Getting Married at The Pavilion at Mixon Farms: A Photographer’s Insider Guide

Name: Ying Multimedia
Price range: $$

If you are planning a wedding at The Pavilion at Mixon Farms in Bradenton, FL, you are looking at one of the most storied venues in Manatee County. It almost was not here at all, if Manatee County had not stepped in to buy the property in 2025. There is a real chance you would be looking at another gated housing development instead, the same thing that happened right across the street from the farm back in the mid 2000s. Thanks to the county, this land stays open, stays green, and stays available for couples to get married on for generations.

A few things did change with that transition, and a lot of what is online about this venue is outdated. We have been photographing weddings here since 2016, more than 40 of them, and we have stayed close with the county through that transition, so here is everything you actually need to know before you book.

The Story Behind Mixon Farms

Mixon Farms started in 1939 as a small fruit stand on the edge of Willie and Rosa Mixon’s property in Bradenton. Twenty years later the family consolidated several individually owned parcels into one piece of land and put up their first wooden building to store farm and office equipment. From there it grew into a full market, a restaurant, a play park, and a wildlife tour stop. At its peak in 1992 the farm was processing around 400,000 boxes of citrus a year and shipping out a quarter million gift packages, most of them during the Christmas season.

Dean Mixon, grandson of Willie and Rosa, ran the farm with his wife Janet for decades. About ten years before the farm closed, Janet and Dean built a small overlook so visitors could take in the gardens, just a gazebo and a waterfall. Neither of them expected it to become the most booked wedding ceremony site in Bradenton, but that is exactly what happened.

Mixon Fruit Farms closed for good on July 29, 2023, after years of pressure from Hurricane Ian damage, citrus disease, and the economics of running a small citrus operation. The family had already sold off acreage before. Back in the mid 2000s they sold 280 acres across 27th Street to a developer, and that land is the gated community you see there today with homes starting in the high 300 thousands. So when it came time to sell the last 39 acres, Janet and Dean had already watched what happens to farmland once it crosses over to a builder, and they did not want the same thing happening to the property they had left. They listed at 15.8 million dollars but dropped their asking price more than 2 million dollars below appraised value specifically so Manatee County could buy it instead of a developer who had plans for 350 townhouses. The county commission approved the 13.5 million dollar purchase in July 2025, covering the 39 acres, the pavilion, the 38,026 square foot store, and a house on the property. The plan going forward includes a library, a playground, community gardens, and a heritage citrus grove designed as a living museum with historical placards telling the story of citrus farming in Manatee County. Janet Mixon has said plainly that she did not want to see the property’s history erased, and that weddings continuing to happen there mattered to her.

Janet and Dean did not disappear after the sale. They spent the next couple of years running a food truck called the Mixon Swirl, bringing their famous orange and vanilla soft serve and a few cafe favorites out to events around Tampa Bay. They sold the truck to Polk County Sheriff’s Charities in the spring of 2026 and said their official goodbye to it at the Mixon Farms Market. It is a nice detail for couples to know, the same hands that built this place spent years afterward still showing up with ice cream for the community before finally stepping back. And because the county bought this land instead of a developer, that history is still walkable and still standing today rather than existing only in old photos.

The Gazebo and Koi Pond

The classic ceremony spot is under the white gazebo by the Koi pond, surrounded by a rock waterfall and lush gardens, the image most couples picture when they think of this venue. This is the spot that appears in nearly every Mixon wedding gallery, ours included, and it remains exactly as beautiful as it always was.

The Palm Arbor

The property also has an arbor tucked into a cluster of tall palms strung with lights, reached by a winding garden path.It is one of our favorite formal photo spots on the property. It sits right near the butterfly garden and the putting green lawn, so it works beautifully as a quick stop for portraits on the way to cocktail hour.

The Trail to the Waterfall

There is also a wooded trail that runs from the pavilion out toward the rock waterfall by the koi pond, lined with driftwood benches tucked into the greenery. It is quieter and more shaded than the rest of the property, which makes it a great spot for a few candid portraits away from the crowd, sitting on one of those driftwood benches with the trees and ferns closing in around you. We got some wonderful shots along this trail during the style shoot at the grand reopening and it is quickly becoming one of our favorite lesser known spots on the property.

Getting Ready

For getting ready, there is space for both the bride and groom on site, though brides sometimes end up taking over both rooms for the extra space. The string light covered walkway near the getting ready rooms has also been cleaned up since the county took over, the overgrowth has been trimmed back and it now reads as a tidier, more polished version of the pathway you may have seen in older wedding photos, string lights still strung overhead the whole way through.

The Pavilion

The covered pavilion itself is enormous, open on all sides, and strung with a chandelier and overhead lighting, so your reception photographs beautifully whether the sun is out or long gone. It is still the same structure that has hosted Mixon receptions for years, plenty of room to dance the night away under those lights.

Cocktail Hour on the Putting Green

The garden path from the palm arbor and butterfly garden leads out to a putting green lawn area, which the county has renovated along with the nearby playground and walking paths. This lawn does double duty on a typical wedding day. Most couples use it as the cocktail hour spot, which keeps guests spread out and enjoying themselves instead of huddled around the pavilion while we are working through formal photos. Add in the orange grove, the pond with its working fountain, and that sense of being somewhere far from the city while sitting minutes from downtown Bradenton, and you have a property with more distinct backdrops than most venues in the county offer.

What Is No Longer There

A couple of spots that appeared in older wedding photos are no longer there, the vineyard is now parking, and the farmhouse is now staff housing. But between the gazebo, the bamboo forest, the palm arbor, the butterfly garden, the wooded trail to the waterfall, and the pavilion, there is still no shortage of places to say your vows and take photos here

How the Venue Works Now, and Why It Matters

This is the single most important thing to understand about booking Mixon Farms today, and it is where a lot of couples get tripped up by outdated information online. It is also worth understanding as the trade-off that came with saving this land from becoming another housing development, and in our opinion, a very fair trade.

When Janet and Dean ran the property, Mixon Farms operated as a true all-inclusive venue. Catering, coordination, rentals, and a list of preferred vendors were all part of the package, and couples could show up and have almost everything handled for them.

Manatee County runs things differently, and understandably so, a government agency preserving 39 acres of green space is not in the business of running a full service wedding operation. The county provides the venue space itself and a day-of event supervisor (NOT A WEDDING COORDINATOR) who is on site during your event. Their own signage on site lists what your rental includes: the gazebo, the grand pavilion, the pond, a bar and catering kitchen, and the bridal and groom suites. That last part is worth reading closely, the same signage notes that bar and catering services must be externally contracted by the wedding party, which lines up with everything we have told you here. The county does not provide planning, coordination, florals, a DJ, an officiant, or hair and makeup, so you will need to bring in every one of those vendors yourself. The county will tour the space with you, and you can scan the QR code on site, request info on their website, or email [email protected] to check availability and book your date. From there, building the day is on you and whoever you hire to help. Given the alternative was losing this property entirely, that is a small price to pay to keep getting married somewhere this special.

Working with a Team Who Knows Mixon

This makes hiring an experienced coordinator less of a nice to have and more of a necessity. The staff who used to know this property inside and out, who could tell you exactly how the timeline should flow or where the power outlets were, moved on to other work once the all-inclusive model wound down. That institutional knowledge did not disappear though, it moved to the vendors who worked here for years. Brandy at Social B Events is a great example, she was literally the on site event manager at Mixon for years before the transition and knows this property better than almost anyone still working weddings here.

If you want that all-inclusive feeling back, Cheyanne at Shy Chic Boutique offers everything except the venue itself, she brings in the vendors and essentially rebuilds that one stop experience around whatever space you book. We met her at a Mixon wedding years ago, so recommending her for a Mixon wedding today is about as easy a call as we make in this whole guide.

This is also where 40 plus weddings at one venue pays off for you. Some of our most trusted vendor relationships were built right here at Mixon, and we are happy to connect you. Tim at TLS Entertainment and the team at 3C’s Catering are people we met through Mixon weddings and have worked alongside again and again since. So is Tara at Sweets Bakehouse. You will not need to worry about your cake showing up on time or holding up in the Florida heat, she lives right across the street from the pavilion. Other well known vendors we’ve met through weddings at Mixon included Blue Water Catering, who we continue to see regularly at Bakers Ranch, Worthington, and Orange Blossom Barn. DJ KenWa, who DJ’d many events there, and in many other venues.

Worth noting, Manatee County does not designate official preferred vendors for Mixon Farms the way Janet and Dean once did. As a government agency, the county keeps that list open so every couple gets to choose their own team without any vendor being favored over another. So when we recommend people like Brandy, Cheyanne, Tim, or Tara, that is not a preferred vendor badge, it is 40 plus weddings worth of firsthand experience talking. We also happen to live locally and have done other work with Manatee County beyond Mixon over the years, so our connection to this community runs deeper than just the wedding photos.

We are not a preferred vendor here, but we are close partners with Manatee County Explore and Play, the department that runs Mixon Farms today. We worked closely with their team on this very guide to make sure everything here is accurate, and that relationship goes back well before the county ever took ownership of the property.

Our History at Mixon

Mixon Farms is where Ying Multimedia began. Our very first contracted wedding was here in November 2016, for CJ and Ian, in our first years as a wedding-centric photography company. We still get asked about the portrait we captured that day. That first wedding set the tone for how we shoot Mixon weddings ever since, and we have come back more than 40 times since.

This year brought things full circle. Mixon Farms held its grand reopening in March 2026 as a Manatee County community market, and we were there working alongside the Manatee County Explore and Play team, recognized with a First Harvest Vendor award for our years of service to the venue. We have partnered with Manatee County on other projects over the years too, so being invited back to Mixon that day meant a lot, and we were proud to be one of the first wedding vendors back on the property after it reopened to the public. We brought along a previous couple to model for a style shoot that day, and every photo from it was taken by our associates Mariah and James. We have not shot a wedding at Mixon since the reopening yet, but watching our associates step in and capture the venue in its new chapter felt like the whole story coming together.

Should You Book Mixon Farms

If you want a venue with real history, genuine Old Florida character, and grounds that still photograph beautifully, Mixon Farms remains one of the best choices in Manatee County, and we get to keep saying that because the county chose preservation over development. Just go in with the right expectations. This is a venue rental now, not an all-inclusive package, and the couples who have the best experience are the ones who build their vendor team early. Every wedding held here now is proof that the community made the right call in 2025.

If you are planning a wedding at Mixon Farms and want to talk about photography, cinematography, or both, we would love to hear from you. See our work and reach out at ying-multimedia.com.

Practical Things Worth Knowing

The venue is located at 2525 27th Street East, Bradenton, FL 34208, easy to reach from I-75 and just a short drive from downtown Bradenton, Sarasota, and Lakewood Ranch. Parking is on site, in the same general area where the old vineyard used to stand.

Unlike the all-inclusive days, catering, bar service, florals, a DJ, an officiant, and hair and makeup are not included in your rental and need to be booked separately with outside vendors. The rental itself covers the gazebo, the grand pavilion, the pond, a bar and catering kitchen space for your outside caterer to use, and the bridal and groom suites. You can check availability and book your date by scanning the QR code on the signage on site or emailing [email protected] directly. If you check social media for information, the social media accounts are inactive, and the county DO NOT have access to them, you want to reach out to the county directly for more information.

The rain plan has always been the same here and that has not changed with the county, everything moves under the pavilion, which is large enough to comfortably cover your full guest count if the weather does not cooperate.

One hot tip worth knowing before you book, the only air conditioned spaces on the entire property are the bridal suite and the groom suite. Everything else, the gazebo, the pavilion, the putting green, all of it is open air Florida. That makes this venue a much better fit for a fall, winter, or early spring wedding than the peak of summer, when the heat and humidity will be a real factor for you and your guests for hours at a time.

Since the county only opened the space again in March 2026, there’s still a lot of work they are putting into the space, with multiple county departments involved. This blog will be updated as new space/info becomes available.

Ying Multimedia is a husband and wife wedding photography and cinematography team based in Parrish, FL, serving the Sarasota, Bradenton, and Tampa Bay area. We have photographed weddings at The Pavilion at Mixon Farms since 2016. We were Pink List Preferred vendors under the Mixons’ ownership and have stayed closely connected with Manatee County as a trusted photography partner since.

Lets talk!

Got questions? Need more Information? Ready to book? We are waiting to hear from you! Fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you in a flash.

Planning a wedding is a lot of work. Let us help you make this part easy!