Julia’s first note to us laid out the whole thing in a sentence: high school, two breakups, one Peace Corps service, one round of dental school. Then, on what they wanted out of the day, “we love each other wholly and want to celebrate that love with flowers and beer.”
They delivered on both.
The photos run from getting ready in the Stone House through the ceremony under the floral arches, the prairie across the road, and the reception under the tents on the lawn.
Quivey’s Grove
We’d known about this place for years before we ever shot here, which happens less often than you’d think.
It sits on five acres in Fitchburg, minutes outside Madison. John Mann built the fieldstone mansion and the horse stable in 1855, after moving out from a livery business in the city, and he paid for the stone by trading timber off his own land to the neighboring quarry. Both buildings are on the National Register, and there’s an underground stone tunnel connecting them. In 1980 a restaurateur named Joe Garton bought the property and turned the mansion into the Stone House and the stable into the Stable Grill, which is what they still are.
What you get as a couple is a lot of old building to work against and a huge fenced lawn to put a tent on. Julia and Nate used two: one for cocktail hour, one for the reception. Julia and her people got ready in the house. The guys went across the street to Yahara Bay Distillers, which is a better solution to the groom’s-morning problem than most venues offer, since it gave them somewhere to sit with a drink instead of standing around a hotel room for three hours.
There are horseshoe pits, and people used them.
The florals
We’ve photographed a lot of ceremony backdrops. This was one of the most ambitious.
Multiple hooped arches, overlapping, every one of them loaded. Oranges, pinks, reds, going hard against all that green. There were already enormous trees hanging over the ceremony space, and the arrangements pulled that canopy down into the frame instead of competing with it. Their florist went to town and it paid off.
The color palette on paper was black, white, and “bouquets.” That turned out to be accurate.
Seven kids and a great-uncle
Nate’s great-uncle Spinner officiated.
Julia and Nate told us ahead of time that seven kids would be coming down the aisle and that they didn’t want any staged flower girl or ring bearer photos, just whatever actually happened. That’s our preference too, and it’s usually the right call.
What happened is that the flower girls adopted Julia’s dress. They carried it, arranged it, and generally treated it as a shared project for the rest of the afternoon, in between running the length of that lawn in their white dresses. Kids at a wedding are the single most reliable source of photographs nobody planned for, and this group was working overtime.
The prairie across the road, and a warning about it
There’s a prairie directly across from Quivey’s, and Julia flagged it in her questionnaire as a possible spot for wildflower and golden hour photos. She was right about the light. It was gorgeous.
She could not have known about the mosquitoes.
That ground sits low and marshy, and in late September it was unusable in a way the rest of the property was not. We got a few frames and retreated. Back at the tents, even at dusk, it was fine. If you’re getting married here and someone suggests the prairie, go, but go briefly and bring something.
The rest of it
There was a dessert bar with cake, cupcakes, and donuts, including donuts on sticks, which we had not previously encountered and fully endorse.
Julia is a substance abuse counselor in Madison and finished her Master’s in counseling a few months after the wedding. Nate is a dentist from Janesville. They have a corgi-chihuahua named Otis who did not attend but was discussed.
Julia wrote something in her questionnaire that stuck with us, about why they’d picked us: that our photographs seem to catch the bigger picture, and that it isn’t only about the couple, or the nature, or the colors, or the dancing, but the culmination of everything. That’s about as well as we’ve ever heard it put, and we didn’t say it.
Thanks, Julia and Nate.
Questions we get about Quivey’s Grove
We’ve photographed one wedding here, so treat the parts below that come from our own eyes as one day’s experience rather than a pattern. Everything factual comes from the venue.
Where do people get married at Quivey’s Grove?
Two main spots. The front yard, with the large birch as a backdrop, is the most popular. The other is the natural area under a canopy of black walnut trees, with native understory and wildflowers around it. Julia and Nate did theirs under the trees with hooped floral arches, and the canopy did a lot of work in the photographs.
How many guests does it hold?
Roughly 50 to 250 depending on the configuration. The Paddock tent seats up to about 225.
When is the Paddock tent available?
Mid-May through September. That’s the single biggest constraint on this venue and it rules out an outdoor October wedding entirely. If you want the tent, your date lives inside that window.
What’s included?
More than at most raw-space venues. The tent with sides, lighting, and outlets, free parking, restrooms, china, flatware, drinkware, staffing, cake cutting and dessert service, insurance, the alcohol license, licensed kitchens, an outdoor bar, cocktail tables and chairs, white picnic tables, and skirted tables for the head table, gifts, cake, and DJ.
What does it cost?
Outside listings put a starting point around $4,250 for 50 guests. Ask specifically about the tent, table, chair, and setup fee, because at least one couple has reported being surprised by roughly $1,900 of it late in the process. That’s the kind of thing you want itemized in writing before you sign, not because anyone’s being dishonest, but because it’s the number most likely to get missed.
Do they cater, or do we bring someone in?
They cater. There are two restaurants on the property, the Stone House and the Stable Grill, and the food is consistently the thing couples praise most in reviews.
Is there a rain plan?
Yes. The 30 by 75 foot tent can hold the ceremony as well as the reception. Worth confirming how they’d configure that, since it means ceremony and dinner share one structure.
Where do you get ready?
Brides often dress in the Nursery room of the Stone House and then come down the formal stairway and out the front door to the aisle, which is a genuinely good sequence to photograph. For the groom’s side, Yahara Bay Distillers is across the street. Julia and Nate’s groomsmen used it, and it solved the standing-around-a-hotel-room problem better than most venues can.
What about the prairie across the road?
The light over there is excellent and we’d go again. But the ground is low and marshy, and in late September the mosquitoes made it a short visit. Everywhere else on the property, including the tents at dusk, was fine. Go, but go quickly, and bring something.
How far is it from Madison?
It’s in Fitchburg, minutes from the south side of Madison. Out-of-town guests have hotels within a one-minute drive.
Anything else you’d tell us?
Two things from reviews rather than from us: couples consistently describe the communication as slow and phone-and-mail heavy rather than email, and they just as consistently say it came together fine anyway. If you’re someone who needs fast email replies, know that going in.
There are also horseshoe pits, and people used them all evening.
Venue: Quivey’s Grove, Fitchburg
Getting ready: Anaala Salon, Verona · Yahara Bay Distillers
Quivey’s Grove sits on the south edge of Madison, in Fitchburg. You can see more of our weddings across the city on our Madison wedding photographers page.
