Today we’d like to introduce you to Amira Melnichenko.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our journey started in the fall of 2017 when we visited a friend who had just moved to the Historic District of Downtown Daytona Beach. We had never been to this area and we were curiously admiring the historic homes in the neighborhood as we walked from his house to the downtown district for lunch. One building, in particular, caught our eye and we looked at each other and said, “Wow, what a cool old house!” Followed by, “Wow, it’s for sale!” We started to learn more about the home that it wasn’t just any old house, it was an 1875 General Store now on the National Historic Register with generations of people who cared very much for this home, their community, and the world. The upstairs of the original structure was once used as a town hall and they signed the incorporation papers for the city of Daytona Beach in that very room. Then, in the early 1900s, a playwright Harrison Rhodes transformed the store into a home along with his two sisters, who were activists. They helped to fund the first black college in Florida, supporting Mary McCleod Bethune in what is now Bethune College (who I actually had an intern from last semester, how amazingly full-circle is that?!)
They were some pretty amazing people and, although in terrible condition, this was a pretty amazing property and we felt it calling on us to bring it back to it’s grandeur… so, we did something crazy and purchased the home within a month’s time and got to work. The term “Labor of Love” has never been more true than for The Melnichenkos and The Foxtail Estate. We spent over two year’s worth of 12 hour-day weekends while working full-time and living in Orlando to renovate this home. We truly built this place with our blood, sweat, and tears… so, so, so much sweat… We can only compare these “dark years” of our lives to the movie The Money Pitt with Tom Hanks as it felt like every one step forward was six steps back. It was frustrating, devastating, and we felt like there was no way out. We wanted to throw in the towel so many times, but we were determined not to give up on this dream. We were promised up to $75,000 grant funding that we absolutely qualified for but were misled by a city employee who told us not to bother applying because the money was gone… we later found out that wasn’t true, but, tough luck you can’t do it retroactively.
Because of this loss of funds that we had been hoping for, we did a significant amount of the work on our own, from renovating the Honeymoon Suite bathroom (when we shattered an ancient toilet full of water while trying to remove it) to re-working windows (64 windows, all of them inoperable) to painting (3,800 square feet of painting including crown molding, trim, and those 64 windows, but who’s counting?) to insulating the garage (approximately 975 degrees Fahrenheit at all times) to build a custom window ledges, all sleeping on air-mattresses with no heat in the winter and several weeks of no a/c in the summer, squatters during the week, ugh. Since I do not wish to re-live the many nightmares we have encountered through this renovation process, nor do I wish to turn this story into a second, lengthier rendition of “War and Peace,” let’s move on. I’ll be happy to share my notes of over 200 items on my “house problems” list if you’re into terrifying stories. Anyway, we knew that the house was in terrible shape, but we thought all we had to do was further beautify the grounds.
As the months went on with the interior renovations, we awoke to an absolute nightmare discovery one morning after a heavy rainfall… It turns out, we are the basin for the entire neighborhood and what we thought would be the smallest part of the renovation turned out to be the biggest. We were absolutely devastated as our entire half-acre filled with over a foot of standing water and would not drain. We had no choice but to put the venue on the back-burner as we were already so deep into the home renovations and had not planned for such an awful surprise. However, every problem has a solution… After hiring a Civil Engineer and working with the City of Daytona Beach to devise a plan, we got started on re-building the garden we fell in love with. We had to take out 30 trucks worth of muck, connect an entirely new drainage system underground, and then bring in 35 trucks of fill dirt in order to raise the entire backyard by at least a foot… and THEN add the pretty stuff. So, with this major undertaking ahead, we were only able to open the three-bedroom Bed and Breakfast portion of the business while we continued the construction.
We were ready to open that part of the business in September of 2018… but, this, of course, was a challenge as well. The downtown re-development representative for the City of Daytona Beach had assured us that the city would rent us the three parking spaces that were required for us to open, knowing that it would take us a long time to finish the construction for this requirement over our swamp-land backyard. When we were nearing the completion, I requested the contract many times as I knew this was an important requirement, and the response was always “I’m working on it.” Well, we were ready to close our permit and time was of the essence to commit to the three parking spots in order to open and, only then were we informed that the city had changed it’s mind and they were not interested in renting spaces to us. We can’t have off-site parking more than a few hundred feet, but we HAVE to have the three designated spots open. End of story. We tried EVERYTHING, we tried to add spots behind the garage that didn’t have flooding issues… they denied us.
We found a kind soul willing to rent the three spots to us temporarily so that we could open while still under construction out back and the city wanted them to sign a five year irrevocable contract that they obviously did not feel comfortable doing, so that was a no. The city wouldn’t even close our permit over this so we couldn’t do so much as rent Airbnb while we were drowning in debt. We petitioned and I vented to every person I could find, and, finally, the Deputy City Manager Jim Morris came to our rescue with a shockingly logical solution… give us a six-month grace period to finish the grounds. Within 24 hours of his decision, the permit was closed, we got our certificate of occupancy, and we were ready to open. Amazing how one person willing to see grey instead of black and white can shift someone’s entire future and he has saved us many times since then. We opened the three-bedroom B&B portion part-time in December of 2018 while we continued major site work on the venue space. Then… what we thought was a never-ending construction project, FINALLY ENDED and we had our first wedding in October of 2019 and finally started booking up our schedule and watching our dream come to life… Then, Covid happened. We started getting cancelations for weddings, events, parties, B&B stays and almost all of them demanded full refunds. We obliged as we felt that it was the right thing to do, but it was an extremely trying time for us. We definitely did not expect it to last month’s… if we were going to give up on this, it would have been a LONG time ago!
We thought that SURELY we would be able to get some kind of government assistance, but we fell through the cracks. We were denied for PPP, un-employment, and every other grant we aggressively applied for. So, I went to find a full-time job elsewhere to try to keep our business afloat. We pride ourselves on being creative and adaptable, so, I decided to pivot… As larger weddings were no longer an option and most were getting canceled all over the country, we decided to start hosting micro-weddings for groups of 20, entirely outdoors and socially distanced. These packages are built for couples who just want to get married NOW and we do all of the planning for them. With our micro-wedding packages, I include the Officiant, Photographer, bouquet, cake, one night’s stay in our Bridal Suite, and everything you need for a small wedding (tables/chairs/tents/linens/etc.) These were certainly not the large-scale weddings we had in mind and they are SO much planning on my part and, of course, are a fraction of what we would make for our standard weddings, especially by the time we pay all of the other vendors, but they kept us afloat through a very hard time until we were able to start doing our full-size weddings again last fall.
The road getting here was long, hard, often devastating, and exhausting… But this story is one of triumph, of passion, and of a dream we fought harder for than anything in our lives. The light has finally shone through on the other side of all of that and we have won some of the industry’s top awards, including: Best of The Knot, Wedding Wire Couple’s Choice Awards, Luxe Life Best Boutique B&B, and have 5-star reviews across all platforms and this is something we are EXTREMELY proud of. We often wonder why this was so hard, it felt like there was a dark cloud shadowing us at all times for years, but now that we are on the other side, it makes us that much more appreciative of what we have accomplished and there is absolutely nothing more fulfilling than seeing two people who have found each other commit their lives to each other at this place we built with our hands and hearts.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Foxtail Estate. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Foxtail Estate is located in the historic district of Daytona Beach, across the street from the Halifax Yacht Club on the Intracoastal and right across the bridge from our beautiful beaches, making it a dream destination wedding venue. We are primary built for full wedding weekends, so our couples get all three guest rooms and access to the grounds Friday-Sunday. Couples can host a rehearsal dinner or welcome party Friday night, guests can go to the beach or enjoy any of our local attractions during the day on Saturday while the Bride gets ready in our massive Bridal Suite. We host the ceremony and reception in our beautiful tree-lined venue space on Saturday and all guests depart Sunday morning. We don’t believe in rushing couples in and out, we want them to have a truly immersive experience and we cater specifically to one couple all weekend. I mean, why have a wedding day when you can have a wedding weekend?! We make things as relaxing and simple as possible for our couples by providing a Day-Of Coordinator, assisting in room blocks and vendor connections, and have thought through everything for a dream wedding experience.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Easy… LOVE! It is the essence of our existence and life is meaningless without it. It’s the reason that I get out of bed every morning and the reason I got into this industry and went through a nightmare process to get here. I value my relationships with the people closest to me, my family, my husband, my two kitties, my very best friends that are spread throughout the country that I would be lost without. I still cry at every wedding because I really do think it’s the most powerful thing in the world that two people are committing their lives to each other, especially at this magical place that we have created. You have to love what you do, you have to love and be loved in return, that’s the point of life. I express it to our guests through small gestures like baking fresh cookies for our guests at check-in, bringing a bottle of champagne to toast engagements at our tours, answering endless calls/emails/texts and accommodating requests even when I’m bordering exhaustion, love is a verb and I try to put it into practice every day and that’s what this place is all about.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@foxtailestate.com
- Website: www.foxtailestate.com
- Instagram: @thefoxtailestate
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/foxtailestate
Image Credits
KMD Photo (First photo of ceremony space, front of house with couple, photo of owners) Jennifer Juniper Photography (Garden tents) Ohlson Photography (Couple dancing under lights and couple at marina across the street)
What to check out next:
Aleasha Bahr is a sales & marketing strategist known for showing introverts and ambiverts the Secret Art of Subtle Selling. She personally sold millions in revenue while discovering introverts are usually top sales people – as soon as they stop trying to act like extroverts. We’ve partnered with her to produce Introverted Entrepreneur Success Stories. Check out episode 1 below:
