Wedding DJ at Laughing Waters in Gerton, NC

The Space

Laughing Waters sits on 200 protected acres in the Hickory Nut Gorge, part of the Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community that John Myers and Jane Lawson founded in 2006, with much of the land held in conservation easement so it will never be developed. The lodge itself was built to Healthy Built Homes Gold certification and is powered in part by a micro-hydro turbine on Hickory Nut Creek, inside an eco-community of just 20 homesites spread across 25 acres with another 35 acres held as shared conservation land.

Every piece of wood in the Great Room was milled from trees taken down during the lodge’s own construction, so the room is literally built from its own site. Large windows look out over a waterfall, and a hearthstone wood stove anchors the space, which also sits near the property’s remaining stone ruins of an old farmhouse and a reconstructed gristmill within easy walking distance.

Capacity & Layout

The Great Room seats up to 100 for dining and dancing, and outdoor receptions run a similar 70 to 100 guests, so the property is built for a mid-size wedding rather than a very large one. Ceremony sites include creekside near the waterfalls, the orchard, the meadow, beside the farmhouse ruins, near the gristmill, or indoors in the Great Room itself.

The lower level of the lodge has a cork floor built for dancing and movement, giving a couple a second indoor option if the reception needs to move inside after an outdoor ceremony. With five ceremony sites plus two indoor gathering spaces, a couple can genuinely walk the whole property before choosing where the vows and the party happen.

Amenities

Overnight lodging is built into the venue itself: four guest rooms in the lodge, a separate Honeymoon Cottage with its own private waterfall deck, and camping space for up to 35 friends and family, so a wedding here can turn into a full weekend rather than a single evening. Five miles of trails wind through the property for guests staying over.

The historic pieces on the grounds, the old farmhouse’s stone chimneys, the reconstructed gristmill, and the historic Drover’s Road, give a couple built-in backdrops for portraits that do not require any additional decor. Parking is described as ample, and the lower level’s cork floor and dedicated movement room also make the space workable for a rehearsal or a morning-after gathering.

Location & Getting There

Gerton sits about 25 minutes from Asheville, and Laughing Waters’ 200 acres sit inside a much larger stretch of roughly 900 preserved acres in the Hickory Nut Gorge, so the drive in passes through protected forest rather than new development the whole way. That conservation status is permanent, which matters to a couple who wants their wedding photos to look the same in twenty years, waterfall and all.

The Great Room’s hearthstone wood stove and wood-milled walls give it warmer, more absorbent surfaces than a bare event hall, which keeps a DJ’s sound from bouncing hard off the room, and the lower level’s cork floor does something similar for the dancing that happens there after the Great Room’s own reception winds down.