Willow Tree Farms

Are you in need of a beautiful outdoor venue close to home for an event this year? Willow Tree Farms is on Post Oak Road in Ringgold, GA, right off Boynton Drive. We can accommodate anything, from birthday parties and family reunions to baby showers and weddings. We’ve even hosted concerts and corporate events. With the revenue we make sharing our home with the community for private events, we can turn around and invest in large public events for the whole community to raise money for different local charities throughout the year. These events bring fun to Ringgold families and help organizations such as The Sexual Assault Victims Advocacy Center, North Georgia Animal Alliance, and Catoosa County Foster & Adoptive Parent Association.

Our 160-acre property has been the passion project of Alvin and Sherrie Mashburn for over ten years. What started as empty fields and a single little black barn has since turned into a luscious hidden paradise with six large ponds. Willow Tree Farms has a convertible indoor/outdoor pavilion, multiple barns, an aviary, a wedding arbor surrounded by willow trees, a 45-foot bridge, six fountains, three gazebos, and a big cozy firepit amongst its event amenities. Even with all of that, there’s still plenty of wide-open field space that we’ve added water and electricity to make it the perfect spot for inflatables, food trucks, stages, yard games, petting zoos, tents, and more!

In addition to being an event venue, Willow Tree Farms is also our home. Alvin and Sherrie Mashburn live on site. They raise black angus cattle and grow their own vegetables every year, in addition to growing hay for all the livestock. The big project we have going on this year includes moving Alvin and Sherrie from their current house on the property to a new one we are building right next to it. They will leave the space they are currently in, and it will become an upcoming addition to the venue. It boasts a bride and groom getting-ready suite, as well as a large reception hall that will be available in 2024. This brings our venue from a primarily outdoor retreat to one that has the best of both worlds. Willow Tree Farms is a glimpse of willow trees and glistening waters alongside a luxurious indoor getaway.

The most popular feature of our event rental packages is catch-and-release fishing. Everyone is invited to enjoy our ponds when they book a private event with us. We keep them stocked with catfish, bass, and crappie! We are also now offering our very own decoration rental catalog this spring with everything from wedding arches to cornhole boards. Continuously seeing what we can do to make the event planning process even easier for our clients is something we strive for year-round.

One of our favorite ways to get involved in Ringgold, aside from our fundraising events, is with our vendor list. We put pride into keeping it full of exclusively small, locally owned businesses, just like us. There are so many talented people in Catoosa County that we have recommendations for just about everything! From photographers and florists to petting zoos and bounce house rentals, you name it, we’ve got a contact for it.

Our farm is a labor of love run almost exclusively by the family. Sherrie Mashburn is the mastermind behind the design of the farm and every building that sits on it today. Alvin Mashburn discovered a natural spring under the property and went to town in digging all of our ponds himself. His hands are also the ones that brought all of Sherrie’s creative visions to life and built them from the ground up. Their daughter, Stacy Mashburn, is a vet tech with a passion for llamas. She rescues animals of all kinds and brings them back to our farm to care for them. Their son, Trace Mashburn, is our resident trolley driver for our public fundraising events. He also does all he can to help around the farm and garden with maintenance each year. He also helps maintain their commercial property business that funds the passion project that is Willow Tree Farms. It doesn’t stop there because the grandkids are also involved! Our farm manager and maintenance expert is Ian Bryson. He cares for the property and animals alongside Alvin every single day. Then their granddaughter, Cassidy Lightfoot, attended Georgia Northwestern to acquire her business degree to return home and help run the commercial property business and the events at the farm. Today, she is a business management graduate and our event coordinator. She ensures all of the private events booked with us go as smoothly as possible and puts her all into organizing our fundraisers throughout the year.

Of course, we couldn’t have made it this far in the last couple of years without a few more additions to the team. Barbara and Randall Johnson are retired Catoosa County school bus drivers that now live with us and help care for our animals as if they were their own. They are some of the most incredible people you will ever meet! We may have a small staff, but every one of us has a heart for bringing joy to the people of Ringgold. We are dedicated to providing the best service we can and serving our community. The Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce made our year in 2021 when we were awarded their Micro Business of the Year award. We love watching memories be made at our home and hope to continue our venue for years and years to come.

If you’d like to check the farm out for yourself, you can take a virtual tour at www.willowtreefarms.com or visit our social medias on Facebook (@willowtreefarms) and Instagram (@willowtreefarmsringgold).

Willow Tree Farms