10 Year Anniversary - The Barn at Sparrow Creek Ranch - Family Owned Father-Daugther Business
Thank you for coming with us on this journey at The Barn at Sparrow Creek Ranch! We’ll never get over the providence in God’s plans that brought us here and keeps us going. Read some of “how we got started” and why we love doing what we do below.
Why did we build the barn in the first place?
Deciding between the “old folks’ home” where I, Kalli Doubleday, had prom and the Country Club that I can only remember visiting twice in my lifetime were my choices for “venues” in my hometown. These were less than ideal options obviously, but what to do? This was in May 2011 before the “venue boom” in Texas and it was still very uncommon for people to get married outside of churches and resort-type reception destinations. After many discussions about options and budget, my parents and I couldn’t find the right fit. Which lead us to look at our own property a little closer.
My mom had fallen in love with a piece of property just outside of our hometown, Graham, TX, where we spent a lot of time and they talked about building a home one day. We decide to go ahead and build a barn that could later be converted to the ranch barn and all things car-barn for my dad’s collection of restored and being restored muscle cars. I was nervous about this idea and mostly had to continually keep the scope of the project very narrow so that we didn’t get ahead of ourselves and not have enough time to finish before the wedding day. The rain kept us several months delayed only pouring our concrete foundation six months before the wedding day. From there, my dad when into super recycler-builder mode. What’s “super recycler-builder mode”?
My dad, Kevin Fullerton, has been in the salvage industry since his teen years starting his own business right out of High School that is now one of the largest salvage yards in north Texas, K&K Motors. When your background is auto salvage, you cannot help but live and breathe repurposing. My dad’s life as a salvage yard owner means he could be called out when a bridge is being torn down, junk cars need to be hauled off, a building is being demolished, and on and on. He sees it all as treasure and finds ways to turn almost anything into art or give it a new function in the world.
With that background “super recycler-builder mode” translated into creating what is now The Barn at Sparrow Creek Ranch out of recycled materials. The number of “new” things at SCR is so small you wouldn’t believe us. Check the light switches, doorknobs, beams, floors, nails, windows, doors, tin, bar, frames, --- check it all and you’ll come up bewildered at how it all came together. In less than five short months we built the structure and then that’s when my mom came into her superpower mode.
My mom, Linda, has always been an antique lover and was a “junk gypsy” way before that was a brand. I grew up traveling with a caravan of moms and kids to Roundtop Texas for their antique show when I was a little bitty. Something only the die-hards did with a five-hour trip each way with kids and trailers. There she would meet friends she looked forward to talking junk and treasures with every year. We always came home with amazing finds and her home has always been a masterpiece of shabby-chic, eclectic antique, and modern vibes. When the barn structure was complete, she went to work adding in her flare which is most evident in the dozen antique chandeliers hanging from industrial chains over the dance floor. When you add a beautiful Texas antique lover and a salvage man with untapped creativity you get The Barn at Sparrow Creek Ranch.
We 100% intended to take the chandeliers out and put them back in my mom’s house and the other places they came from and replace them with ranch equipment and muscle cars. But no one would let us.
First, it was cousins and family friends, then it was friends of friends and within a few months after my wedding, we had gifted the venue to a dozen people to get married in before we intended to convert it to a barn-barn, not a wedding barn. Little did we know we were about to step into a new father-daughter business and never look back.
FATHER-DAUGHTER TEAM AT SCR
I got married in May 2012, our first wedding, and from that point on we’ve been managing the property for weddings. After a year of word of mouth and renting with a hand-shake things finally got serious. We aren’t exactly sure of the date but at some point around the year mark, my dad and I had our daily phone call that towards the end resembled something like, “Well I guess we are doing this thing. Yeah, I think so.” We got ourselves a contract, priced the venue to cover some basic maintenance, and created the Facebook page.
Even now we’ve never given up our full-time job(s) or other entrepreneurial pursuits. During the first seven years, I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin and was lecturing at various Texas Universities. During those years, and now, I handle all the management--everything except building and tours.
My dad from the start has been the primary builder with hands in the dirt, knees on the concrete, and hammer in hand. Because the Barn is so unique in its design and building materials couples and their families talk about their upcoming tours with huge anticipation and then can’t stop talking about it for years after. Truly seeing someone who built something out of repurposed materials talk about that process on a tour is incredible. A mother of the groom recently commented on social media post “It was such a joy to meet our dad a week ago. His face just lights up when he talks about the pieces that make it so unique, the ideas he has, and where he got the building materials, like an old river bridge for the high beams. You can tell his heart is there and it makes it even more special.”
After pursuing an academic career, I decided to let that dream go and focus full time on all things wedding venue management in fall 2019. Our father-daughter teamwork makes SCR feel like a family and our couples end up knowing they are part of the family.
WHAT DO I LOVE MOST ABOUT MANAGING SCR?
The first thing I love most about managing SCR is working with my dad. Knowing that he and I built this business together is one of my greatest joys in life. Second, I didn’t come to the wedding industry by “choice” and I am not into “weddings” themselves. Odd right? I am not the woman to bring to a cake tasting or to pick out linens. “Simple,” and “efficient” are my favorite words when it comes to weddings. BUT what you do want me to help you with is staying organized. With a Ph.D. in the social sciences, I am direct, honest, and all about building tools for our couples. From day one I was collecting information I organized for my own wedding since we were one of the only venues in the area and there were no “wedding vendors” in my town. I realized early on that to make SCR appealing the entire area had to be appealing for a destination wedding. Thus, one of the greatest tools I’ve helped grow is a local vendor community that was already there but has dramatically increased and taken important professional steps to serve SCR couples in the last 10 years. From our local florist, chalk artist, DJs, photographers, rentals, restaurants/caterers, and more I get to be a mini-Chamber of Commerce to build those businesses up that in turn build up my business by giving SCR couples amazing local vendor options.
