After more than 100 dairy farms in California went out of business last year, owners are starting to rent out their dairy farms to weddings to help cover monthly costs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the California Department of Agriculture, drought and high feed prices devastated the industry in California, which is the largest dairy state in the nation. Between 2008 and 2012, 19 percent of California's dairy farms were forced to shut down due to the economic downturn, which has also turned off buyers, the LA Times reported.
Tony Azevedo, 61, has been hosting weddings on his dairy farm for over 20 years and said it helped keep the land his father bought over 80 years ago in the family.
When Azevedo began to struggle, in a time where dairies were being condensed, he decided he didn't want to "milk every cow in the country," but was determined to keep a promise to his father: that he would die on their farm.
"Weddings literally saved the farm," Azevedo, who owns Central California Dairy, told the LA Times. "Lately, it's a trend and this Pinterest thing is my new business partner. Everybody wants to get married in a damn barn and have their picture taken with a cow."
"It bought us time to go organic, which allowed us to stay small," Azevedo told the LA Times. "I lucked out. I never thought I'd see the day when people would pay more for milk from cows at pasture or that people would want country instead of country club for their wedding."
As it was, th Azevedo farm was already full of vintage items like a train, beginnings of a Western town replica, and a buggy museum that he and his wife Carol collected on their 300 acres of farm, so they decided to start renting it out for weddings, according to the LA Times.
The Azevedos charge around $10,000 for a 150-person wedding and provide everything but the cake, flowers, and minister, the LA Times reported.
Now a dozen other farms in the Central Valley have started hosting events, but Azevedo said he's proud to see others following them into a form of agri-tourism and that he's not worried about competition because they're completely booked.
