Shelby Dempsey, co-founder and designer of The Sixpence, likes to remind couples of the fifth, and often forgotten, final item in the classic wedding-related English poem – as the saying goes, you should wear something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in your shoe.
“The tradition is that you wear a sixpence in your shoe on the day of your wedding for good luck,” Dempsey says. “So we’ve stockpiled sixpence coins. They don’t make them anymore. They stopped minting them a long time ago, but we have a sixpence coin to every couple that gets married at The Sixpence, just as a nod to that tradition.”
Dempsey has been traveling the world photographing weddings since 2016 with her company, Amavi. During that time she saw 
brides across the globe make their dream weddings and engagements come to life. When she would shoot weddings in her own community, Dempsey realized she had a unique perspective to offer the wedding scene back home in Indiana.
Dempsey broke ground on The Sixpence with her husband, Seth, and parents, Chris and Tana Henry, on their 17-acre property north of Zionsville in November of 2020. Since its opening in June of 2021, The Sixpence has hosted 132 weddings.
The property is home to three outdoor ceremony spaces – the Grotto, the Lawn, and the Pavilion, an 8,000-square-foot barn facility that seats up to 300 guests. There are also two other buildings, the Homestead and the Workshop, that can serve as spaces for the bridal party to get ready. The property also features a pond, a creek and gardens on-site.
“I really started The Sixpence project because I felt like there was an opportunity here to create something that was a little bit fresh, and it was so important that it was purpose-built,” Dempsey says. “A big part of the design for The Sixpence was creating a beautiful, elevated blank slate, so that anybody with any style, any unique vibe or color palette or anything, could come into The Sixpence and create their own world.”
Dempsey also relished the opportunity to give back to the community she grew up in. In December The Sixpence hosted a Christmas Market that allowed for attendees to engage with local vendors at the venue. The event raised $6,000 for local nonprofit Hearts for the Homeless.
“The community here has been such a support for us and we’re so grateful and humbled by that,” Dempsey says. “Then because its family owned and operated, you can see we just all care so much, and I think that that makes a huge difference.”
In the coming year The Sixpence has various networking and open-house events scheduled quarterly.
The Sixpence is located at 4400 North 1000 East in Whitestown. To learn more, visit thesixpence.com or call 317-296-8200.
Own or work here?
