David and Cindy Bagley had both been part of the corporate world for years when they decided to give their dreams a chance.

In 2008, the couple moved to Dawson County from Acworth in an attempt to get away from some of the hustle and bustle of the city, and fell in love with the slower pace of the country. 

Slowly, they settled on a dream to help others follow in their footsteps and get away from the craziness of everyday life while enjoying the peace and tranquility of the countryside. Out of this dream came their event venue which just opened in February 2021 — Agape Acres. 

According to David Bagley, he and his wife first got the idea to start up an event venue several years ago when they were trying to look for a way to combine their love for the place they live and share it with others. 

“Events in this area are pretty prominent and we thought ‘maybe that’s a good idea,’” Bagley said. “So we wanted to take what we can appreciate with the land up here and share it with others.” 

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The Bagley's land had an old barn on it that David Bagley previously used as a woodworking shop, and the couple set to work on transforming the old building into a usable event venue. According to David Bagley, the most important part of the process was making sure to preserve the land’s original wood and the feeling of being in nature. 

“All this wood, everything in here was harvested off of this land. Our vision was always to preserve that,” David Bagley said. “All of this wood was harvested on the property and sitting here stacked and covered when we got here, so we thought ‘wow what a great way to use this and preserve that history.’” 

Because of their desire to preserve the original barn and land, the couple decided to do much of the work on the venue themselves. Over the course of about two and a half years, the two spent much of their free time in the evenings and on weekends working on the project. 

“We chose for a lot of reasons not to just turn this into a construction site because nobody’s going to take the time to do what we were trying to do; no one cares about ‘so what if this wood is harvested off this property’,” David Bagley said. “But I’m pretty handy and so is Cindy, so we figured we’d just do it… we’ve really put our hearts, souls and wallets into it.”

Now officially finished, the venue includes both outdoor and indoor ceremony spaces for about 150 to 250 guests, a furnished upper loft in the barn for bridal parties to use during weddings and a covered outdoor pavilion for guests to mingle. 

According to Cindy Bagley, so far the reception from the community has been favorable. 

“It’s been kind of a slow start because of COVID and because it was wintertime when we finally opened,” Cindy Bagley said. “But everybody that hears about it and that we’ve met with are excited.” 

Moving forward, the couple hopes to expand their reach and get the name of their venue out to more potential guests. 

“We’re trying to get photos and our website built up right now,” Bagley said. “But we’re hoping to get events scheduled here and start getting it built up and going.”