The Sixty-Two of Madison recently came under new ownership. The venue, located at 2761 Athens Hwy. in the rural countryside, is on 62 acres and is popular among the community for hosting wedding events.
Rochelle and Kevin Wright purchased the business earlier this month and have begun preparing for a busy summer of weddings.
Before 20-plus years of running Back to the Basics daycare in Monroe, Rochelle worked “wedding special events” for venues, including Magnolia Hall of Atlanta and Blue Willow Inn of Social Circle. After selling the daycare, Wright decided she was ready to try something different for work and knew she had always liked “working with brides.”
Wright became interested in the site after attending her daughter’s event there a few years ago.
“I was like, ‘Hey, if you guys ever want to sell this place, I love it,’” said Wright. “I just made a comment, and so I was just retired, just doing nothing, and then [this past November] they called me and said, ‘Okay, we are ready to sell.”’
According to Wright, while she is mainly in charge of the business, it is a family effort to keep it running. She credits her husband, who has a background in construction, for his contributions to the industry.
“He’ll help with, you know, everything he can help with. Building, remodeling, whatever I want. He will do that,” said Wright. “It’s helpful to have that.”
Wright’s daughter, Reagan, also a small business owner, has been assisting her parents in their business.
“We made her the wedding events coordinator, so she’ll help me book the venue,” said Wright. “Then she is over marketing and advertising. She is good at that.”
With the new business in hand, Wright plans to make a few renovations throughout the site. She especially hopes to change some of the outdoor areas permanently.
“They always have tents out here, so I am like, let’s put a permanent covering there,” said Wright. “We are doing some revamping. I have an interior designer who has come and is working with me.”
Wright said that although she liked the place’s setup before purchasing the venue, she believes it is important to make some changes.
“If you got married here, and in three years, your best friend wants to get married here, she would want things to look a little different,” Wright said. “In this business, you must constantly be changing and doing.”
Wright is working on changes to the vendor list for new and preferred vendors. With the “tremendous response” she has received so far, Wright expects a long week of going through the list.
“Going through all the people who want to be a preferred vendor is going to be a big undertaking,” said Wright. “That will be our project this week.”
Even though Rochelle and Kevin officially purchased the business within the past few weeks, the busy wedding season required immediate work.
According to Rochelle, the purchase closed on a Thursday, and they had to work with weddings only 24 hours later.
“We [worked with] a wedding Friday and Saturday, and we had one this past weekend,” said Wright. “So, we have already done two weddings. I mean, we hit the ground running.”
Overall, Wright looks forward to working with multiple weddings this summer and embracing the busy schedule. Because of her experience in the wedding industry, she isn’t scared of the load it will bring.
“I tell people, you can burn somebody’s brand-new house down, wreck their brand-new car, but if you make them mad about their kids, that is a whole other gamut,” said Wright. “If you’ve ever done daycare, you can handle weddings.”
Wright believes that the wedding industry is a happy experience to work with.
“This is happy stuff. You know, brides are happy. Do things happen? Yes, but they are always workable,” Wright said. “Weddings are fun, and people are happy, typically. It’s a joyous occasion so that I will be involved in that.”