
Who We Are
We Are The Howell Family!
We are believers and followers of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We want to tell you how our journey has brought us here.
I, Sara, was a wedding photographer for over 12 years shooting at venues all across the country. Josh, my husband, shot weddings with me for about 7 of those years. As we started our family, we needed another way to stay in the wedding industry that didn’t take us away from our children so much.
It dawned on us that Sedalia needed a unique event venue! Not just any venue, but something with heart and character, with rustic elegance and charm. We prayed that God would help us find the perfect place for us to start a venue. Our search began for the perfect piece of property to build this barn.
After an intense two year search, we found the perfect piece of land with forest, field and a pond! Renovating a majority of the house took about a year while I was pregnant with our third baby then we moved onto the property. As we planned how we would construct the barn, I used our land as a great background for shooting seniors, families, and more. Josh spent the winter braving the elements tearing down old barns for the wood. We asked God if this was still the plan he had for our family…a way for us to replace the income photography provided, so I could stay home with our children and homeschool while we teach them about taking care of animals, gardening and working hard on our land.
In 2014, we still had a strong desire to build the barn, and nothing was holding us back so we proceeded. In the meantime, we had our third child. Just a few days before she was born we put our house on the line to get the loan to start building the barn. The dump trucks and the cement trucks and the excavators started arriving. How exciting! Finally, the Amish crews came. We wanted our barn to have lots of character so we had them reconstruct a reclaimed frame from a hundred-year-old barn that was shipped all the way from Ohio. After the roof was added, we began adding the siding… hundred-year-old wood siding and rusty corrugated tin from the barns that Josh tore down. We were honored to have so many people helping us with the barn. Coworkers, family, and friends jumped in to help us build our dream not just for us but for the future of our little ones.
The barn was finally finished in April of 2015, pregnant with our fourth child and due in August we opened our door! We’ve received an amazing response with bookings from all across Missouri and surrounding states. We’ve now hosted guests from all across the United States and some international travelers. Praise the Lord! Feeling honored and blessed we look forward to what the future holds for Heritage Ranch and how we can serve you. Thank you for visiting our website, now come check out the barn!