A few weeks ago, we gathered at the beautiful Carolina Inn to enjoy one of our favorite Southern Weddings Christmas traditions–our annual Gingerbread Barn Building Competition! This was the fourth year we’ve gathered with friends for this fun event, and I daresay, the barns get more and more impressive by the year. While this makes our job of judging harder, it is always so much fun, and this year was no exception. We’re so glad that Rachel of Blue Barn Photography was on hand to capture every graham cracker roof, pretzel path, and animal cracker reindeer our talented friends created!
The Carolina Inn is magical during the holidays, and we’re glad so many people donned their most festive attire! Aprons are a Gingerbread Barn Building staple.
We are SO grateful for our dear friend and Blue Ribbon Vendor, Randi of Sugar Euphoria, for providing the royal icing everyone used on their barns! This stuff was barn building gold–it was super easy to use and it dried in a jiffy. Thank you so much, Randi!
Along with the grand prize, honorable mentions are awarded for Most Architecturally Creative, Most Structurally Sound, Best Story, and Social Media Favorite. The competition is fierce for every category!
Once time was up, we began the grueling process of judging the barns. Here, we’re cracking up over the story behind “Team Awesome”‘s barn. They wrote a hilarious version of the Sweet Tea Society manifesto about a pair of Beltie cows tying the knot, that included lines like “They believe in history, heritage, and eating grass.” Too funny! While we discussed the finalists, everyone got a chance to check out the Southern Weddings Shop pop-up shop and flip through V7.
Finally, it was time to announce the winners! This barn won the grand prize, thanks to its impressive design and structure, festive decor, and sweet story–it was a replica of the barn where two of the architects, Kathryn and Zack, had recently gotten engaged!
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us at this year’s competition–we can’t wait to see what y’all come up with next year!
LOVED this event again this year ladies! It is always a ‘sweet’ time!
So beautiful, so festive, loved all the pictures