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When Dripping Springs officially became the Wedding Capital of Texas in 2015, the multimillion- dollar business transformed a once quiet area of the Hill Country into a creative and valuable powerhouse.
Today, it is hard to turn around in Dripping Springs without bumping into a wedding venue, every one offering a memorable experience for the bride and groom. So brisk is the turnover of back-to-back bookings, there is reportedly little space available for smaller events such as rehearsal dinners, wedding showers and engagement parties. Venues for quinceañeras, baby showers, corporate events, birthday parties and retirement dinners are equally difficult to find.
According to owner and entrepreneur Christy Seguin, the huge gap in the market led her to buy the historic building in Dripping Springs she’s christened “Rose Haven.”
The Rose Haven bakery and event venue is currently scheduled to open in late June, inhabiting a renovated 6,600-squarefoot space near the junction of Nutty Brown Road and US Highway 290. Included in the plans are a front retail bakery and café, a 30-seat Tea Rose Room for small events, a Heritage Rose Hall for 120 seated guests or more and a classroom space for teaching. Outside, an Antique Rose Veranda will welcome guests with a wall of climbing antique roses. In the front, retail bakery visitors will be able to look through a window to watch bakers and cake stylists at work, in the style of the television program, Cake Boss.
Originally built in the 1860s, the structure has been moved at least twice, once from Fitzhugh Road and once just far enough to scoot it over the Travis County line, past the once-dry Hays County border. Before that move, drinkers could imbibe in only half of the building. A line drawn on the ceiling was a reminder to everyone how the rules played out. It has had incarnations as the Little Wheel Restaurant, the Highway 290 Club and the Last Chance Dancehall.
Since learning the building was available to purchase, Seguin has undertaken a near full-scale renovation.
“Fortunately, the kitchen was perfect. It’s the only thing we could immediately move into for our cake business,” Seguin said.
As the owner of Cakes Rock!!! — an online, sculptured cake business that had grown out of its space — the move to Rose Haven’s kitchen allowed Seguin to bring the business into full production.
“Until we moved in, we were turning down 100 cake orders a month,” she said.
A self-described, diehard Georgia Bulldogs fan, Seguin graduated with a B.A. in business and an MBA in marketing and sports management. She admits to being a serial entrepreneur with few qualms about tackling the logistics of a new enterprise.
Even though she had a knack for creating sculpted cakes, she said she did not intend to get into the wedding cake business. But like many things she attempts, she said, a cake she made for a niece went viral on social media, and she was off and running with a new business.
Once the construction settles on Rose Haven, Seguin will be able to supply planners, florists, balloon artists, engagement photographers and baked goods, in addition to the space.
“Or” she said, “you can supply your own.”
To learn more, email rosehavenvenue@gmail. com.
