Today we’re interviewing Jenn Valenza and Nicole Beglau, owners of Camino Real Ranch. Camino Real is a modern Austin wedding venue tucked away in the Central Texas Hill Country.
Editor: Jenn and Nicole, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Nicole: I’m Nicole Beglau, one of the owners and operators of Camino Real Ranch. I’ve been a wedding and portrait photographer in Austin for 11 years.
Jenn: I am Jenn Valenza, Co-owner of Camino Real Ranch! In my former life, I was a CPA bouncing around between public accounting and corporate finance roles feeling a bit lost and restless. Growing up, I always wanted to be a wedding planner and used to sketch weddings endlessly. One day my dad dropped off a bunch of attic boxes of childhood items where I found my sketchbook of wedding designs. It re-ignited the dream, and thanks to farmsandranches.com, Camino Real Ranch was born.
Editor: Can you tell me a bit about Camino Real Ranch?
Jenn: We are a woman-owned small business! We are a wedding and event venue located just southeast of Austin on the way to booming Lockhart. With our modern desert design, we offer a fresh perspective on a hill country wedding.
Editor: Lockhart is my favorite place to head for BBQ! A fresh perspective in what sense?
Nicole: Well, the Austin hill country wedding scene is largely dominated by the rustic vibe or upscale barn-style venue. A gorgeous aesthetic indeed, but we were yearning for something a little different when designing Camino. We injected a lot of our own personal style into the design and took inspiration from some of our favorite destinations, namely Marfa and Southern California, and Baja Mexico.
Editor: The place does look gorgeous and so many different indoor and outdoor spaces to choose from to host an event. Do you find people gravitate to any particular spaces?
Nicole: Thank you! We find that our guests love the Quonset Hut, as it’s such a unique structure and the arched skylight is a standout venue feature in photos. It also has garage doors on both sides of the shotgun-style building which allow for a breezy indoor/outdoor feel. Outside the Quonset Hut’s garage door, we have a large outdoor patio. That helped us a lot during COVID. Jenn and I are actually sitting in front of the open doors right now underneath our neon sign!
Photographers tend to love the Greenhouse because it’s nonstop natural light, and the roof is basically one big softbox. I know you’ll appreciate that, being a photographer yourself!
We have a pond with two old mesquite trees that provide the perfect space for an outdoor ceremony.
Editor: Lucky you! It’s a gorgeous day for it. Yes, I’d love to come to play there sometime. The original farm has a fascinating history, from pig farm to organic farm to a perfect wedding venue. That’s quite the transition. What were some of the challenges y’all faced in making that transition?
Jenn: Oh my, too many to count! Converting a space that was not designed or intended to function as an event space added a whole layer of challenges above designing a space from scratch. The infrastructure was huge! We had to revamp the entire electrical on the property, install public utility water (can you believe they operated a farm without water!?), and upgrade the septic to be commercial.
The Greenhouse roof was at least a 6-month process. It was very difficult trying to find a contractor knowledgeable enough on the roofing options for a Greenhouse of our size while still finding a design-forward solution.
Editor: Oh my goodness, that’s a lot of big challenges to overcome for anyone. Construction work is particularly challenging these days with labor and supply shortages. The end result sure shows the result of your hard work. What made y’all take on such a challenging project?
Nicole: Hmm… temporary insanity?! Haha, kidding, but I’m going to let Jenn respond to this because she had the idea and bought the property before bringing me on board.
Jenn: It’s called you don’t know what you don’t know. Never did we think it would take as long as it did to renovate the space and get it up to speed. So many things surfaced along the way that we had no idea were hiding just under the surface. BUT Nicole and I have learned so much about construction and contractor management that we now have a potential side hustle!
Editor: That’s how most entrepreneurial projects start (including AroundAustin!). It’s remarkable that y’all have overcome the challenges. Construction challenges aren’t easy to deal with. COVID had to be a challenge for an event and wedding venue as well. What were some of the challenges that COVID bought, and what did y’all overcome them?
Nicole: To be honest, COVID didn’t have a negative impact on our opening, as we were still under construction for the first half of 2020. And (we hate saying this, but it’s true) because we were brand new and had no bookings, we opened right as couples were pivoting from their large indoor/or suddenly unavailable venues, and we were able to give them a new option with lots of outdoor space that felt more comfortable during those restricted gathering months.
Editor: That was fortunate!
Nicole: That said, COVID brought us quite a bit of anxiety from the unknown of everything regarding events.
Editor: Yes. A lot of businesses have faced that anxiety. I know we have and my friends who own restaurants have as well. Jenn, how did you and Nicole meet and decide to work together?
Jenn: Nicole and I were acquaintances with a few mutual friends in common. We had been to a few group gatherings together but hadn’t interacted one-on-one. When we purchased the farm, she was the only person I knew comfortably enough in the industry to ask to coffee to pick her wedding brain. Nicole is a seasoned and experienced wedding photographer in the Austin area. After our coffee date, Nicole texted me that she would be interested in being a partner on the project and the rest was history!
Editor: A great partner is so essential to get through challenging times.
Jenn: It truly is!
Editor: Also, a great deal of synergy. Photography is such an essential part of weddings. Y’all also hold events at the ranch, correct?
Jenn: Nicole’s photographer’s eye added tremendous value when designing the venue!
Nicole: We do! I would say 99% of our events are weddings, but we also host private events.
Editor: Cool history, a gorgeous venue designed with photography in mind. What else would y’all like to brag about?
Nicole: Well, since you asked. We were at a conference last week, and a wedding planner whom we admire told us that we were “not your typical venue owners”, in that we are very hands-on with each of our couples and their vendors. We genuinely like to be a part of the process, and being a new event and wedding venue, we think it’s incredibly important to put that human touch on the space.
Editor: I have experienced your customer orientation first hand. I’ll second that!
Venue Address
Camino Real Ranch
18820 Camino Real, Dale, TX
(located about 20 minutes from Austin Bergstrom International Airport, and 30 minutes from downtown Austin)
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Photo Credits:
Vanessa Lain (Jenn + Nicole)
Riley Glenn Photography (Quonset Hut)
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