Loudoun Cider House Rekindles Community Connections

Written by Bill Kent

After holding numerous weddings at Leesburg’s 48 Fields Farm, professional wedding planner Macy Schilling says, “I couldn’t let anyone else scoop it up because I wanted to preserve the heart and charm.” In May, Schilling moved her family, home office, and two dogs from suburban Springfield to the idyllic 48-acre former dairy farm on the rolling flatlands between Route 15 and the Potomac River.

All the while, she was planning and staging an engagement session or destination wedding just about every weekend this year throughout Hunt Country and the greater DMV area. 

Pam Perez, a professional photographer who has worked with Schilling, admires her ability to keep so many plans, projects, and events going simultaneously.

“Macy is very good at what she does,” Perez says. “She’s got a magnetic personality, is really likeable, and is Type A in organization with a Type B disposition. Nothing phases her on a wedding day.”

After graduating from George Mason University eight years ago, Schilling has used more than a hundred venues for weddings. Those have included numerous Hunt Country vineyards, barns and inns, a Potomac River cruise ship, and the International Spy Museum, where the bride and groom posed for photos beside James Bond’s Austin Martin DB-5 (but were not permitted to drive it away).

Of them all, 48 Fields was always her favorite. “It’s been just perfect for me — professionally and for my family,” Schilling shares. “There’s also a personal element. My husband and I are Virginia natives and we’ve lived in many places. This one feels like the home we’ve always wanted. It’s like they say at a wedding: ‘It just had to be.’”

Her husband, Cory, 5-year-old son, Leo, and 1-year-old daughter, Lorelei, live in a small cottage just down the hill from the 1910 farmhouse and its impeccably restored barn. Retired greyhound Stella and dachshund Chloe have the run of the grounds, which extend far beyond the wildflower field, apple orchard, and surrounding forest, where three gathering areas are linked by trails.

On a sunny Monday afternoon last September, Schilling staged a grand reopening of the Loudoun Cider House at 48 Fields. To the backdrop of a band, two food trucks, a photography booth, and members of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, she announced that what had started as a small business under property owners Kelly and Steve Ewell, where tastings and sales were held mostly on a direct-to-consumer basis, would become a regular Monday and Thursday gathering location for the neighborhood families and others who want a “third place” to unwind after school, work, or soccer practice. 

“Kelly and Steve just loved cider, and I was always a fan of what they made,” Schilling says. “I want to bring the Cider House back just as they did it, in the barn for tastings and sales. But I want to make it a little bit more fun.”

She hopes that family-friendly movie, music, and game nights, sunset firepit conversations, and other gentle outdoor activities might turn 48 Fields’ barn into a community hub. “When people want to do fundraisers, have a business conference, or just want to come to a place that’s peaceful and beautiful, they’ll want to come here. And maybe have some cider with us,” she adds.

To celebrate the Loudoun Cider House’s reopening, Doug Fabbioli, whose Fabbioli Cellars brews the Cider House’s blends, helped Schilling create a new flavor: Blue Honey. She hopes to sell the cider, which features the light, sweet taste of blueberries — her favorite fruit — and honey from 48 Fields’ TBee’s apiaries, at Roots 657 Café and Market and in Hunt Country taverns and restaurants.

Kristi Doolittle Wick, a brand designer, visual communications strategist, and candlemaker in Philomont, has no doubt that Schilling will succeed. “If anyone can do it, it is Macy,” Wick says. “She has already built a strong community and network of colleagues and friends, and she approaches every challenge with grit and grace. I’ve seen firsthand how our small towns can feel quiet during the week once the weekend crowds leave. A place like 48 Fields and Loudoun Cider House, open on weekdays as Macy sees it, would be a huge gift to the community.”

Wick, who has sold her candles at farmers markets and winery pop-ups, believes a regular weeknight spot in a farm setting “fills a real gap in our current market. Macy wants to fill it not for business alone, but because she genuinely wants to uplift, support, welcome, and cherish our local community.” ML

Published in the October 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.