FYI - My resolution on this machine is at 1440 x 900. I suspect that's on the higher end of common these days, surely for "casual" users.

Yeah, that's definitely plenty. :)

I'll double check it tonight. Thanks.

No prob!!

Been a while since I've updated this thread. Saturday was our first wedding and it went EXTREMELY well. All of the parents were very complimentary and the bride and groom thanked me several times over. The guests loved our property. All of that praise was so rewarding after working as late as 2:00 AM the week or two before the wedding. Here's some pics of the ceremony site........







The reception tent............





Looking back towards the building..............



We've still got a month of renovations to complete, but we've already got about 15 events booked on our calendar. We've finished a brick patio on the front of the building. The interior is now being drywalled and we should be painting/trimming later next week.

Our paranormal events that we've scheduled are selling very well. We're likely going to have to add more public events this fall to meet demand. We've already scheduled two additional private events for groups who were able to get together 30 people. We've got a media event at our site tomorrow night that will have all TV and newspaper media in attendance. Its primary purpose is to promote the paranormal events. We're going to get a lot of coverage for the winery as well.

It's amazing to work so hard on something and see it succeed beyond your expectations. Word-of-mouth has spread like wild fire. I booked three weddings just this weekend. We're so excited.

Hey, uh, MBBF?

You might want to watch that in the future. We can probably guess from context that the daughter is also a bride-to-be...but the juxtaposition of those two adjectives probably says things about your clientele you don't intend it to. :D

Very very cool, congrats on your success. Great to see it chronicled from the start.

Well it IS Missouri! :)

Looks really nice Mizzou, almost like a golf course or a cemetery. Any plans on adding some more trees in the future?

Well, the cemetery is actually in the back. It's actually my favorite part of the property. It's the second highest point in the county and you can see the Missouri River from that point. Very peaceful. We have around 600 permanent residents.

Trees are just about right. All of our trees are 80-100 years old. So we don't have quite as many, but they're very large where we do have them.

Yeah, looks really nice. The only thing I don't like is the concrete and the wall around the fountain, but that may look better IRL.

Beautiful looking property. Glad to hear things are going well!

Yeah - I think it would look much more period-accurate if it was brick. particularly if it was like..."reclaimed bricks."

But maybe it looks better when you're there - or that's already in the cards.

Gorgeous site. Really coming along well.

Are you sure you are really in MissourI? :)

Had an article in the local paper today about the upcoming paranormal events........

Did you hear that? | Community Living | Community Living | Liberty Tribune

Another update........

We've had two Ghosts and Grapes events thus far. Both were in the afternoon. We have all six wines available for tasting along with cheese/cookies/crackers. We bring in three paranormal speakers to talk with the group. Lots of interaction between speakers and guests, which is great. They often have a lot of questions and are excited to get some answers. We sell wine afterwards.

We've also now had two paranormal investigations. They go from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM. We have up to 40 guests. They're broken up into 5-6 smaller groups and taken to some of the areas where paranormal experiences occur. The investigators provide a lot of information and equipment for the guests to work with. It's been a fantastic success thus far, both financially and for exposure via word of mouth.

The great part is that we've had nearly 80 people on our site for the investigations. Out of those 80 guests, only THREE have not experienced something paranormal during their investigation. Ghosts obviously don't perform on demand, so to have that level of activity on the property is really exciting for us. We actually had a total skeptic last night who was touched by something that wasn't there. I wasn't there at the time, but I was told that it was a surprising experience for this person.

A week ago, we had three ladies in their 60's who were goofing around and decided to sing 'Ring around the Rosies'. They were laughing as they sang it. When they finished, a child's voice continued to sing 'pocket full of posies' in a corner of the room. It was also captured on audio. The investigator that was there at the time said that the ladies sat stone-faced in the corner of the room and didn't even talk for the last half-hour that they were in that room.

I was also contacted by Southern Living Magazine. They will be putting our December paranormal events in their December Calendar of Events. It includes our logo/phone #/website and information about the events. We've also been contacted by Universal Studios who wants to cross-promote an upcoming horror movie with our events. Amazing to see so much happening and we're not even going to be open until around Halloween.

We were featured in an article about businesses who incorporate the paranormal into their business plans. You may or may not recognize the goofy guy in the photo..........

Savvy businesses use talk of the supernatural to have more than a ghost of a chance of success - KansasCity.com

Do you allow people to stay. Like a B&B or a hotel? I guess Im asking, if my wife and myself were to go away for a weekend away from the kids, would this be a place I could do that?

Im too tired/lazy to search your site right now. :)

Congrats on all your success. It is awesome to hear.

that is awesome man, congrats and continued success!

+1

+2

Wow, that's great when the hauntings actually deliver as promised. Awesome!

+3

SI

We have plans to do a bed and breakfast on the third floor, but that's future renovation at this point until we make some money.

More great PR for us. We were featured on a local TV news telecast. Video link below.........

Larry's Ghost Stories: The Haunted Winery - Kansas City News Story - KMBC Kansas City

Awesome. Have you seen a ghost yet?

I have not SEEN any apparitions. I did have an experience about three weeks ago. I came into the building around 7:00 AM. I knew there was one worker named Chris on the property. When I came in through the front door, I heard footsteps on the second floor. I went upstairs to help Chris do some work. When I got up to the second floor, I couldn't find him anywhere and there's only one staircase to the second floor. I checked the entire second and third floor and found no one. I then looked out the back window and saw Chris working with the horses about a quarter mile from the building.

It was really weird because I assumed when I heard footsteps that it was a person upstairs. At the time, I never considered the option that no one was upstairs. The feeling that you get when you realize that you experienced something paranormal really does make the hair stand on end. My arms were covered in goosebumps and the hair on my arms was standing straight up.

I would mention that all the evidence from the public investigations goes up on PRI Team in their forums. You do have to register for the forum to hear the evidence, but there's some pretty neat stuff. I'd suggest listening to the files with headphones on to hear it well.

There's a public investigation actually going on right now until 2:00 AM. The guests were pretty excited to be in the buildings on Halloween weekend. We had guests from five different states in tonight's group.

I had not seen this before and it is very impressive. Lots of hard work that seems to be paying off.

By the way, my wife went to Jewell College for a year.

I'm a graduate of William Jewell College. Glad I went there when it wasn't too expensive. It's crazy expensive now.

Goodness. I had no idea how viral the media is when stories are published on the internet. The article and the video I previously linked are all over the place now. Saw them reprinted in places like Miami and saw the TV story relinked on MSNBC. According to my Google Alert, there's 12 places where the stories were reprinted just in the first few hours after they were released.

I need to bring back something I brought up earlier. When do we get to try the booze? I have a GF who is big into the whole wine tasting thing and would like to try it out if you have it available for sale.

We'll set up some shipping at some point. I'll let everyone know. Right now, I've just got to get the place done so I can sell to the locals.

I told my wife about this and she said she'd probably knew of this old estate back then. By the way, she was one of the key assistants in help raising funds and building the sports complex on campus.

Being the skeptic that I am, I think you did a brilliant job in taking advantage of the gullible for falling for the powers of suggestion. It's amazing that many would pay money just to be convinced of what they expected and wanted to hear and feel. Well done.

+4 :)

Wonderful news about the free publicity, too.

I'd put it a different way. They are paying for the opportunity to determine for themselves whether ghosts exist or not at what is a reportedly haunted site. To be honest, we have nearly as many skeptics on the paranormal investigations. Sometimes the skeptics tag along with a spouse that believes. Sometimes they just want to see what others believe is evidence only to show why it could be a natural occurrence. We usually try to mix believers and skeptics into all groups when possible. It's the best way to get a good experience.

We did have a man who was a skeptic come with his wife (who was a believer). He was about two hours into the event when he was touched by something that wasn't there. He screamed so loudly it was heard two floors below. Note that each level is separated by floors that are 12 inches of solid concrete. He decided to leave about 20 minutes after that. They have the audio of that incident and are hoping to post it on their forum. I've heard it. It's obvious that he was frightened by what happened.

More indirect PR for our business. This is an interview of the lead investigator for PRI. He runs all the paranormal events at the winery.

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-...ostly_thoughts

Did you know about the haunted past of the building when you bought it or did it end up being a happy coincidence that has really helped out :)

SI

That's awesome!!!! Glad things are going so well. If you get some free time on a Wednesday night, you ought to come by poker night and tell us all about it!

Knew of the rumors, but nothing firm. We know now. :)


I do want to drop by to play some poker. I'll try to find a Wednesday to drop by and let you know.

We had a great deal of success tonight. I bought about $200 worth of candy and put signs on the four lane highway in front of our property inviting people to come out for trick or treating. I kid you not, we had 600 people show up. I gave out nearly 90 pounds of candy to the kids and I gave out bottle openers and magnets with our info to all the parents. Going to get a ton of word of mouth out of that small investment.

Really nice article about a visit from some orphans who used to live on the property and the history of the property itself.

Odd Fellows Orphanage from the 1930s transformed into winery - KansasCity.com

The Halloween candy was inspired marketing. Those ideas will make your success.

That is another great article. I chuckled a few times, such as when you were repeatedly referred to as "Bean’s operations manager and son-in-law." That reminded me of numerous Bob and Ray skits.

And

While the reported hauntings are a nice side boost, I wonder at what point it starts to have a more negative impact where people would avoid the place because of the rumors.

Thought I'd drop an update on our progress.

We opened for daily business at the start of January. During the week has been slow, but it has allowed us to work on other organization during the day when not busy. We've booked 34 weddings for 2011 already and 4-5 more in 2012. We get 6-8 calls a day from prospective brides, so we expect that number to grow quite a bit. Each wedding nets us a rental fee of $3000-4000 and that doesn't include alcohol income, which runs around $2000 an event.

We also have have quite a few birthday parties, retirement parties, fundraisers, and corporate gatherings lined up or already completed. Only a few hundred dollars for each of those rentals, but the PR having all those people out to see the place has been very good.

Ghost tours and investigations are EXTREMELY hot right now. Events are selling out and we're having to add additional ones. Paranormal investigation groups are approaching us at the rate of 2-3 a week to hold formal investigations of the place. We ask for a small donation and then ask that they publish all articles and pictures online, which helps a great deal to advertise the place for future events.

I've also added additional public events to keep the place busy during the non-wedding months. So far, we've booked....

Breakfast at Belvoir (unlimited pancakes and sausage served by Chris Cakes (Chris Cakes - Kansas City's ORIGINAL Pancake Flippers!) and unlimited mimosas

Super Bowl Watch Party

Chocolate Fondue buffet for Valentine's Day weekend

Weekly Ballroom and Tango Dance lessons every Sunday afternoon starting Feb 20th

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater

Comedian Brad Meehan (offering two shows)

We're really excited to keep pushing forward and only two months away from weddings taking over the winery this spring.

I'd just like to add that it's quite cool to watch the renovations, get updates, etc. on the winery's FB page.

Forgot to mention that we opened up some walls of the winery last week and found some great stuff in the wall. If you scroll down the facebook page, there are pictures and descriptions of everything we've found. I've actually found several more items earlier this week that I still have not posted. Amazing what gets stuck in 100 year old walls.

Oh man. Can't announce this publicly, but had to talk about it somewhere. Our winery building is an old Odd Fellows Home. When we opened, the current Odd Fellow state officers came by to see the place and were extremely excited about the place being reopened. They mentioned that an active lodge in the area was being closed. They said that they may be able to allow me access in advance of the auction to get a few items to display in our winery.

I just heard back yesterday from the Grand Master of Missouri (President) and he said that they're going to let me go to the lodge and take as much as I want to display at the winery. Not only that, but the Grand Master is going to accompany me to the lodge so he can point out the more valuable or historically relevant items to make sure I get the best stuff that's available. SOOOO excited.

Very cool, good of them to do that really, a lot of similar situations wouldn't have the foresight to preserve their items that way.

Odd Fellows?

edit: aaah, okay. cool.

Independent Order of Odd Fellows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When can my wife and i get a tour from ya mbbf.. sure kcchief would like one as well :)

Ring me on the phone number listed on the website (found on bottom of home page). I'm usually the one taking the calls. We can set up a time to meet up for a drink (or four). :)

Count me in :)