Rachel Bethmann

Castleton Farms bride Rachel Bethmann’s wedding ceremony is fast approaching on August 8, 2010.  As you can imagine, she and her family are hard at work finalizing all those small, yet important details.  Most of you who follow our blog know that Rachel was a displaced bride with her original wedding ceremony location in Pensacola, Florida.  For weeks, the whole family held out hope that Pensacola Beach wouldn’t be affected by the oil spill.   Rachel’s dad, Bill Bethmann, decided to do some research online with Pensacola news station websites, and also pulled up maps tracking the oil spill.  Going by the activity and encroachment of the oil on Florida beaches, Rachel finally made the decision to relocate the ceremony.  This decision was made with only five short weeks prior to the wedding date.  Castleton Farms literally saved the day and the wedding for Rachel and her fiance’, Aaron Clark.

So, we thought it would be interesting to give you all a parent’s perspective of a Castleton Farms wedding.  We spoke with Mrs. Ginger Bethmann, Rachel’s mom, to ask her how the experience of producing a wedding at Castleton Farms has been.  Ginger told us that they have had four weddings over the past couple of years, with Rachel’s sister being married last year.  This being the second marriage in two years for one family had to be a lot of stress, but Ginger has related that Castleton Farms along with the Executive Director, Darla Walker has made the whole experience a seamless, worry and stress free time. 

Ginger shared with us that all the prior weddings she planned were done with help from family and friends, so she was accustomed to being the point of contact for every minute and vital detail of the wedding.  She tells us, “These past five weeks, I have had the continual thought that there must be more I need to do, but anytime I call Darla, or one of the wonderful vendors, I am told that all is under control.”  Ginger admits to going about her day and having a number of details pop into her mind that need attention, only to call Darla or one of the vendors with these concerns and be told that that has already been dealt with.  She says that this has given her the luxury of spending time on the small, yet fun details with her daughter and has made the countdown to the ceremony a stress free, enjoyable time.

“Each vendor area is proving to be of the highest standard and quality work, that it almost feels dreamlike,” Ginger tells us.  “Everything is of the most amazing design; the attention to detail is exacting and I am left to marvel at all that Castleton has been able to accomplish in such a short time frame.  We are so excited for the actual wedding day, and so appreciative of Darla and all the vendors.”

Rachel is the second youngest child of Ginger and Bill Bethmann, and Ginger shared that Rachel has always dreamed of an unusual wedding location for her dream wedding day.  Castleton Farms fit this dream perfectly, and Ginger and her husband Bill feel they have delivered consistently quality work throughout these past five weeks. 

We look forward to Rachel’s wedding day as well, and promise to share photos and details with you in a future blog!

Castleton Farms ~ Nothing Less Than Unforgettable

Photo Courtesy of Rosa's Catering

One of the most vitally important parts of planning a dream wedding is choosing the design and flavor of the wedding cake!  The possibilities are endless.  An equally vital part of the equation is finding a bakery and cake designer with artistic talent and vision to translate your dreams into wedding cake reality.  Allow us to introduce one of our Castleton Farms Preferred Vendors, Rosa’s Catering in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Our Castleton Farm bride, Rachel Bethmann’s wedding is just days away on August 8, 2010, and all the final details are being put into place.  Rachel’s wedding was originally planned to take place in Pensacola, Florida, but due to the BP Oil Spill, she had to regroup and find a new location in Loudon, Tennessee at Castleton Farms premier wedding and event venue.  Her theme is a vineyard summer holiday and her wedding cake is going to be a unique and fun interpretation of square wine barrels draped in cascading sugared grapes.  Can you imagine how lovely this will look, tied into the vineyard and elegant grounds of Castleton Farms? (photo gallery) 

The deliciousness doesn’t stop at the design, though.  Rachel has chosen a Neopolitan cake flavor!  This is one of Rosa’s Catering’s most popular cakes and is composed of layers of orange Grand Marnier flavored cake, then a layer of hazelenut rum mousse, followed by a layer of chocolate cake, then a layer of raspberry mousse, followed by a layer of white vanilla cake.  When the cake is cut, all those gorgeous layers, colors and flavors will be evident to the eye, and let’s face it….we really do enjoy eating pretty food!  A clever and unique design that contains a multi-flavored Neopolitan layer cake is just sinfully elegant and promises to  be delicious. 

As you can see, the wedding cake photo above is not a true depiction of Rachel and Aaron’s design.  It is a lovely design that Rosa’s Catering created for a recent Castleton Farms event.  We thought our readers would enjoy seeing some of the incredible design work that Rosa’s Catering can produce.  Beautiful, isn’t it?!  We will post photos of all the finalized details of the Bethmann-Clark wedding next week, so stay tuned for those exciting, romantic updates!

Castleton Farms – Nothing Less Than Unforgettable

Secondly, most photo booth companies provide the service of creating a guest book for you to keep forever. When the guests get their pictures taken a copy is pasted to a page of the book which the guests can then sign leaving their best wishes!

Another service most photo booth companies usually offer is including a personal monagram or logo on the photo strips, carrying on your personal style and wedding theme.

Pictured below is some photo booth fun had by Castleton Farms Staff, compliments of

The Knoxville Photo Booth Company.

Anyone who has attended a wedding knows that many of them can be fun, with great food!  Some can be less inspiring with chicken the consistency of rubber, watery and overcooked vegetables and bland flavors.  Castleton Farms just happens to have some of the greater Knoxville area’s best Preferred Vendors to deliver beautifully prepared, delicious food that also delights the eyes!

If you’ve been following Rachel Bethmann and Aaron Clark’s story (‘Displaced’ sometimes translates to a fairytale ending!) with us, you already know that they originally planned to have their wedding on the beach in Pensacola, Florida.  The BP Oil Spill changed those plans at the last minute, and Rachel and Aaron were fortunate to be able to book their ceremony at the luxury wedding and event venue of Castleton Farms in Loudon, Tennessee.

All Occasion Catering is working with Rachel and Aaron to create a sumptuous spread for their wedding reception.  The theme is a vineyard summer holiday to incorporate a bit of the original beachy theme.  The photo above is a small sample of the tasty offerings that All Occasion Catering will be providing.  Rachel chose a poolside buffet with hors d’oeuvres of a cheese, fruit and cracker array to start.  The buffet will also include a Sweet and Crunchy Asian Salad with a sesame ginger dressing served in martini glasses for a whimsical presentation.  There will also be apple smoked pork loin, Chicken Kiev, green beans, four cheese macaroni and roasted parsley potatoes to round out the meal.

All of this set against the evening backdrop of the Castleton Farms pool and grounds promise to be an evening, and a wedding to remember!   Stay tuned for continuing blog posts about Rachel and Aaron’s wedding story!

Castleton Farms ~ Nothing Less Than Unforgettable

Weddings are the stuff of which dreams are made for every grown up little girl.  Ideally, the venue is chosen a year in advance and the bride and her family spend that year setting all the fun, entertaining, touching, thoughtful and beautiful details into place.  Sometimes, however, things go unexpectedly awry and the bride becomes what is known in the wedding industry as ‘displaced’.

Rachel Bethmann is such a bride, having planned for her dream wedding to be held in Florida on the beaches of Pensacola.  We all know what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the BP Oil Spill catastrophe, and how it is affecting once pristine beaches.  Up until approximately six weeks prior to their wedding date of August 8th, 2010, Rachel and her fiance’ Aaron Clark (both University of Tennessee graduates) were hopeful that their particular location would escape the oil spill fallout.  Unfortunately, as the spill went on longer and longer, the couple had to face the harsh fact that their dream beach wedding venue was going to have change to another location.

Fortunately, Rachel and her mother, Ginger Bethmann had made the rounds in 2009 of several bridal shows and stopped at the Castleton Farms booth to meet and chat with the various Preferred Vendors and Darla Walker, Castleton’s Executive Director.  Hoping against hope that their wedding date might be available, Rachel and her mom contacted Darla and the unbelievable happened.  Darla and Castleton Farms extended an unheard of kindness by offering the venue free of charge.  Several of the Castleton Preferred Vendors followed suit and offered free services, while others offered services at steeply discounted prices. 

Rachel and Aaron’s wedding will be set in the fairytale setting of the gracious grounds of  Castleton Farms (photo gallery) the weekend of August 8th, 2010 and the theme is a vineyard summer holiday type of feel, to take advantage of some of the beachy theme of Rachel’s original plans.  Perhaps one of the most touching vendor offers is that of fireworks being produced by co-owners Steve Gamble and Dana Coleman of Pyro Visions (aka Pyro Creations), free of charge.  Rachel always dreamed of fireworks at her night time reception and Steve and Dave have created a spectacular display for the evening of fireworks and sky lanterns to put the perfect finishing touch on the festivities.

This is only the beginning of many special details that Darla Walker and Castleton Farms have gone beyond that proverbial extra mile to provide Rachel and Aaron with a wedding ceremony and reception to match the most wonderful daydreams of any feminine heart.  Stay tuned for more details of this lovely ceremony in future blogs!

What does a young bride do when faced with an environmental disaster mere weeks before her wedding?  How is it humanly possible to recover from such an unexpected occurrence, yet also move forward and find a way to still have the wedding of her dreams, particularly when venue deposits are in contention and deposits being refunded are in question?  This bride is fortunate to live in the Knoxville area, and savvy enough to choose one of the most exclusive, premier wedding venues in the southeastern region.  Read on to discover the jewel that is Castleton Farms and their vendors go beyond that extra mile to deliver the perfect wedding ceremony, even in the midst of a less than perfect string of events.

Rachel Bethmann and Aaron Clark of Knoxville were looking forward to their destination wedding on the beach of Pensacola, Florida this summer. This was to be the beach wedding Rachel had dreamed about since childhood. Then Rachel and Aaron (both UT grads) were informed that the BP oil spill had washed away their months of planning along with their deposits.  Fortunately, Rachel and her mother, Ginger Bethmann, had attended a local bridal fair back in October 2009 and had visited the Castleton Farms booth, met several of the Castleton Preferred Vendors and chatted with everyone.  This made a lasting impression and ultimately saved the day…the wedding day!  We’ve all heard the dreamlike stories of the white knight in shining armor riding in to save the fair maiden.  In this instance, Castleton Farms is that white knight and they are offering an unheard of opportunity to Rachel Bethmann and Aaron Clark to produce their wedding ceremony, in luxury style….free of charge!

Once the realization sunk in that the Florida venue was not going to be an option, Rachel contacted Darla Walker, the Executive Director at Castleton Farms. Now, thanks to Castleton Farms and a number of local East Tennessee businesses, the displaced bride and groom, along with their 150 guests will be relocated to a new destination far from the tar balls and oil soaked beaches of Florida.  Obviously when a venue is canceled, money is a concern.  Rachel’s Florida deposit refund is currently in limbo, leaving her with the challenge of creating an equally beautiful wedding ceremony on a shoestring budget.  This is the best part of this story – Castleton Farms and many of their Preferred Vendors have agreed to create Rachel’s dream wedding gratis (free of charge). What would normally be a substantial investment for a wedding ceremony at Castleton Farms, including complementary fireworks, hair and makeup, theatrical lighting & decor plus their honeymoon stay at Whitestone Country Inn, Castleton Farms is giving Rachel and Aaron . Castleton Farms is, indeed, a fairytale wedding venue, and sometimes doing the right thing supersedes all financial concerns.

Castleton Farms in Loudon, Tennessee, along with its vendors, has stepped in to rescue this Knoxville couple’s wedding. They are going above and beyond, pulling all of their resources together to create a last-minute wedding to remember on August 8, 2010.

The participating vendors are:

Castleton Farms (venue)

All Occasions Party Rentals (rentals)

All Occasion Catering (pre-set buffet for 150 guests)

Waldorf Photographic Art (photography)

Rosa’s Catering (cake)

Samuel Franklin Floral (bridal flowers and reception arrangements)

Whitestone Country Inn (honeymoon)

Creative Event Horizons (lighting and décor)

Pyro Creations (Fireworks)