THE KENTUCKY CASTLE

The Kentucky Castle (formerly known as Castle Post) is located in Versailles, near Lexington, Kentucky.  This place is meaningful to us for a handful of reasons, but one BIG reason tops the list.

   

Have you ever wanted to stay in a castle?  Have you ever dreamed about waking up in a castle?
The Kentucky Castle makes these dreams come true for people.  

And it made another really significant dream of ours come true, too.

Growing up, Jess dreamed of this Castle and passed it thousands of times.  More recently, when she traveled to Owensboro to visit Dave she began passing it more and more on a regular basis. 

Come on... what girl who believes she is a princess doesn't grow up dreaming about castles?

Besides being magical, the Castle grew more personal as it signified being "home."  Each time Jess returned to Lexington from visiting Owensboro, she saw the Castle and knew she was back home.

Getting engaged at a castle might fall pretty high on the list of most girls.  The best part of our story, is that Jess never had imagined (or even suspected) that it might be possible.  

YES, you guessed it!  We got engaged at the Castle AND then we got to stay the night there.  

All of Jess's dreams came true that day and the most momentous dream of hers, (marrying Dave!) was kicked off in the most magical way.  It truly was a fairy tale.  

It was our fairy tale, and it had only just begun!

We visited Woodford Distillery on our way to the Castle that day.  Look at us... we were babies!  The photos below were taken when we had just arrived.  Oh, what a memorable day for us together.

There was magic in our hearts from the moment Jess said "YES!"  The pure joy we shared together that day (June 8, 2012) was something neither of us will ever forget.  

Heck, we had a whole castle to ourselves!
We knew this was only the beginning, and nothing made us more excited.

We explored every inch of the Castle and its grounds that night as we didn't want to miss out on a single second of our time there together.  We were seriously like little kids in a candy store!

It was the best.

We laughed together, we lived in the moment and we shared dreams and wishes for our lives together.  We knew that we wouldn't wake up every morning in a castle, but we did know from that moment forward, our promise meant that we'd get to wake up with each other every day.  

You might be wondering how we have all of these precious photos from that day.  Dave asked a friend who does photography to capture the beautiful moment for us.  Then, she did our engagement photos at the Castle.  She took these right after we had gotten engaged, and you can just feel that we were in the moment by looking at them.  What an extraordinary backdrop!

Yes, ladies... he thought of having a photographer there for our engagement. #heisakeeper

It was absolutely perfect.
Major props to Dave Kirk for making this girl's dreams come true!

And, six and a half years after our engagement... he's still doing it, folks!  

Dave Kirk is still making all my dreams come true!  

It had been right at six and a half years since we had gotten engaged and stayed at the Castle when we were on our way to Lexington from Owensboro to spend Christmas with Jess's family.

As we approached the Castle, instead of passing by it like we had so many times, Dave pulled in.  Once we got inside the Castle walls, Jess saw her mom's car parked who was there to pick up Hopsen so that we could spend the night at the Castle together, again.  What a great date night!

The few months leading up to this night had been really hard for us.  We had been in the midst of Dave's mom's scariest health battle, and our world had been rocked just two weeks before as we stood together and received condolences for her passing.  We were navigating through painful and uncharted territory, but we were doing it together which is what was getting us through.

Being at the Castle brought back so many beautiful, magical memories for the two of us.  It brought us back to laughter and hope.  That night, and the surprise of staying there (again!) was so special.

This time instead of staying in one of the rooms inside the Castle, we stayed in a terrace suite which are located in the corners of the outside wall.  Six and a half year ago when we got engaged, we had taken a photo together in front of the exact rook where we stayed.  What a journey to think about!

 

The suite was absolutely gorgeous.  It was like our own little apartment, but in a castle.  There was a living space downstairs and the bedroom and bathroom were upstairs.  It was fabulous!  

With the new ownership of the Castle, there had been several renovations done since our first stay.

 
In addition, some of the space on the main floor that used to be designated areas such as the library and billiards room had now been transformed into more space for their on-site restaurant.  

We had dinner at Castle Farms, the new restaurant.  Almost all of the creations on the menu were farm to table.  They have even begun their own garden on site to ensure all fresh ingredients.

Our meal was wonderful.  This was our second dinner at the Castle, and this time it felt more like we were eating at a restaurant.  That said, both of our dinners at the Castle were first class.

Only this time, it was more obvious that it was an actual restaurant.  The time before, only the people staying the night at the Castle were having dinner there... which was 5 people, including us.

Here's the good news... if you never have plans to actually stay the night at the Castle, you can now enjoy a great meal there and see the beautiful property.  Castle Farms serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They also host specialized buffet events scheduled throughout the year, especially holidays.

Although we enjoyed selections off the restaurant menu and were seated in that space, they were also hosting dinner and brunch buffets with Santa Claus in a separate area during our stay.

We woke up to littles running around the yard in front of our rook so excited for their breakfast with Santa.  The sounds of their laughter and the magic in their hearts did our souls some good.

After the rough hand of life we had been playing together for the months leading up to this stay, Dave knew Jess needed this particular Christmas gift.

The thing was, we both really needed it.
Loss is never easy, no matter who you go through it with. 

We hope to have the opportunity to share this special place with our own littles some day.  Our highlight reel at the Castle started the day we got engaged, but it extends far beyond that.

  From the memories we reminiscence on each time we pass it to the conversations of promises and dreams we've shared there to the plain old ordinary day surprise of staying there again...

It's probably a cool backdrop for most, but this Castle continues to mean so much to us.

We recommend checking out The Kentucky Castle website to learn more about the opportunity to stay there, dine there or just take a tour.  They are always hosting something unique. Check it out!