Tom and Marie were married in 1990 and began the search for their new home to share along with Marie's 5-year-old son, Steve. They soon found a two acre property had been vacant for years that deserved saving and became what they later called The Dove House. The home was built in 1927 for Ms R.A. Dove by the prolific architect William N. Bowman. Inspiration hit as Tom and Marie had just experienced a difficult time finding a suitable wedding venue for their own wedding, and immediately seeing the potential, they had an epiphany. "Let's turn this into a wedding venue!". With Marie as an interior designer and artist, Tom as a marketing executive, and both of them unafraid to work hard and take a risk on a project, they began their journey.

 

Fast forward to 1992 with over a year of renovations and antiques acquisitions, The Dove House hosted its first event with Avista Hospital followed by it's first wedding and first holiday party. Tom and Marie were thrilled with their vision coming to life while The Dove House was gaining popularity with being the only private venue in the northern Denver area. By incorporating the best and rejecting the worst aspects they saw in other venues, they created their own version of what a wedding venue "should" be. A Lionsgate wedding would have fair pricing, lots of inclusions, the best vendors, a staff that is flexible, friendly, caring, professional, creative, and has a true love for "love". This formula worked well as they went from 3 events in their first year to an unexpected 198 events in their second. In the following years they expanded The Dove House three times by adding on the sunroom in 1993, the bar in 1994, and finally the garden room in 2007.

 

In 1993, Tom and Marie had the opportunity to purchase their only neighboring property which was a 1910 farmhouse with two barns, and they immediately began the next round of renovations. Discovering that many couples were looking for a venue able to seat over 150 guests which no other private venue could offer at the time, they added 12,000 square feet onto the 1,200 square foot farmhouse. They incorporated interesting antique architectural items from around the world and opened The Gatehouse in 1996, which was another immediate success.

 

They soon restored the hay stall barn into a living space, including elegant rooms for overnight accommodations. Next came the project of the carriage barn. They were finding the need for another indoor ceremony option for inclement weather and winter weddings, and felt this building would do the trick. Tom and Marie quickly got to work designing this new ceremony site. By using antique stained-glass, restoring almost 40 vintage chandeliers, hand painting French-style woodwork, and attaching wrought iron railings, The Chandelier Barn was born in 2017 and quickly became a huge hit.

 

In true family owned and operated form, Marie's now adult son Steve and his wife Alex have started playing a larger role and now run the day to day operations of Lionsgate. Their innovative ideas and insights have brought Lionsgate to the next level for future generations of clients, all while retaining the core values of giving clients the very best services and products in order to "Stress Less, Love More." 

 

Since 1990, Tom and Marie have continued to live on site and are still involved. Marie now spends most of her time redecorating rooms and creating unique art for the property. You can almost always find her in her workshop out back, and she loves visitors. You may often see Steve and Alex's daughter, Izzi, running around the grounds, playing with chickens, or hanging out in the office. She is in training to hopefully someday take over.