Overview
Drive out past Free Union and the land begins to open up: rolling pasture, a turn-of-the-century horse barn, a spring-fed pond with a platform built out over the water, and behind all of it the long blue line of the mountains. This is Cedarmere in the Blue Ridge, a working farm of more than a hundred acres that opens its grounds for weddings, floral design, and small restorative getaways. It sits about twenty minutes from Charlottesville, close enough to the airport and to Richmond, Lynchburg, and Washington to be reachable, far enough out that the loudest thing on the property is usually the wind.
What sets Cedarmere apart from the usual event venue is that it is a real place first. The rescue horses grazing the pasture are not set dressing. The flower gardens are cutting gardens, planted to supply the arrangements the farm makes for its own events. There is a homestead and a guest cottage, hiking trails through the acreage, and a pavilion sized for a reception that keeps the open-air feeling of the land around it. When couples describe the sun setting over a panorama of mountains and the pond as a centerpiece, they are describing the actual geography of the farm.
Getting married here
Cedarmere is built for the intimate end of the wedding spectrum, not the ballroom-and-parking-lot kind. The pitch is the whole weekend: guests get access to the private setting for the duration, so a wedding becomes less a single afternoon and more a gathering where people actually spend time together. The farm helps with the planning, and the reviews from couples describe a hands-on, flexible partner rather than a venue that hands you a rate sheet and disappears. Owners Christa and Bob turn up repeatedly by name in those accounts, greeting arriving couples and troubleshooting the inevitable wedding-day surprises, including the rain contingencies every outdoor Virginia wedding has to reckon with.
If you are weighing an outdoor Charlottesville-area wedding, the practical draws here are the mountain vistas, the pond and the platform overlooking it, the outdoor pavilion for the reception, and enough on-site accommodation for the wedding party to get ready without a shuttle. You can learn more or start a conversation through the weddings page.
The flowers
Floral design is not a sideline at Cedarmere; it may be the thing the farm is best known for. Most of the flowers are grown right on the property, in cutting gardens tended through the seasons, and the farm's designers build arrangements for everything from private dinners to full weddings. The emphasis is squarely on locally grown, sustainable flowers raised without harsh chemicals, and that shows up in review after review from clients who booked the florals even when their event was somewhere else.
The process, as couples describe it, is collaborative and iterative: an initial consultation and dream stage, virtual mock-ups of the arrangements, and then the final creations on the day. Clients mention bouquets, ceremony-arch florals, and full-event designs, and more than one credits the farm with suggesting elements they did not know they wanted. Because the flowers are grown on-site, the designers know exactly what will bloom in the area in a given season, which is the kind of expertise you cannot fake with a wholesale order. The full menu of floral services lives on the florals page.
Getaways and quiet time
The third strand at Cedarmere is the getaway: a small group renting the private setting for a weekend built around rest and movement rather than a party. The farm frames these as wellness and self-care gatherings, and the specific practices it names are yoga, taiji quan, and Indian club swinging, an old strength-training discipline you do not see offered many places. The idea is straightforward: bring your people, get out of range of ordinary life, and use the pond, the trails, the gardens, and the mountain air as the setting. Details are on the getaways page.
Visiting
Cedarmere is at 2440 Simmons Gap Rd, Free Union, VA 22940, and the number is (703) 899-8573. Because so much of what the farm does is by appointment and by event, its open hours are limited: Friday from 2 to 5 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, closed Monday through Thursday. If you are considering the farm for a wedding, florals, or a getaway, a call or a message ahead is the way in. You can see the grounds and reach the team through the farm's website at cedarmerefarm.com. It is the sort of place that rewards showing up in person: the vistas, the scent of the gardens, the water, and the quiet do most of the persuading on their own.
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Frequently asked questions
Where is Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge?
Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge is located at 2440 Simmons Gap Rd, Free Union, VA 22940, USA, in Crozet, Virginia.
What are Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge's hours?
Monday: Closed Tuesday: Closed Wednesday: Closed Thursday: Closed Friday: 2:00 – 5:00 PM Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
How do I contact Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge?
You can call (703) 899-8573 or visit http://cedarmerefarm.com/. Hours and current information are most reliable directly from the business.
What kind of business is Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge?
Cedarmere In the Blue Ridge is categorized as retail in our Crozet directory. See the description and quick facts above for what makes this listing distinctive.
Sources: cedarmerefarm.com