Hidden Gems: Meet Meika Darville of Scarborough House Resort

Today we’d like to introduce you to Meika Darville

Hi Meika, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Dec 2020 was in the middle of the pandemic, we were living in Raleigh, working from home and homeschooling our kids. I had a corporate job in a sales finance role and my husband was involved in real estate investing. My husband Josh and I started talking about the idea of moving but I wouldn’t say it was serious. This was until I was searching around on the Realtor App Thanksgiving week on our drive out of town to see family. I noticed this large, unique property out in the country with nearly 3 acres, multiple homes and buildings on it. I spent the entire holiday weekend thinking about how the property could be both our home and a business for us, so on our way back we were able to arrange a tour. Everything about the property was a “fixer upper”, with the 200 historic home and barn plus all the added buildings and space we definitely saw the potential. We decided to buy it and see where the journey takes us. This meant moving 1 hour away from Raleigh and establishing a new life locally. We sold our home in Raleigh along with some other investments to pay for the extensive renovations required. We hired a really good friend and found other local talent who have since become our friends, to work on all aspects of the renovation. We had a solid 18+ months of renovation before we started Airbnb on the property. I’d say we put much of our life savings into a three phase renovation 1) stop the decay, 2) make it functional and 3) make it sexy. It was definitely stressful at times. With the renovations done we began building our Airbnb experience, this started in Dec 2022. We then started hosting smaller events like birthday parties and reunions. Our vision for the property is that is a peaceful, relaxing place out in the country, twinkling lights, watch amazing sunsets, sit by a warm fire, enjoy time with family and friends. In 2023 I was laid off from my job so I went full time into real estate investing and part time into our Airbnb/events business. We decided to jump fully into the wedding space in 2024 and it was a fantastic and very busy first season. What makes us unique as a wedding venue is we can host the ceremony here (outdoors), the reception at our outdoor covered pavilion, and we have overnight accommodations for up to 14 people double occupancy. In 2024 we hosted at least 20 events, most were weddings, ranging from 50-275 guests. We had a lot of back-to-back weekends with events. Every single event was beautiful in a unique way. All of our clients, their families, the vendors have been amazing to work with. 2024 was financially a strong year for us as the Scarborough House. Personally, it was a growth year because we were running a wedding business, Arbnbs, managing some rental properties along with raising our teen boys and adjusting to having my parents live with us. My dad is disabled and recovering from his stroke, he cannot walk yet so we have ongoing caregiving come to help my mom. It is a constant juggle of priorities between business needs and family needs. This being said there is so much opportunity in 2025, the community has embraced us and our venue. We are looking forward to all the events we’ll host in 2025 and beyond and we continue to re-invest in making the venue more amazing for our guests.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. Some renovations took a lot more time and money than expected and we had to fire several people either for doing a really bad job or because they stole from us. While our primary purpose with the venue now is weddings and events, we hosted hundreds of incredible people from all over the world utilizing our space as Airbnbs (3 different ones). Occasionally with Airbnb there is a guest who does damage to the property, our mailbox has been run over 2x, we’ve had to shut down parties because those can only be directly booked with us, not via Airbnb. We’ve hired people, cleaners, lawn care, caregiving for my dad, and they simply don’t show up as agreed and don’t communicate, leaving us scrambling to find a way to get the task done. We have been very lucky, I know people talk about Bridezillas but we’ve never had that here. Yes, brides and families have been stressed, we just expect that and work to find a solution to the problem at hand. We have had two people cancel their weddings due to no longer being together, which is unfortunate, we were not able to rebook those dates. Being out in the country does mean sometimes it takes more effort to acquire what is needed, Amazon doesn’t do 1 day delivery out here normally and its 20-25 minutes to a big box type store and their stock is a bit more limited so that may mean the hour drive into Raleigh. Keep in mind we’re still raising two teen boys and we have my parents living with us and my dad is disabled, lots of dynamics there that I think anyone would struggle with.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Scarborough House Resort aka Scarborough House is a wedding and events venue in Stantonsburg, NC in Wilson County, about 1 hour outside of Raleigh. It is run by Josh and Meika Darville, husband and wife team. We have nearly 3 acres on property with a 200 year old, two story Federal Style historic home on the National Historic Registry, an expansive yard, a pool house with a sizable outdoor pool, a 2 bed/2bath farmhouse and a covered outdoor pavilion that is great for receptions and special events. While we are open to hosting 300 guests, we feel our space works best for 225 guests or less. What sets us apart is the feeling you have when you are here, it’s peaceful and serene. The lighting and ambiance is magical, the sunsets are amazing, you can see so many stars out at night, the spaces for getting ready or sleeping are comfortable. We keep our packages simple, we offer a weekend event package where up to 14 people can stay overnight and the ceremony, reception, party can all be hosted here over the course of the weekend. We offer a Saturday day package and then there are micro wedding packages for Sunday – Thursday. When possible we also can host baby showers, wedding showers, birthday and graduation parties. We allow clients to bring their own vendors to make their vision come to life. We try to include more value by offering the use of all of our tables, chairs and decor. Additionally, because we live on property, we are close by to assist when needed. We want our clients to be overjoyed with their experience here and we’re very proud of all of the happy clients and guests that have been here to date.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
When it comes to Raleigh and the cities in surrounding counties, there is so much to love. There is a lot to do, the area is family friendly, and overall it is a beautiful place. Between my husband and I we have lived in at least 6 other cities and we chose this area because of how friendly everyone is and the opportunities here. I doubt it is unique to Raleigh, the cost of living has just become more expensive and so money doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.

Pricing:

• $5500 weekend wedding in 2025
• $4500 Saturday wedding in 2025
• $1800 Sunday-Thurs wedding in 2025, 7 hours rental

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.scarboroughhouse.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scarboroughhousenc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScarboroughHouseNC/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meikadarville/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UniyGzJpnqY