De Novo Barn

My now wife and I were looking for a venue that was both beautiful and convenient and we found that De Novo Barn fit both criteria. The barn is gorgeous on the outside and tastefully decorated on the inside. The little school house is also cute and useful for the bridal party and other pre-ceremony activities. Dave and Jane were friendly, helpful, and communicative throughout the whole planning process and also on the day of our wedding. Having the option to rent equipment such as table decorations and games proved to be very convenient as they also set everything up and tore down for us which made our already hectic day a little less crazy. They were also flexible with our wishes including finding a way to get our caterer, a food truck, situated to effectively pull of a buffet outside the barn. I liked the convenience of having De Novo take care of ordering the beer (even kegs of Toppling Goliath!) and the wine. They had a nice selection to choose from and found it nice to have bar tenders included in the pricing. We also had a great time with the Trolley that picked up the wedding party from our hotel, drove us around town for some photos, then to the Barn for the ceremony and reception, and finally dopped us back off at the hotel at the end of the night. Recommend renting this! My biggest complaint, which kocked off one star for me, is the price. While you do get a lot (the venue, the service, and the options) it seems quite expensive for a small town in Iowa. I would have expected these prices closer to the coasts or other larger cities. We still went through with it without regrets and we've been told that our wedding was one of the best they've ever been to, so to us it was worth it.

I could not have imagined a more perfect wedding day. De Novo is a stunning venue (and we happened to luck out with the most gorgeous weather EVER) Jane and Dave were incredibly helpful as we planned from afar and hugely helpful in coordinating details throughout our wedding week/on our wedding day. ...and the sneak peek photos we are seeing? AMAZING. We would highly recommend De Novo Barn ... And even had guests who mentioned wanting to come back to Decorah/De Novo for their vow renewal!

We did not end up booking with De Novo because of the following things: it's in a family's back yard so they don't allow hard liquor/cocktails, they don't have their own catering or bartenders, they are weird about giving you a straight up written price quote, this was their first year doing it so they had absolutely no wedding experience. But mainly, they wanted way more cash than anyone in this area would ever cough up: $5,000 plus a fee for every little thing imaginable. This is not Chicago, people, we are in small-town Iowa. The guy is a doctor too so I don't feel sorry for him enough to give him that much money. Plus, there was no parking, which is very annoying.