St. Joseph residents Brandy (Ruff) and Wilfredo Jaquez may have sold the South Cliff Inn earlier this year, but they’re not getting out of the hospitality business.
The couple plans to focus on their new wedding and event venue in Benton Township, Sunrise Farms, as well as open a new honeymoon getaway in the Dominican Republic.
Sunrise Farms Event Venue, 1310 Hillandale Rd, sits on a nearly two century old family fruit farm near Napier and U.S. 31. According to its website, the property has a three-story barn from the late 1800’s, the oldest surviving log cabin in Michigan and a 1928 original farm house.
“We purchased the property in March, and then the world ended,” Brandy said. “This will be our first year being open. Last year, we were putting in permanent bathrooms and the fire suppression system and all those fun things you get to do being a new venue.”
Below is a video tour of Sunrise Farms from Nov. 2022:
As an extension of Sunrise Farms, the Jaquez’s just recently closed on a rental property in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic.
“That will offer our wedding couples honeymoons,” Brandy said. “We purchased a condo in a broader resort complex. It’s on the beach … it has anything that people could want right on the premises. It will be a nice getaway location.”
Ruff says Bayahibe is less touristy than a place like Punta Cana, and will offer guests a better opportunity to also learn more about Dominican culture.
It’s also an opportunity for Wilfredo get back to his roots. Wilfredo grew up in a small sugar cane farming community in the D.R., and worked in hospitality for about 20 years before coming to the United States.
According to Ruff, Wilfredo’s village was devastated by Hurricane Fiona in Sept. 2022.
“To this day it still doesn’t have running electricity,” Brandy said. They lost a lot of structures and then it rained for days.”
That, in addition to Wilfredo’s father dying around the same time, changed the couple’s priorities, prompting them to sell the St. Joseph’s South Cliff Inn and refocus on the wedding venue and purchasing the condo in Bayahibe.
Wilfredo has been back in his home country since December.
“For him, he needed to find a better balance between being Dominican and our home in America,” Brandy said. “It’s been nice for him.”
Brandy says Sunrise Farms has been accepting requests for more than just weddings.
“We’ve opened it up to graduation parties and bridal showers and milestone birthdays and anniversaries,” she said. “This year, we are already booked for 2023 and booking out to 2024already. It just blows our minds.”
Brandy said they expect to announce the new rental property on their Facebook page in the coming weeks. For more on Sunrise Farms, visit their website.
By Ryan Yuenger
ryany@wsjm.com