Hi! This is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing. I am over here at the
secret garden. Came over here to visit one of our clients Steve Muzzipapa he's
the owner of the secret garden which is a wedding and event venue over here on
19th street real close to highway 24. And Steve is really hard to catch up
to hard guy to catch up to if you think catching up to see was hard try keeping
up with him. I'm telling you this guy is just one complete ball of energy and he
puts all of that energy into creating this beautiful place for customers to
come and have weddings. I'm Steve Muzzipapa. I'm the owner and creator of Secret
Garden a wedding venue that's the Botanical Garden here in Colorado
Springs. Steve tell me what you did before starting the Secret Garden. I owned a
tree service I'm a certified arborist as well as a landscape designer so this is
right in my element. Gardening is the thing I love the most I can do it every
single day and not be wore out. Tell me what was here before the Secret Garden?
Well behind us over here was a junkyard. There was a fence that ran about in here.
I bought the first property back in eighty-eight and it was an empty lot.
Where the urns were that was as much property as I had then beyond the urns
back by us was a big wooden fence and for 11 years I looked over that fence
looking at the junkyard thinking what I could do with it if I could get it. I
bought the first piece here in eighty-eight waited eleven years to get the junkyard and then I
bought the block across the street where I have a guest cottage Parisian garden
and a chapel. With the weddings I started in '04 this is my thirteenth season.
This is my this is my wine garden. It's a little vineyard. The grape in the
center is a white Niagara and I've worked through the canopy and this is
where we have like a cocktail hour but it's a wine bar for the ambiance of the
vineyard. So seriously so this whole thing gets cover
with grapes? Yes. Nice! It's also got a canopy that goes on that keeps you
protected in case of a sprinkle during the season there's lights on top as well
I play Italian music to go with the theme of the wine garden. Steve it looks
like there's looks like there's trails and paths that go everywhere through here.
Yes I designed it to have interest so people want to explore and go around the
next bend and see what's around the corner. The property is completely
covered with blocking natural blocking from plants so when you come in through
the vine-covered tunnel everything is another world. And along the colonnade is
all covered in grapes as well. Do your brides come down through this? Yes they do
they do a lot of photos in this area. I found this gazebo in Loveland, Colorado
and I designed it that the cement are two layers of wedding cake so when the
couple's inside they're the cake topper. I planted hedging all the way around so
during the season you don't have people looking in, you have total privacy.
There's also a fountain hidden back in here. Now this is what I call the Bell
Tower Chapel. I built the bell tower on top and it gives another space for small
weddings of about 50 people. Now I'm refurbishing the Bell Tower Chapel so
at the minute it's a mess, but maybe you can get an idea what I'm doing. Now
this is my bell tower I just took the bell down I'm getting ready to drywall
up top and make it even cooler than it is. So you have an actual bell up
there? Do you ring the bell at the end of the wedding? Yes yes it'll be up there
probably in another couple weeks. This is my guest cottage. It was built 117 years
ago. No way? Yes I've refurbished it completely for guests that are coming in for
weddings. Have you ever officiated a wedding? Anybody ever ask you do to that? Ya they have and I don't know
if that's one of my strong points yet. Steve tell me how can people get more information about you? Just
go to ColoradoSecretGarden.com and all my info is there and my email as
well. Tell us your phone number too. 719.964.0541. Do you still got wedding dates available for 2017?
I sure do!
Oh you