Wedding DJ at Blackberry Estates in Leicester, NC

The Space

Blackberry Estates sits on more than 70 acres of pasture, ponds, and creeks outside Asheville, in Leicester, North Carolina, land that began as a working farm and has grown into a mountaintop venue without losing that identity. The property still cultivates blackberries and raspberries through natural, low-impact farming and raises pasture-raised cows, goats, and free-ranging chickens, so a couple touring the grounds is walking a working farm, not a set built to resemble one.

Three glass and canvas pavilions anchor the built spaces: the Summit Pavilion at 10,000-plus square feet of covered indoor and outdoor room, the Bridal Pavilion at 1,750-plus square feet with accordion glass doors open on three sides, and the Groom’s Pavilion at 1,550-plus square feet, furnished with leather chairs, a pool table, a bar area, and a large screen TV. Long-range views of the Blue Ridge Mountains reach every one of them.

Capacity & Layout

The property seats 250-plus guests, with 40-plus guest tables and padded cross-back chairs supplied to fill that number, and the outdoor ceremony space on the summit is built to the same 250-plus capacity with mountain vistas behind the altar. That scale puts Blackberry Estates toward the larger end of the mountain venues in this area, with room to grow a guest list without outgrowing the property.

The Summit Pavilion carries both ceremony backup and reception duty across its 10,000-plus covered square feet, so a couple can move a rained-out ceremony indoors without losing the mountain backdrop entirely, since the accordion glass doors keep the views in view. The Bridal Pavilion and Groom’s Pavilion sit apart from the main reception space, giving each side of the wedding party a dedicated room to get ready in before the day gets underway.

Amenities

The Bridal Pavilion is built for getting ready, with a vanity area and lounge seating behind its glass doors, while the Groom’s Pavilion offers its own lounge with leather chairs, a pool table, and a large screen TV for the hours before a ceremony. A prep kitchen on site lets a couple’s chosen caterer work from the property rather than trucking a full kitchen in.

Two mobile bars with coolers cover drink service, a sound system with a microphone is included with the venue as a baseline, and string lights and landscape lighting are already in place across the grounds so a couple is not starting from a blank field after dark. Accommodations are in the works, with custom canvas and glass glamping suites planned for guests who want to stay on the property itself rather than driving back into Asheville at the end of the night.

Location & Getting There

Blackberry Estates sits in Leicester, in the hills just outside Asheville, on a property large enough, at 70-plus acres, that the drive in itself becomes part of the arrival experience, past pastures and ponds before the pavilions come into view. Private parking is available on site, so guests are not left hunting for street parking in a rural setting, and the distance from town also means the evening runs without outside noise or neighboring traffic to work around.

The mountaintop location means an outdoor ceremony on the summit trades a fixed roof for open sky and long sightlines, which is the tradeoff a couple is buying with those Blue Ridge views. Indoors, the Summit Pavilion’s canvas and glass construction with accordion doors gives a DJ a semi-enclosed room to work with, open enough to carry sound outside toward the mountains but still able to hold a dance floor’s energy inside when the doors are drawn closed for the evening.