Need Retreat or Event Space?
Looking for a great location for your next retreat or event?! Big Raven Farm is located in southeast Minnesota’s driftless region, Where Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa Meet. We’re conveniently located within 2 ½ hours of Minneapolis, Mankato, Rochester, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Madison, Dubuque, Waterloo, and Cedar Rapids, among others.
Our farm features:
- A 1200 sq.ft. event center and studio.
- An 800 sq.ft. dining room that accommodates 60 guests.
- A commercial kitchen, complete with commercial dishwasher and pizza oven.
- 6 beautifully furnished guest rooms that sleep 14+ (easily converted between king-sized beds and extra-long twin beds).
- A private summer cottage that sleeps 2–3.
- A 2-mile walking trail encircling the property.
- Incredible vistas.
- Free-range chickens and all the fresh eggs you want.
- Gracious and accommodating hosts! (See below :-)
We’ve hosted numerous kinds of events, including:
- Yoga Retreats
- Art Retreats
- Crafting Retreats
- Scrapbooking Retreats
- Quilting Retreats
- Writing Retreats
- Academic Retreats
- Weddings
- Showers
- Reunions
- Parties
- Corporate Events
- Plays
- Concerts
- Movies
- <Your Retreat Here>
Your Hosts
We are Joleen Emery and Darin Warling. We met in kindergarten, grew up, graduated, went our separate ways, traveled the world, got married, got divorced, and met again at our 25-year high school reunion. We’ve been together ever since. Joleen is the artist and visionary, Darin makes sure the metaphorical trains run on time. (Former engineer. Not the choo-choo kind.) We founded a yoga mat company, Big Raven Yoga, and a couple of years later ditched the big city life in search of a larger print space (with room for a yoga studio and a retreat center). We purchased the farm right around Halloween 2020, and have been slowly restoring it to its original grandeur ever since.
Head Raven
Nerd Bird
How It Works
We can be involved in your event or retreat as much or as little as you like — fully hands-on and involved in every aspect of its planning and execution, fully hands-off, or anywhere in between. We’re flexible!
Typically, we provide accommodations, event space, tables, chairs, food, cleanup, lead optional yoga classes, and help with programming. Most retreats take place Thursday–Sunday, with guests arriving on Thursday evenings and leaving Sunday afternoon. We normally provide a casual welcoming meal on Thursday evening (such as a flatbread pizza buffet), 3 full meals on Friday, 3 meals on Saturday, and a farewell brunch on Sunday.
Pricing
Normally we charge only our base rate for room and board; anything over and above our rate becomes profit for you. For a fully filled (14 attendee) 4-day, 3-night retreat (Thursday–Sunday) we typically charge approximately $143/night, or $429/attendee. If you were to charge attendees $200/night, or $600/attendee, your profit would be approximately $2400 for the weekend. ($600-$429×14 = $2,349). If you were to charge $1000/attendee, your profit would be approximately $8000 for the weekend. (Also note that event hosts stay free, so it costs you nothing to host an event with us!)
We do require a 50% non-refundable deposit to hold the date, with the remaining balance due 7 business days before your event. A sample rate sheet for a typical yoga retreat is available here.
Interested?
Please reach out to Joleen by text or phone at 301-706-9163 or email at hello@bigravenyoga.com! I can’t wait to hear from you!
Map
We’re right in the heart of the upper midwest! Part of the reason we chose southeast Minnesota is that we’re surprisingly well-situated: There are at least a dozen major population centers within an easy (and beautiful!) 2 ½ hour drive, with approximately 7 million people inside 150 miles, and 13 million people within 200 miles. (The other reason we chose this location is that, unlike the rest of Minnesota, there are literally no mosquitos in this weird little corner of the world. You can lay outside in the grass all night long watching the stars and not see or hear a single mosquito! Also, the Driftless area is incredibly beautiful; it’s the Vermont of the midwest.)
