Planning a Wedding During COVID-19 - Cara & Jason

Tori Repp Photography at the Farm Bakery and Events

It’s no secret that the global pandemic of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on important gatherings and special events. This has been especially true for weddings. With such short notice, couples are having to make the difficult decision of postponing their wedding date. This is no small feat, and brings with it an intense and unique wave of emotions and challenges associated with essentially having to re-plan their wedding day. With this daunting task facing many couples whose weddings were initially planned for the coming weeks and months in 2020, one of our couples at the Farm graciously shared their story of what postponing their wedding date has looked like for them. Inspired by an article published on Pennsylvania Weddings, we hope it is able to offer some light in these unprecedented times, and some hope in the midst of an uncertain future.

Thank you, Cara & Jason, for sharing your experience with us!

We cannot wait to celebrate with you on August 23!

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First of all, we can not express the immense respect we have for both Cara & Jason as educators transitioning their students and their curriculum to online learning at the drop of a hat - while simultaneously postponing their wedding day. These two are truly incredible and we can not thank them enough for taking the time to share their experience with us, and for being so gracious as they work through these difficult changes.

Cara & Jason’s wedding was originally one of two weddings scheduled for our opening weekend of the 2020 season on April 18, 2020. They elected to postpone their wedding date to August 23, 2020.

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How did you meet?

“Even though we both moved to the same town around 1st grade, and we both went trick-or-treating on the same block, and we only lived about 5 minutes from one another for a decade, we did not meet until our senior year. This was primarily because Cara took all the smart classes and Jason took all the shop classes. But eventually we met in Gym class and Jason promptly annoyed Cara as first impressions were never his thing. But Jason won Cara over by getting her out of class with fake hall passes, helping her with her car, work, or just general life drama, and Cara helped Jason pass math class and learn to take a break every now and then. Really not sure if we would have finished our senior year if it wasn’t for one another.”

Tell us your engagement story!

“We got engaged Christmas Morning of 2018. Just the two of us. Jason dressed our dog up as a reindeer, with bells and antlers. He (our dog Charlie) wore a present on his back that contained the hand made ring box and custom designed wedding ring. Jason did not do a practice run however, and he discovered morning of that Charlie was terrified of the bells and behaved like a lunatic. After Cara and Jason got the bells off of Charlie (while laughing hysterically), Jason told Cara to open the box that Charlie brought her and she didn’t realize it was a real gift. Inside, she found the ring box and the ring. While Jason was saying nice pretty things, Charlie promptly ate the handmade ring box, sans ring thank goodness! It was chaotic, and a little messy, and very perfect.”

How did you find the Farm?

“We started planning Spring of 2019. We knew we did not want a very traditional wedding from the beginning. We first thought we might want a destination wedding; Cape May is a sentimental vacation spot so we looked there. While in all of these beach themed venues we realized that it just wasn’t us. The gold and ornate halls, or the fancy meals. So we thought about us and were reminded of the farm / country areas we used to drive through in PA, times spent in parks outdoors, and our absolutely favorite food venues - food trucks. We quickly landed on Meyers Farm and Bakery after seeing the location and started to put it all together.”

Are you able to use the same vendors for your new date as your original date?

“We are able to use pretty much all the same vendors. They were extremely accommodating and understanding. We were very nervous about having so many separate vendors when we realized we had to move our date, but it all came together very quickly. Jason really took care of this. We got the news on my first day of digital instruction as a third grade teacher, and I was overwhelmed by 23 eight year olds attempting to navigate Chromebooks and emails. By the end of the day, Jason had contacted all of our vendors, secured a new wedding date, and created/ordered a new invitation. I planned the first wedding, but he planned the second.”

How are you handling the additional time leading up to your wedding?

“A little sad about it, of course. It took us both a couple of days for it to really sink in. We went from 32 days ‘til our wedding to 162 days. 

“We are both doing alright. There isn’t much for us to organize at this point, and we are both NJ teachers trying to digitally instruct our students. We have enough on our plates to keep us busy. Jason was actually a little relieved because he has been procrastinating making all of our center pieces and signs and now he has more time to work on it (not that he will get started anytime soon of course). We weren’t particularly attached to our original wedding date, it didn’t have any deeper purpose for us. We were just ready to be married. We discussed getting married on the 18th anyway, with just a witness or two. But we decided, since we were going to pay for this party, it might be nice to actually get married then too.”

Has anything helped to offered you hope in this situation?

“Yes. First, all of our vendors (Meyers Farm and Bakery included) have been incredible in maintaining our original expectations and contracts. Our families have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive about the change. They have done their best to find any and every tiny bright side to our new date, even the idea that now we can have a nice tan for our big day! Plus, our wedding isn’t canceled. We still get to marry each other. We still get to celebrate with our family and friends. And even better, we still get the same wedding we have been planning. This will always make a fantastic anniversary story for years to come!”

How have your guests reacted to the new date?

“Extremely understanding, and to be honest, very relieved. A handful were going to be unable to attend, or frightened to attend. It wouldn’t have been the celebration that we had hoped.”

Did you have many guests traveling from out of town?

“Not MANY. I would say we had around 10-15 guests traveling from out of town. Flights were booked, but we couldn’t do much about it. We are happy to say that everyone who reserved rooms in our hotel block were not penalized for their cancelations and many airlines are being accommodating as well.”

How did you let everyone know?

“For long distance guests/relatives, we gave phone calls very quickly, to be considerate of travel plans. We enlisted our families in help with this. Then, we created and sent our a revised wedding invitation, with the new date and time, asking our guest to RSVP once more. Jason was proud with his new invite design, he made a parody of the original “uninviting” guests from the first date and “inviting” them to the new one instead. He also bought a new domain, the original was www.jasonlovescara.com and the new one is www.jasonstilllovescara.com, our guests found it funny too.”

What advice do you have for other couples in the same situation?

“Try to make the best of the situation. This is a terrible set of circumstances, but with the right person by your side you can handle it.”

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Cara & Jason, we are so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate with you. While we are (extremely) bummed not to be able to celebrate with you on April 18, we know that August 23 is going to be an incredible day and we can’t wait to be a part of it.

See below for the list of incredible vendors working with Cara & Jason to deliver them the perfect wedding day, no matter what:

Venue: the Farm Bakery and Events

Desserts: the Farm Bakery and Events

Coordinator: Jess Roth, the Farm Bakery and Events

Catering: the Munchie Machine

Catering: Dos Hermanos Tacos

Beverage: PJ's Bartending Service

Wedding Photography: Tori Repp Photography

DJ: the Pros

Spring Open House at The Farm!

Jessica Manns Photography

The past couple of years have been a whirlwind. God has truly had us all on this amazing journey and I’m so thankful for all that He has done here at our little Farm in Quakertown. Without His strength, guidance, provision and wisdom we would not be where we are today. We opened our Farm on Zion Hill for Weddings in the Spring of 2017 and had no idea what would happen. We are about to enter our 4th Wedding Season. It is with great honor that we will be able to serve so many Wedding Couples and their families on one of the most exciting days as they begin their lives together.

I remember the day that God planted a seed in my heart for this idea. Could we host Weddings in our Barn? Would people actually come here to get married? How would we pay for the renovations? At the time I was working full-time in a very busy position that required quite a bit of travel. How would I manage both and make sure to keep my commitments? Chris and I had always discussed different ideas for businesses, but we never actually acted on them. So I prayed, we prayed- Lord, we are just going to take one step at a time and follow your lead, if this is your will for where you want us to be, I know you will make it happen. To say that God provided is an understatement! I remember reading a verse - “Commit your plans to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4. He knew I had a heart to serve and all He had to do was plant the seed. “I planted a seed in your hearts, and Apollo watered it, but it was God who made it grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6. I remember thinking over the course of the last 4 years, as our business grew, how am I going to continue to manage this business and work full-time? I have two young children and while I was blessed with an awesome corporate job, my heart wanted to be a Mom and be closer to them. I never in a million years imagined that this little business at The Farm would allow me to leave my job, but again God provided. I kept hearing His soft whisper- trust me, you are in my hands! My flesh wanted to be filled with fear, the fear of failure, and the fear of all of the what ifs. But, through faith and God’s grace I left my job in February of 2019, only a year ago. Yet again I was humbled by all that God provided and how He has continued to carry me during this time.

I began a new prayer- Lord we need to find good people to help us carry out your mission here at The Farm. He provided more abundantly than I could have every dreamed or imagined. “He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into the field.’” Mathew 9:37-38. Not only did He send workers, but AMAZING and talented people who have all brought their gifts and talents to serve here at The Farm. Kara, our baker, has been working with us for the past 5 years. She is so talented and we are blessed to have her working with us. Over the next 4 years we have been blessed to hire an amazing team of Wedding Coordinators - Susanna, Jess and Caris. Check out our TEAM, without them we would not be here. At the beginning of February we hired our first full-time role, an Event Operations Manager. We are excited to share that Anna Robinson has accepted this role after interning with us for the past 2 years. She started at the beginning of February and is already doing so many amazing things to support our business here at The Farm. I pinch myself and ask Anna almost every day, are you still enjoying your new job? We are grateful for each member on our TEAM and all that they do to support our mission here!

Meet Anna…

Event Operations Manager

So… in addition to all these wonderful happenings, we are beyond excited to roll out our first Open House and Grand Opening of our New Harvest Barn on Sunday, April 5th, 2020! We have named our Barns here to honor God for all that He has done. Instead of referring to the barns as the “old barn” and “new barn,” our beautifully restored 1800’s barn is now our “Seed Barn.” We pray that just as God planted the seed in my heart, that God would also plant seeds in the many couples who begin their journeys together here. We continually pray that their lives will be full of love, joy and happiness for many years to come! Our new barn will now be our “Harvest Barn.” “So lets not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9!

We are so thankful for the harvest that God has provided and we would love to have you all join us to celebrate the opening of our new space. Our Harvest Barn will be the home for our on-site bathrooms, new bridal suite and powder room, kitchen for our bakery and a new smaller event space for rehearsals, showers, corporate outings and more! We are in the process of updating all of our bakery menus and will be opening our “Flour Cart Farm Stand.” The stand will have regular retail hours with weekly specials for breads, pies, baked goods and more! See the concept picture below. How cute will this little addition be to our Farm?

If you would like to join us for our Open House click here to reserve your tickets and for more details about the event. Several of our preferred vendors will be here showcasing their talents and serving up some awesome food and wine. We hope you can join us!

Warmly, Becca Lynde

XOXOXO

Our “Flour Cart Farm Stand”! Opening in April of 2020! We will be posting weekly specials for bread, pies, and baked goods with regular hours for a stop in visit to The Farm on Fridays-Sundays! More details to come on our Grand Opening for our Flour Cart but you can sign up for our Newsletter to hear more about our retail bakery hours on our homepage here: Newsletter.

Holiday Pie Menu!

Its hard to believe that the Holiday Season has arrived!  We would love to be part of your celebrations this year!!  Listed below you will find our menu of assorted baked goods.  Please visit our website to place an order or email us at meyersfarmbakery@yahoo.com.

We wish you and your family a very Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Chris & Becca Lynde

Holiday Pie Menu

All Pies are 10” Family Size

Apple Crumb or Apple Tart - $14

Double Crust Apple Pie - $16

Cherry, Blueberry, Apple Cranberry Ginger or Triple Berry Crumb Pies - $18

Winter Cranberry Pie - $18

Want something a little different this holiday season? Try this Double Crust Cranberry pie filled with tart fresh cranberries, orange zest and a hint of cinnamon. 

"Old Fashioned" Double Crust Mince Meat Pie - $18

PA Dutch Favorite, our crust filled with Local Mince Meat from Groff's Meat Market in Elizabethtown, PA with some of our extra special touches!  

PA Dutch Shoo Fly or Funny Cakes - 9” - $10

Old Fashioned Pecan Pie - 10”– $25

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie or Ginger Bourbon Pecan Pie– 10” – $28

Chocolate Torte topped with Fresh Raspberries & Pistachios - $30

Our “Signature” Apple Dumplings - $6

Mini Apple Dumpling Gift Pack - $32

6 Mini Apple Dumplings in a Gift Box with a Holiday Greeting Tag

****All pies and dumplings can be made with Spelt Flour.  Spelt contains higher amounts of vitamins and minerals than wheat.  It is also easier to digest than wheat due to its high water solubility, which makes the nutrients available to the body with minimal digestive effort. Spelt does contain gluten, but the gluten strength is less than wheat and many people with wheat sensitivities may be able to tolerate spelt. ****

We use only Organic Whole Wheat White Pastry Flour or Natural Spelt Flour from Small Valley Milling in Halifax, PA for all of our baking.