It’s our fourth holiday season here at the property, and as I’m writing this the beauty of fall is coming to an end and I can’t help but reflect on how INCREDIBLY grateful for the opportunity we have in caring for this place. It is no doubt all-consuming and never-ending, but it is one of the greatest honors of our lives.  We are SO very blessed by a tiny crew that works very hard for all of our clients and cares more than anyone probably imagines about the experience that every single guest has here. From Andrew, Abby, & Marina’s support in the office; to Dave, Adin, Daniel, and Tyler’s support with the building; to Ed & Zach’s support with the grounds; and Jessica & her team on the housekeeping side, we literally couldn’t accomplish it all without them, every week. Other than Jax on social media and Bailly on special projects (as well as some additional hands from time-to-time), it’s very wild to reflect that somehow there are only a handful of us consistently carrying the torch for all of the people who enjoy this massive property. There is no doubt that we are on the cusp of some additions to the team for spring [please let us know if you know of anyone who would be as hard-working with their gifts of client service and go-getter personality type as our current culture is now!] We know that many of you can’t be out at the property as consistently as we’d all love for you to be, but we wanted to give you a little glimpse into some things we are excited about and also very proud to have accomplished this year!Once the winter chill began to set-in, we all caught the Christmas Cheer as visions of all the decor we accumulated for this Christmas season started to come out! (It was a LOT, so it was also a bit overwhelming! ) For the past year, we’ve made a conscious effort to really “up our game” on what was already a big holiday decor collection! We’ve been working on these additions and plans since last December, and the time finally came to put it all together! Since the summer months we have been saving boxes and wrapping empty packages to prepare for the barrage of Christmas trees we have this season. I’m not sure if I’m more invested in the trees or the packages underneath! Lol! The level at which we already did Christmas was slightly overwhelming, it’s hard to believe we have actually DOUBLED those efforts this year! 12.5-foot & Flocked! Pinecones & Glitter! Twin Rotating Trees! This year we have added a 12.5-foot, beautifully appointed, flocked tree to the Wedgewood Ballroom, and an 8-foot tall Pinecone and glitter-tipped tree in the Tuscan Ballroom. This is in addition to the 2 “twin” flocked, spinning Christmas trees in the Grand Marble Foyer, 5 enormous mantle installations, the front porch decor, and ALL of the candles and magnolia for all of the front windows. There are so many blessings in the culture of the property here, and the Holiday season weddings are some of our favorites.  If you are still in need of a location for an office holiday party, family gathering, holiday dinner, or place to host your friends (or want to get a head start on planning next year’s gathering!)–we are here to assist you and our space will be decked out and ready for all of the fun! Reach out via our corporate/social rentals inquiry form on our website and we will be happy to help! Painting and wallpapering: it’s a never-ending job around here, as you can imagine. This year we’ve focused our efforts on the restoration of the Wedgewood Ballroom Ceiling [cleaning up past water damage that happened prior to our arrival at the property and putting to back to its original mint condition with the original Wedgewood® color palate], staining the generator enclosure roof, and taking care of touchups everywhere throughout the property to keep the wear and tear at bay. Protect the chandelier! Sooo much detail to work around! Daniel touching up the ceiling Mirrored “windows” brighten up the Tuscan Ballroom Re-staining the windowsill of the Tuscan barAs far as wallpapering is concerned, we made some bold moves this year! We added a very timeless print in the Cameo Ballroom that took us about 3 years to find! It has multiple shades of white and ivory with that modern touch of metallic accent, and looks incredible with the existing plaster ceiling. Most of our guests think it’s been there for decades because it flows so timelessly with the rest of the decor and that is the best compliment we could ask for! The service lift has also received some snazzy champagne commercial grade wallpaper and we were delighted to move away from the brown, metal, woodgrain panels that were originally in that space! We also spent last winter’s off season upgrading so many aspects of the service lift. We completely rebuilt the entire cable suspension system, replaced the scissor doors with a much sturdier set with a nicer finish, repainted the bar and control panels inside, and put a very special enamel on the floor of it. To pull it all together, we sourced a specially sized rug directly from Turkey and couldn’t be happier with the result! Many of you have asked about the gazebo that overlooks the James River down the hill a tad ways from the Bluestone Terrace. We are proud to say that space is COMPLETE–and we are so happy with the results! It was in very poor shape when we arrived in 2019, and we weren’t sure we would be able to salvage it, but we knew we’d have to do many more urgent things before we could take care of that little building. We were so excited during late summer to finally be able to turn our attention to it! Adin pressure washed it all and we got to work! Our incredible carpenter Brian removed the rotten shakes and added fresh plywood to the entire roof. Daniel stained it to match the rest of our wooden property structures and our friends over at Standard Roofing came in and added a black shingled roof and the new cupola! We are excited to have found a weathervane that contains an eagle, thoughtfully purchased to match the “snow guards” that line the Estate’s rooflines. In other outdoor news, we’ve re-stained almost all of the outdoor fencing surrounds, the overlook, and our adorable little bridge in the meadow as you are driving down the entrance road to the front gates. We had a controlled burn of the back hillside to clear away the brush for even better views of the James River! We have finally added our custom seat rope swing so that we can have some incredible photography moments with our couples. We made sure the seat was large enough even for the width of a Disney Princess’ ball gown and neutral enough to work with any color palate. We have also added in a new, life-size chess board by the Summer Court. Controlled burn time! Laying the chessboard In late February and March of this year, we began the daunting task of removing the 40-year-old “shrimp” colored carpet from the front staircases in the foyer. Speaking candidly, we’d handled carpet removal on so many staircases on so many house flips over the years–how hard could this be?! The joke was on us. I only wish now that I knew how many collective hours we spent on that project. We never thought it would be easy, but it was much worse than expected. Each stair tread was made as individually cut pieces, to flow with the curves of each individual stair so the tread as well as the riser had SO many connection points. I have never seen so many pieces of tack strips, staples, and securing points in steps before in my life. Under all of the carpet and strips was a very unfortunate finding of decrepit, yet still incredibly adhered, two-sided masking tape which took easily a hundred painstaking hours to remove with about a dozen different substances. You name it–we tried it! It was a particularly memorable [and exhausting!] 40th birthday weekend as we rushed to complete the last of the removal of the stubborn tape adhesive film. All was well though–it was perfection for our clients, and that is all that matters! Good-bye, shrimp! Adin pulling carpet Kim & Abby trying different solvents on the tape The everlasting tape! Kimie James PhotographyMarch 2023, Styled Shoots Across America Orrie Gaines PhotographyJuly 2023RR Bride Margeaux On the topic of floors, we also refinished the Wedgewood Ballroom flooring this summer between events and permanently moved the Grand Piano into the Cameo Ballroom and it’s been a PERFECT addition for people having live music during their cocktail hours which are often on that floor. The freshened-up Wedgewood floor has been such a stunning adjustment, especially as the afternoon sun hits the floor coming in from the two-story tall bank of windows! Speaking of sun–the replastering of the pool was a massive Winter ’22 project that took us into ’23. We drained the pool, carefully cleaned and repaired/placed the accent tiles, added safety features to the shutoff pump, switched it over to a saltwater system, and then added a beautiful, custom, navy-blue RR mosaic built into the floor so it can really be shown off in drone footage! The contractor resurfaced the entire basing of the 44′ diameter of the space and the European white look is so striking for summertime poolside events! A dry look at the mosaic Resurfacing process Another MASSIVE accomplishment that we owe a great deal of gratitude to our friends at MV Wedding Films for is that the epic story of the procurement, renovation, restoration, and launch of the business of this property “The Making of River Run” was released in the spring and we hosted a fabulous outdoor film showing on the lawn of the property.  That was a fun evening featuring the filmmakers of MV and the Private Wine label of Elk Island Winery–which is ABSOLUTELY DELISH!! If you haven’t had time to taste it yet, make time to get to their tasting room on a Saturday or Sunday and support another great local business! Bones–if you are purchasing 3 or more cases, they are happy to offer FREE delivery to the property here as well as a discount to our clients, so please reach out to Crista if you want to order any for holiday gifting or wedding/party consumption!   Estate RedSmooth with medium tannins, this dry red blend ends with a round, structured finish. Estate WhiteCrisp and bright with moderate acidity, this light dry white wine has flavor notes of apple and citrus. Estate Rosé This dry rosé boasts aroma notes of strawberry and melon with flavors of white cherry. If you’ve made it this far in the letter of updates, you know how incredibly busy we’ve been. That is all in the midst of taking very attentive care to all of our wedding, corporate, and social rental clients, weekend after weekend. It’s been such a pleasure to serve each and every family at River Run on one of the most special days of their families’ lives! We’ve had so many touching moments in the past year that affirmed our calling to craft our life around this vision. We are so honored to have your support through this next chapter of dreams coming true here at River Run. You are in our thoughts this holiday season, we hope you and your family are very blessed and continue to flourish and prosper.  Warmest Holiday Wishes, Kim & The Team at The Estate at River Run The Estate at River Run Office CrewFrom our family to yours, Happy Holidays! Office Staff Christmas Outing!A fun evening that did not disappoint!