Cedar Shadows Chapel: Pontotoc venue offers perfect space for small weddings
Feb. 8—When Tom Evans died in 2020, his dear friend Marty Brown inherited a lot of furnishings from Evans' eclectic home in downtown Tupelo.
A retired pharmacist, Evans was known for his flamboyant lifestyle and outgoing personality, as well as the annual Kentucky Derby parties he helped host on Robins Street as a fundraiser for the Regional Rehabilitation Center.
"When Tom passed away, I wanted to keep some of his pieces together, and have a place where my family could come on Christmas Eve and Easter and build some traditions for the little ones," said Brown, a hairdresser.
Brown and some family members had recently bought property in Pontotoc, and he thought a small chapel might be an appropriate place to showcase some of his late friend's stained-glass windows, ornate chairs and extravagant chandeliers.
"When I was cleaning out Tom's house, I found two pictures of a tiny chapel in his bedside table drawer," Brown said. "I'd never seen those pictures in my 40-plus-year friendship with him."
Brown's partner, Craig Helmuth, said the two felt the photos were a good omen and decided to build a small wedding venue on part of the property.
"There seemed to be a lot of venues that catered to 200 or more wedding guests, but no market for 50 to 100 people, and our prices reflect that difference," Brown said. "Our intention was to create a space where we could give an option that was smaller and simpler but yet, still pretty."
In January 2022, Brown came up with a design, and he and a friend went to work building a 750-square-foot chapel with a bathroom and storage room in the back. At the same time, they built a 1,600-square-foot pavilion facing the chapel, which will seat 50 people for rehearsal dinners or receptions. They also had an outdoor fireplace built near the pavilion for larger outdoor weddings.
"A guy in Coffeeville made the 10 pews in the chapel for us," Brown said. "I sketched them off from what I remembered from the church I grew up going to."
The steeple that tops the chapel was an online purchase.
"I was thumbing through Facebook Marketplace and found it in Memphis," said Helmuth, who works for Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association. "We jumped in the truck and went and got it and drove home with a steeple hanging out of the truck. It was the perfect size — the pitch, the base — everything was perfect."
Helmuth said they had the foresight to put double doors on one side of the chapel.
"We purposefully planned those so we could get a casket in here for a small funeral," he said.
Religious artwork on the chapel's walls comes from the home of the late John and Jean Bartlett of Tupelo. Four stained-glass windows in the chapel are from Evans' home, as are the chandeliers that hung over his grand piano and pipe organ, two ornate church chairs that were in the dining room and several tapestries.
"The iron fencing and gates outside the chapel are also from Tom's," Brown said. "We tried not to make it a shrine to Tom, though. I want it to have a life of its own."
Brown and Helmuth hosted their first wedding at the end of September and then had a couple of Christmas events on the grounds. They already have six weddings booked for 2023.
"I kind of envisioned this as a place for people my age to come for a second wedding," said Brown, 57. "But 99% of the people who have contacted us are 20-something brides."
"They want something simple," Helmuth said. "They want what their grandmothers had."
The plain white church, called Cedar Shadows Chapel, sits in front of a grove of cedar trees, so when it came time to name the event space, Brown and Helmuth knew they wanted to use cedar in the name.
"After 3 o'clock in the afternoon, cedar trees shade the chapel and the grounds," Brown said. "Tom always referred to his house on Robins as The Shadows, so I knew I wanted to use that, too. The place just kind of named itself."
