I know there were several girls who asked about venues down in that area, and I believe The Fountains was mentioned. My best friend from HS got married there last Saturday, and I thought I would do a review for y'all. I apologize for it being long, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible to help others out!
http://www.fountainsinc.com/weddings.htmlThis place is GORGEOUS. I mean breathtaking (I haven't added my pictures to my computer yet, but when I do I will do a post with pics!). It is a restaurant with a ballroom and outdoor ceremony site attached. The ballroom has it's own separate enterance, parking area, bathrooms, kitchen entrance, etc.
Entrance to SiteYou walk in the separate entrance (and they had a doorman!), and the bathrooms are on either side of you (gorgeous ones). You walk through a little "lobby" area with a coat check room. There is a round table in the middle of the room that you could use for your escort cards; they do provide a generic centerpiece (which friend used; it wasn't half bad) or you can provide your own.
Ceremony Site The ceremony site is outside; when you go to the site above, the picture that pops up first is the outdoor shot. The Ceremony site is on the left of the pic, the bar/restaurant is on the right. My friend did her things differently, per her wishes, so we didn't use the ceremony site, but it was really pretty. The bridal party did do their pictures out there.
Ballroom/Reception SiteThen you enter the ballroom. BREATHTAKING. I literally gasped, it was so pretty. Floor to ceiling windows, gorgeous chandeliers, plenty of room. To your left in the ballroom is the amazing staircase that I also gasped at (that staircase was the reason that my friend chose there). The staircase starts at the left and the right sides, and joins in the middle for a grand staircase. Upstairs, directly entering from the staircase, is a getting ready room (I didn't see that).
To the right, very back, is a little stage (they put the sweetheart table on it) with doors to the ceremony site on each side. In front of the table (with a little carpet in between) was a decent size dance floor (I believe the size is flexible). The tables were placed around the dance floor. The bar and stationed appetizers were to the left of the grand stairs against the wall, the buffet was set to the right of the stairs. They had a little nook for the DJ (which was really nice, actually; he wasn't obtrusive with his equipment). There was a space of about 50-60 ft from the stairs to the dance floor, which represented the "aisle". Since the ceremony and reception were in the same room, they had us sit at our tables for all of it.
Wedding details (essentially the backup plan, LOL)My friend had a very small wedding (65 guests), but it would work for small or large. The ceremony took place on the dancefloor; they had chairs to the left and right of the minister and microphone for parents/grandparents to sit on. The minister and the groom came down together, then the parents. The bridal party came down the stairs; boys on one side, girls on the other, meeting in the middle and going down the grand stairs together. They then followed the "aisle" up (about 50 feet), where they split at the dance floor and stood on brides/grooms side. My friend came down one of the split stairs, waited at the landing where the stairs joined for the coordinator to fix her train, then walked down the staircase alone. She met her dad at the bottom, and he escorted her up the "aisle". Let me tell ya, it made for that WOW entrance, and was probably one of the best bridal marchs I have seen.
Once the ceremony was done, they went back up the stairs, then went around and took pictures outside, came inside and took pictures inside on the staircase while we did cocktail hour. Dinner was buffet, and we were dismissed by table.
Food:They had passed hor deurves. They also had a cheese and fruit station that apparently is standard. The 2 hor deurves I had were the crab cake and the buffalo chicken egg roll. Both were good, but it seemed those were the only ones they had (not sure if they can offer more or not). Servers were wonderful; they came over to people and actually circled the room, rather than staying in one place and waiting for guests to come to them (as a disabled person, this gets major kudos from me!).
For dinner, they chose a buffet. There was a ton of food, and many went up for seconds. They had Prime Rib, Chicken, Pasta Alfredo, Pasta with red sauce, salad, roasted red potatoes, steamed seasonal veggies in a butter garlic sauce (carrots, squash, and broccoli, if I remember right), something else I cannot remember but FI had, and rolls. It was all very good; nothing was overcooked nor overflavored. My only complaint about the buffet was that the prime rib was a carving station, and the server only gave each guest 2 slices; that may have been fine for those who put everything on their plate, but I didn't and would have appreciated a little more main course.
They did a small cake to cut, and then had delish cupcakes for everyone; I am not sure if the cake/cupcakes are included, if they went somewhere else, or if the groom (a chef) made them himself. All I know is the chocolate cupcake with Peanut Butter Mousse topping and a Reece's cup baked in the bottom was amazing.
Other Pros: You are the only wedding that day, so you can go over early and don't have to worry about getting in and getting out on time. My friend had a 6:30 pm wedding, was there at 2 pm and had her hair and MU (and everyone else's) done there.
Because it does have a restaurant, I felt the food was better than some wedding catering food I have had.
Literally right next door is a Country Inn and Suites, which has decent rooms and a really nice jacuzzi suite, but it doesn't cost an arm and leg; I would suggest looking into this for your guests, as they could walk there.
Other Cons:The bar: for a reception hall that has everything separate and went the extra mile to make this place feel like you were the only ones here (and not have a restaurant there as well), I feel they should have put a permanent stocked bar in. The bar was a temporary one that moves/breaks down, and since the bartender didn't have alot of some stuff (like sour mix, which could be piped in in a permanent bar), so he was limited on what he could do, or he had to always make runs to get some more. But, I have seen temporary bars at so many weddings, it may not bother others like it does me LOL.
The restaurant: Yes, the restaurant is connected, and while they made a great effort to make it feel like your wedding is the only thing going on, the bar deck outside did get loud at times (they had kareoke going, which was also annoying during the ceremony). And since the bar deck is literally right next to the outdoor ceremony site, this could be a problem. If you are interested in this venue, I would talk to the coordinator there about this.
I think that is it about the venue.
All in all, I would highly recommend you check The Fountains (Salisbury MD) out if you need one down in that area!One more thing I will add about hotels. The wedding was Saturday, and we went down Friday after work and came back Sunday. We didn't have a ton of money to spend, so, based on reviews and personal experience, we booked two nights with Days Inn; we figured it would give us a clean room with the amenities that we needed. Oh, were we wrong. It was HORRENDOUS. Here's the laydown:
We got there around 11:30 pm, because of traffic and the State Fair. They tell us our room, and tell us where to park for handicapped accessibility, since FI had requested a handicapped room. We couldn't get to our room because the walk was was blocked with commercial fences, so FI drives around, and since there are no regular spots anywhere on our side of the motel, parks the car behind another car and calls the office. They told us they didn't have another room to give us, and I would have to park on the other side of the building and walk! HELLO, NOT COOL!!!
Our key lock was broken, so we had to get a new set of keys every single time to get in the room because they only worked once. That was so much fun while unloading the car.
We get there, and I had to pee real bad (I was in the car for 3+ hours!). We get into the room, and there is no toilet paper, no towels, NOTHING. UGH!!
The kicker: The room was no smoking, and not only did it reek of smoke, but it had an ashtray in it!! Smoke/smoking makes FI sick, so he was up all night because of it.
We got our stuff in, FI parked the car (on the other side of the building), and promptly called all other hotels, which were all booked. We managed to get a room for Saturday night at the Courtyard by Marriott. Let me tell you, I have never loved a Courtyard more. Just being clean and having two rolls of TP made me giddy. We did have to stay the night Friday in the lovely Days Inn, but since we can't get ahold of a manager (we have called every day), we are going to most likely dispute it with the credit card company (if we can), and report to the BBB. Oh gosh, it makes me ill to think about that night. But it makes me giggle and smile to think about the Courtyard! Lesson: Book with the Marriott (5 min away from the venue) and the Country Inn and Suites, and NOT the Days Inn!