simply have an interest in local real estate, Christie’s intriguing journey is sure to engage and inspire.
Learn more about
Ainsworth House & Gardens
This interview was provided by
Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Felix And Fingers (00:24)
Hello, welcome to Eventful Endeavors. I’m your host, Katie Louise, here with Christie from Ainsworth House and Gardens. Christie, welcome to the podcast.
Christie (00:33)
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Felix And Fingers (00:35)
So Christie, you’ve told me a lot about your story already, but for our listeners who are just hearing about you for the first time, you bought a wedding venue pretty recently, and it was quite the adventure for you and your husband. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
Christie (00:51)
Definitely. My husband and I purchased Ainsworth House and Gardens, which is a historic wedding and event center in Oregon City, Oregon. Just about three and a half years ago, we began that process 13 months before that. And so it was quite an arduous process. And we learned about the venue sale.
kind of it was sort of a back door quiet deal. The previous owner had run the venue for about 17 or 18 years and he didn’t want his venue bookings to suffer if people knew that he was selling the business. So yeah, so it was a little bit kind of on the down low.
Felix And Fingers (01:37)
interesting.
Christie (01:42)
And my brother and sister-in-law were friends with the broker who was helping that owner sell the business. And so their friend said, do you know anybody? And it just so happened that John and I were up from Southern California where we lived, visiting for Thanksgiving. And my sister-in-law kind of offhandedly made a remark about you should buy Ainsworth House and Gardens. And I sort of blew it off.
And then a couple of days later, she said it in front of John and John said, what’s that? Maybe we should, tell me more. So that was sort of how it started. ⁓ we ended up, John’s my husband, yeah. And yeah, and so we did a drive-by of the venue. It’s only about two and a half miles from my brother’s house.
Felix And Fingers (02:20)
John is your husband, right? Okay. Wow.
Christie (02:32)
and it’s a beautiful property. It was November, so it wasn’t even very beautiful then because now I look out the windows and the gardens are bursting and going crazy. And in November, of course, at Thanksgiving, they certainly aren’t doing that.
Felix And Fingers (02:46)
interesting, so you didn’t even get to see the like, the best of it when you were deciding to buy it. Wow!
Christie (02:50)
No, no, not for months.
So we drove by, they called their friend, their friend came over, we had wine and chatted about the venue and what it was all about. We were leaving the next morning to drive home after our Thanksgiving weekend. And we said, well, we’re leaving at four in the morning,
Can we like lay eyes on kind of the interior of the venue? We literally just drove right on the street. And so they were actually having a wedding, what’s happening at the time. And so we drove, we just came over here and did, we crashed the wedding a little bit. We did a quick zip through the reception space. We had a few people look at this. You know, there were like four of us that just walked through and looked and left.
Felix And Fingers (03:30)
crash the wedding.
Hahaha
Were you wearing wedding dress guest attire? That’s so funny. Because usually venues don’t let you do that and I’m sure you probably don’t let other people do that, right?
Christie (03:44)
heavens no, no, no, I don’t even, I don’t remember. was probably in leggings.
Well, I certainly wouldn’t know. Of course not. But we were with the owner. ⁓ Exactly. So we ended up staying here in the owner’s office and chatting about just things for about an hour. And then John and I had a 15-hour drive home the next day. so it
Felix And Fingers (03:58)
The owner was like, I gotta get this place sold. ⁓
you, so you
drove from Oregon to Southern California. ⁓ wow, okay.
Christie (04:20)
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Yep. And we had a stop in there, but it was basically a full drive for, you know, two days of what if and dreaming of possibilities and things. And the whole reason that we were even considering it was because our kids both went to college up in the Portland area.
Felix And Fingers (04:28)
Discussing.
So, okay.
Christie (04:45)
and
fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and said, yeah, we’re not coming home. And so I kind of tease, I share with my couples on their tours, what’s a mother to do but move to Oregon and buy a wedding venue to basically chase her kids.
Felix And Fingers (05:00)
That is so, wow.
That’s crazy. Okay, so you wanted to relocate to be closer to your kids. When this went on the market, so it didn’t ever go on the market or it was never officially listed.
Christie (05:05)
Yeah
No, it was not listed. It was, yeah.
Felix And Fingers (05:16)
That is so crazy. And you
were like, no, we’ll never do that. But then John got a whiff of it and he was like, oh, maybe. That’s crazy. So when you had the drive home, was it mostly like John saying, Christy, we can do it. And you’re like, I don’t know. Or was there one of you that was kind of pulling, what do you feel like he was pulling more for it than you?
Christie (05:24)
percent.
It was a lot of that.
Absolutely. John was the driving force for sure. would have stayed in my happy little life in Southern California and probably never thought another thing about it.
Felix And Fingers (05:40)
Wow.
That’s crazy.
What was your both of your industries before you bought the venue?
Christie (05:58)
John is works for the Boeing Company and he still works for them. So he still has his day job as we call it. And then there’s his night and weekend job, which is Ainsworth House and Gardens. And he’s in an engineering support role for Boeing. And I was a stay at home mom for 25 years.
And I had some side gigs that I did at home. I just some part-time things and I have a home-based business in sales that I still have. He and I were wedding coordinators at our church a long time ago before we even had children. So we had a tiny bit of like exposure. I wouldn’t even call it experience. It’s very different.
Felix And Fingers (06:38)
⁓ okay. ⁓ interesting experience.
Christie (06:49)
you know, being a wedding coordinator for your church versus owning a wedding venue. Obviously it’s very different and we don’t really do the coordinating. We, part of our package includes a day of coordinator. So we have coordinators that kind of manage the wedding stuff.
Felix And Fingers (07:09)
that’s really cool. That’s awesome. So, okay, so you said that you’ve owned it for three years. Is that right? But there was the first 13 months were not you weren’t fully transitioned.
Christie (07:12)
Yeah.
you
Yeah, we’ve
right. So we had to build a business plan. We had to we met with multiple banks during that year. I made several trips up here, worked alongside the previous owner and just sort of learned the ropes a little bit. We at one point, you know,
We came and we saw the house. Part of our house is for public use, so we have the changing rooms for the couple in our house. So I had, yeah.
Felix And Fingers (07:57)
You guys live on site? ⁓
okay, so this was like your home coming with the venue. Okay, house and gardens, okay, gotcha.
Christie (08:03)
Yes.
Right,
right. So we, I needed to see the house. I needed to see the private space where I would live before I ever would commit to this. Yeah, this is my family room. So this, yeah, we, this is in the upstairs of the house. So the house was built in 1851 and it’s the,
Felix And Fingers (08:18)
And this is what we’re looking at right now, right?
Okay, perfect.
out
Christie (08:35)
It was built for Captain John Ainsworth. He was a steamboat captain on the Willamette River, which is not too far away from where we live. Yeah, so and he captained the Oregon’s first steamboat, as a matter of fact. I just learned this morning, actually. Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (08:42)
wow!
That’s so cool.
Wow, my goodness, that’s so cool.
Christie (08:59)
I’m part of the Chamber of Commerce here in Oregon City and we had our networking meeting at a museum, the Museum of the Oregon Territory. And there was a picture of the Lot Whitcomb, which is the name of the boat that he captained. It’s actually the name of our street. Yeah, he was, Lot Whitcomb was the business partner of John Ainsworth.
Felix And Fingers (09:17)
Wow!
That’s really cool.
Christie (09:24)
Anyway, so yeah, it was kind of a fun fact this morning. I was taking pictures of the display and sending it to John. anyway, so we wanted to see the house. I wanted to see the house. Just, you know, can I live in this house? This is a 175 year old house. It’s pretty anyways. So I could see beyond some of the things that I would have wanted to make some improvements to and
Mostly just it was just cosmetic things. We weren’t doing construction or anything like that. But. Yeah, yeah, and. Yeah. yeah, definitely. No, we didn’t do anything with that, and we wanted to certainly maintain the integrity of the historic home. We definitely feel like we are stewards of this house and it is it’s one of the older homes in Oregon City.
Felix And Fingers (09:50)
Sure.
you have the remodeling lens on. Yeah. Cosmetic is easy to fix too. Structural is where it’s a little harder.
Sure.
Christie (10:15)
If you don’t know, probably a lot of people don’t know, but Oregon City is the end of the Oregon Trail. So there was lots. Yeah. So there was a kind of a booming mill business with, you know, logging and a paper mill. anyways, so it’s a pretty interesting little town.
Felix And Fingers (10:21)
I did not know that.
Yeah,
this is so fascinating. Do you feel like the more that you just work on the property, the more history you tend to discover?
Christie (10:44)
probably. Now our the reception facility is a modern building. And the house, of course, has all the modern amenities. We have electricity, we, you know, plumbing, all of that was put in a long time ago. And and then the reception facility is is modern. And we have a couple of other buildings on the property. We’re on just over two acres.
Felix And Fingers (10:56)
Haha, shit.
Christie (11:08)
And so I.
Felix And Fingers (11:08)
Do you have any displays
of like some of the things you told me? Well, I guess you some of it you learned this morning, but just for like guests to read.
Christie (11:14)
⁓
We do have on our website, we have a little bit about, there’s a tab, I think it says our story. So it’s a little bit about our story, mine and John’s story about how we got here, just a snippet of that. But then there’s a fair amount of history of the Ainsworth House and where it came from. Or how it came about, I guess, is really more like it.
There are couple of old photographs of the house. The house is a Greek revival style. So there’s a portico and a balcony. Right this way is the front of our house. So outside my office window is our balcony. And then there’s a whole back section of the house that was added on in 1896.
Felix And Fingers (11:38)
Yeah.
Christie (12:00)
I think the picture on our website was before I think that section was added. So it is super interesting. I think, I believe on our website, it’s been a while since I’ve looked at that section, but I think there’s a little link that’ll take you to a whole write-up of the history of the house. And there’s a lot of history of the area as well there.
Felix And Fingers (12:23)
That is so cool. I’m sure like that must feel cool as a bride too. Just like knowing that you’re on a historical property. So I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the wedding plan. So do you do mostly weddings? Would you say like what percentage of your events are weddings?
Christie (12:30)
Yeah.
I would yes, we mostly do weddings we probably We probably do maybe 70 30 60 40 something like that weddings and then other events sort of Get added in with a much shorter lead time. We do celebrations of life birthday parties baby showers bridal showers We do a fair number of community events
the state of the city address by the mayor, the state of the public school system. They’ve done events here. Last week we had the Oregon City School District, their retirement celebration. So all the teachers that are retired, they have been here for the last several years. And probably even before we were here doing their event here. So yes, mostly weddings, but we certainly do other events as well.
Felix And Fingers (13:26)
But you
do a lot of other stuff too. Very cool. How many events on average would you say you have per week, per month?
Christie (13:33)
Well, per week or month is more difficult. Most of our events are happening in the spring and into maybe mid fall. We certainly do events all year round. We can do weddings all year round. But we have, I would say this year we have maybe 60, between 60 and 70 events.
Felix And Fingers (13:42)
Okay, got it.
Christie (13:58)
and booked we just last weekend for the year. Yeah. So last weekend was kind of the start. was sort of it was our it was our starting point of our busy season. So pretty much now until mid-October we’re booked just about every weekend with at least one wedding. And this past weekend we had three events.
Felix And Fingers (14:00)
per year.
Got it.
Christie (14:23)
two weddings and a quinceañera. And this weekend we have two events and so yeah, it’ll get it’s it’s busy. It’s it’s our busy season.
Felix And Fingers (14:26)
Wow.
Is it hard living
on the property on the weekends? Are people partying late at night and you’re just trying to go to bed?
Christie (14:42)
Well, we do have a 10 o’clock stop time. our, yeah, so most of, I think most of the venues in our area have a 10 o’clock stop. ⁓ And so we do. ⁓ But pretty much, yeah, I mean, you know, there’s making sure everybody gets out and all of that. If I had it my way, we wouldn’t necessarily be,
Felix And Fingers (14:45)
Okay, gotcha.
Okay.
So that’s your bedtime then, right? You can’t go to bed earlier.
Christie (15:09)
at the venue the whole time weddings were happening and sometimes I can pry John away.
Felix And Fingers (15:16)
Because you said
you have a coordinator, But are you still at the reception, you know, or… Okay.
Christie (15:18)
Yes.
⁓ We pop in we definitely
pop in just to check in make sure everything’s going smoothly There aren’t any problems they No, correct Yeah, John likes to be there a lot He’s he’s Well, yeah, yeah kind of I mean and he’s just he’s a doer so
Felix And Fingers (15:30)
but you don’t have to be there like the whole time like the coordinator would. Cool.
Yeah, this is his passion, right? This is all his doing.
Yeah.
Christie (15:49)
He’s, you know, if there’s a spill on the floor, he grabs them off and takes care of it. And so that’s, that’s kind of his personality.
Felix And Fingers (15:58)
What do you think, like, is there a or, like, a mistake that some brides miss or something they miss that could help things go
Or is every event
at Ainsworth, it just goes off without a hitch? Because your wedding coordinator is so good.
Christie (16:11)
Well, certainly, I mean, it certainly isn’t that. I
mean, there are hiccups, of course. But honestly, I think our coordinators do an awesome job of getting everything ready. Even if things don’t go as smoothly as they could, for the most part, nobody knows it but us. And there might be some
know, snafus that a coordinator is working through. hopefully the couple doesn’t even know about it and they just get fixed and handled. Yeah. So, I mean, I think by the time wedding day is here and underway, things just go. You know, people kind of
Felix And Fingers (16:40)
Sure.
Have you ever… Go
ahead.
Christie (16:58)
I was just gonna say, people kind of say, there’s always gonna be something that goes wrong on your wedding day. And who knows, maybe it’s you forgot the fans for the guests or, mean, I don’t know. And so hopefully it’s something little and inconsequential and not anything big. We’ve never had any big situations happen.
Felix And Fingers (17:03)
Yeah. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
and disastrous.
Yeah. Have you ever helped save a wedding?
Christie (17:22)
Oww.
I don’t think so. Honestly, John and I were just talking this morning about, I think our biggest.
The word coming to mind is headache, but I don’t necessarily. The biggest issue is often with catering. ⁓ And it and it’s we have a list of preferred caterers. We allow any outside vendor to come in and outside catering along with that. And I think caterers are often, you know,
Felix And Fingers (17:40)
interesting.
Christie (17:53)
the couple is aware of what our requirements are for staffing and just to make sure the evening goes well. And I think a lot of times caterers are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll do that, we’ll do that, we got it, and they don’t do it. then somebody, know, like one of our big things is the tables have to be bussed and they have to be bussed all night.
Felix And Fingers (18:06)
Interesting, the Y-Y-U, interesting.
Christie (18:16)
And it sounds dumb, but there the photographer is there. And during toast, the photographer is taking pictures of your guests and and your family at the tables. And if there’s, you know, beer bottles and empty plates and like it looks tacky. And so we have jumped in and bus tables because we we want. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (18:37)
Wow, cuz Kater is dropped the ball.
So
you said you have, yeah, that’s the level of detail I would not expect for, so you said you have preferred vendors, but you don’t have like an on-site catering, like that’s not included in your package. Okay. But you said you have staffing requirements for your catering companies. So what does that look like when you’re communicating with a?
Christie (18:42)
and we wanted to look nice.
No. Correct.
Felix And Fingers (19:05)
with a bride, what are those requirements?
Christie (19:08)
Well, staff, means tables are being bussed continuously. Dishes are being, we include dishware and glassware in our venue booking. And so all of that needs to be put out and tables set. And then they need to be bussed and run through our dishwasher and put away. And then just enough staffing, know, if you have a wedding,
Felix And Fingers (19:10)
You said busing, busing tables, yeah.
Christie (19:32)
with 100 guests, you can’t have two service staff. That’s not enough people because somebody’s got to be manning if they’re doing a buffet that somebody has to be manning the buffet and making sure that it’s stocked. you know, we require food handlers cards. So everybody has to have a food handlers permit. So they know, you know, has this food been out too long? Is it now not safe? Things like that. ⁓
Felix And Fingers (19:59)
Right.
Christie (20:00)
So those are kind of the requirements that we would expect of our catering teams.
Felix And Fingers (20:05)
That’s really cool. Is that pretty typical for wedding venues to have those kind of requirements or is it something you guys would set you guys apart?
Christie (20:14)
No, I think it’s very typical. ⁓ And there and a lot of venues have in-house catering. So of course they’re staffing it and they’re, you know, it’s, all their stuff. It’s, it’s their food. So it, it makes sense. And it’s logical that they’re doing all of that. But for us, since we don’t have an in-house, we don’t have in-house catering. We don’t have an onsite kitchen, you know,
Felix And Fingers (20:16)
Okay
Christie (20:41)
then they’re pretty reasonable. The caterers that regularly do wedding catering, even the caterers that aren’t on our preferred list, but that they come in and they are, they regularly do wedding catering. They look at our list and they’re like, yep, yep, yep. This is no big deal. This is what we do all the time. It’s a lot, you know, if you have somebody who has found their favorite food truck and we’ll cater your wedding for you.
Well, they can do the food, but they don’t have the staff.
Felix And Fingers (21:10)
I see.
Gotcha, that’s so interesting.
That’s a whole aspect I never knew about or never considered from a vendor side of it. But I have seen some weddings get delayed because of Like as an entertainer, I’ve had some… It doesn’t happen often, but I have had some times where the entertainment starts an hour late because the food was an hour late. So that’s really interesting.
Christie (21:15)
you
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think, you know, speaking of entertainment, I think having the having the right entertainment can definitely make or break a reception. Most of our couples are bringing in DJs when they don’t and they’re doing a DIY situation. It’s never great.
Felix And Fingers (21:40)
Cool.
Is that like
an iPod and a speaker kind of thing?
Christie (22:01)
Pretty much, Yeah. We have an indoor sound system that we can add on and hook people up, but it’s, you know, the professional DJ knows how to be an MC. They know how to, you know, make the evening flow. And when the dance party starts, you know, they, if people are super slow, yes. And if they’re super slow to get on the dance floor, they’re gonna change the music.
Felix And Fingers (22:03)
Yeah.
They can read the crowd, you know.
Christie (22:29)
like let’s get people out there and so.
Felix And Fingers (22:32)
One of my favorite tricks, I was at a wedding once and right when it was like they did all the first dances and dinner was done and all the tourists they were about to dance, the DJ just had everybody come up on the floor for group pictures. He’s like, we’re gonna get a group picture of everybody and the wedding and the photographers came and they got this big group picture of everybody and then he just hit the track and everyone’s already on the dance floor so they’re all dancing. That’s when a…
Christie (22:53)
Exactly. That’s cool.
Felix And Fingers (22:57)
Yeah, that’s one of my favorite tricks. I’ve DJed a couple of weddings. I do more piano bar stuff now, but we also do post show DJing too. So yeah, OK, cool. I have some other fun. You want to answer some fun questions? OK. You’ve done amazing.
Christie (23:14)
Sure, because I’ve been so great at answering your questions.
Felix And Fingers (23:19)
You’re amazing.
Okay, what wedding trend do you secretly wish would disappear?
Maybe these questions are too hard.
Christie (23:28)
No,
I feel like we don’t, I mean, I’m thinking of course, you know, back in the day when I got married, you know, there were all kinds of things. Yes, that’s exactly what came to mind. As a matter of fact, we rarely see it now, but every once in a while we see it and it surprises me. It’s like, dang.
Felix And Fingers (23:36)
like the garter toss, that’s the one that comes to mind for me.
God.
Christie (23:52)
They’re
actually doing this, you know, just the bouquet and the garter toss.
Felix And Fingers (23:56)
But the bouquet toss is still pretty common, right? you have, really?
Christie (23:58)
No, we don’t.
We don’t see it very often at all. Yeah. Okay.
Felix And Fingers (24:03)
interesting. I feel like I see it like 50-50.
I did meet with a bride the other day who did, she wanted a garter toss and I saw it and I was like really surprised and I always meet with them and just say, okay, so what do you mean by the garter toss? Because the full tradition…
is the garters on the bride, right? And the husband. think my, you know, I think I didn’t do this at my wedding, but I think my brother did. He got married.
Christie (24:26)
Yes, I recall.
Felix And Fingers (24:32)
I don’t know, maybe like 15 years ago. So it might have still been common then. But so then so the garters on the bride, she wears it all day and then her husband takes it off in whatever manner he wants. Right. Which is sometimes including no hands. And then he’s I know he throws it to the eligible bachelors, all the single men.
Christie (24:44)
yes.
Super cringy.
Right.
Felix And Fingers (24:55)
And who the I don’t know folklore or whatever is that whatever single guy catches it is going to be the next to get married and then she does the bouquet toss and whatever single lady Catches the boat okay is the one the next girl to get married and then the guy who catches the garter puts it on the girl who caught the bouquet, so it’s like You haven’t seen that okay, so I I grew up in a really big family
Christie (25:14)
I haven’t seen that. No.
Felix And Fingers (25:20)
I
my dad has He’s one of seven of my mom is one of eight and I just my whole childhood I went to like four weddings a year So I saw so many things. So yeah, so the full tradition is The guy who catches the garter puts it on the girl who who caught the bouquet and so it’s a stranger usually putting it on a strange girl and if you would just do it so
Christie (25:28)
wow.
Yeah. Right.
Felix And Fingers (25:42)
It’s funny, but that was really, I remember that being like a common thing in my childhood of seeing that at weddings and then now as a vendor it’s usually if you see anything it’s just the bouquet toss. So I met with this bride the other day and I was like, so this is the full tradition, is that what you want? And she was like, no, like she was clutching her pearls.
Christie (25:48)
Okay.
Felix And Fingers (26:03)
And she’s like, all I want is him to just throw a gardener. He’s just going to have one. No one’s it’s not going to be on anyone’s leg. He’s just going to throw it and someone’s going to catch it. And that’s it. So but I was surprised to see I was like, she doing the full the full show? I know I haven’t seen the full tradition since I was a kid. So, yeah. Yeah.
Christie (26:11)
Okay
Yeah,
as a matter of fact, there have been, and I’m not over in the reception space, you know, like I said, for the whole time and I’ll pop over and a lot of times we’ll get galleries from the photographers who are shooting the weddings. And so we’ll get that, you know, many weeks later. And so I’ll usually just scroll through just to see, and I have seen some bouquet and garter tosses.
Felix And Fingers (26:28)
Sure.
Christie (26:45)
I feel like mostly bouquet and it surprised me. Yeah, okay. And it’s just when I’ve seen the pictures, it’s like, I didn’t know they did that. And not that I would because I’m not coordinating. I’m not, you know.
Felix And Fingers (26:48)
It’s usually just bokeh, yeah. Yeah.
think, what did I do at my wedding? Gosh, I don’t even remember. I think I did, I wanna say I did just the bouquet too at my wedding, but.
That’s crazy, I don’t even remember. I got married like six years ago. You did both?
Christie (27:09)
yeah, we did both. We did both. It
was 34 years ago, so yeah, we did both.
Felix And Fingers (27:14)
Yeah, that was…
Do you remember a lot of details of your wedding? No, I know. I’m like, I’m already forgetting. OK, let’s see that. um. So I don’t know how much like you said, you kind of pop in and out. some weddings you might be there more than others, but.
What is, okay, there’s an excellent, what is the funniest thing a drunk uncle has done at a wedding that you’ve seen?
Christie (27:38)
well, I don’t know that it was a well, it definitely wasn’t a drunk uncle because it was a drunk woman. And yeah. And it wasn’t even necessarily funny. was it was kind of terrible. She was. It was not a good situation, and there were, think, at one point, five women, four women with this gal in the bathroom and.
Felix And Fingers (27:44)
Sometimes they’re crazier.
Christie (28:04)
of trying to help her then she was leaving and yelling at somebody because of some infidelity or some presumed infidelity and she thought like it was just this crazy it was a kind of a crazy situation and typically our coordinators are good about keeping an eye on the alcohol
Felix And Fingers (28:14)
Yikes
Christie (28:29)
consumption and all of our bartenders, of course, you know, they’re typically coming through the caterer and they’re all permitted. So they they have rules. But we’ve also seen people sneaking alcohol. They’ll go out to their car. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. No.
Felix And Fingers (28:43)
Right. And you don’t know how much they had before they got there too, right? Do you guys allow shots?
Most wedding venues, it’s not allowed. Yeah.
Christie (28:56)
Yeah, we have some fairly strict alcohol rules and we don’t even serve hard alcohol. We do allow hard alcohol in the form of signature cocktails, but we don’t serve them all night even. Just like right after dinner at toast, hard alcohol just goes away.
Felix And Fingers (29:15)
Yeah. Okay.
Christie (29:15)
And
most of our couples are very happy about that. And they’re like, yep, we don’t need, you know, we don’t need hard alcohol nights.
Felix And Fingers (29:18)
Sure, yeah.
Yeah, there’s a happy medium, right? There’s it’s like the bell curve. It gets fun and then it gets not so fun anymore after a certain point. OK, I have one last question and then we’ll wrap it up. So what moment at weddings still gets you emotional after you’ve seen hundreds of them?
Christie (29:30)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Okay.
I just got chills. And I think a lot of times if I’m out at the ceremony space, John and I will kind of hang way in the way back. We stand under a tree and just we’ll get some pictures of the whole kind of this whole scene. And then usually I like to ski-dattle from the ceremony space.
And I like to congratulate the couple. They’re obviously the first ones that leave the area, and they’re just by themselves. so I love that. And a lot of times, I kind of get to be a fly on the wall because they don’t necessarily know that I’m there and I’m not hiding or anything creepy. I’m just there and they’re not paying attention, which… they’re just super excited. And they’re just like…
we did it, we’re married or you know, just something, it’s just sweet. It’s, it’s so I like that.
Felix And Fingers (30:41)
Yeah.
It
is funny for me, like, from the vendor side of things, I will sometimes just tear up watching, like, the vows. And it’s crazy, because I’m like, I do this all the time. And I’m still just like, So.
Christie (30:54)
Yeah.
Yeah, and sometimes
during the ceremonies, if they’re doing pride, you know, if they’ve written their own vows and they’re, I find myself like my face hurts because I’ve just been smiling the whole time. And so it’s like, that’s so sweet. And sometimes, you know, the couples are just sweet. And maybe I made a connection, a particular or a special connection with them when I toured them.
Felix And Fingers (31:18)
Yeah.
Christie (31:25)
And they’ve been back to the venue a couple of times. And I usually try to pop in when they meet their meeting with their coordinator just to say hi and how’s the planning going? Is everything going great? That kind of thing. So.
Felix And Fingers (31:38)
Yeah.
You feel like you can tell when like certain couples are just very much in love. You know, I don’t know if that’s the case, but there’s some times where you just like see the way they look at each other and you’re just like, wow, like they’re going to make it, you know? Well, Chrissy, it was so great talking to you. How can people reach out? What? How far advanced do you guys book weddings?
Christie (31:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
Well, we’re booking well into 2027 at this point. Still have 2026 dates available. I’m still touring couples for weddings later this year as well. I’ve toured a handful of couples looking at 2028 also.
Felix And Fingers (32:20)
Okay cool, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?
Christie (32:23)
Definitely our website, which is Amesworthhouse.net and our email address is on the website. We also have a link to kind get our pricing brochure and connect with us that way as well.
Felix And Fingers (32:37)
Okay cool, do you have an Instagram if people want to find you there?
Christie (32:40)
Ainsworth House and Gardens. Yep. I think, yeah, the and is spelled out because our logo, our name is an ampersand for the, but I don’t think you can have that on Instagram. it’s and, A-N-D.
Felix And Fingers (32:41)
Beautiful. Awesome. Well, it was.
Okay.
Ainsworth House and Gardens and Ainsworth is spelled A-I-N-S-W-O-R-T-H, correct? Cool. Well, Chrissy, it was so nice talking with you and chatting about your story and a little bit of the wedding industry. And hopefully I’ll be able to stop by and get a tour someday.
Christie (33:03)
Correct. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, you too.
would love it. I would love it. Yeah,
when you’re here visiting your brother, right?
Felix And Fingers (33:19)
Yes, yes, I’m actually there in two weekends. so yeah. Cool. All right, well, we’re signing off. Thank you guys for joining us and for another episode of Eventful Endeavors.
Christie (33:22)
⁓ okay. Cool.
