Venue Help- thoughts/reviews on these venues

CarissaW79 · February 2010

So, We are still struggling with decding on where to have our ceremony/reception and thought I would give this local board a try. We are looking to have a November wedding and I am from Palmyra - but willing to find a location within an hour in either direction...

So far we have visited the Holiday Inn - Grantville and it just didn't cut it for us, I found it to be to "blah"

We have an appt to meet with someone at the Eden Resort in Lancaster next weekend - any thoughts/opinions on that place?

I keep going back to the Country Barn in Lancaster, but my fiance is concerned it will smell like a farm. Any thoughts/opinions on this place.

I just came across another site, Willow Springs in Richland, anyone have thoughts/opinions on this site?

Any other ideas? I am trying to avoid the tradtional hotel ballroom, but keeping that open as an option. We are thinking of a guest count between 100 - 125.

brownhenry · February 2010

The only one I know anything about is Willow Springs and the only issue I had with them is that after I called them 3 times and e-mailed them multiple times they NEVER returned my calls or e-mails. Willow Springs is the Quarry/swimming hold in Richland, not sure if your familiar with the area or not.

CarissaW79 · February 2010

unresponsive vendors would be a huge annoyance, how do you plan anything when your contact attempts are blown off and ignored. I'm vaguely familiar with the area. Thanks so much for the input.

aclaypotch · February 2010

I have heard great things about Country Barn, I don't think it smells to farm-y, but there is only one way to find out

We are having our reception at the Carlisle Ribbon Mill, which is really pretty awesome. You should also check out the Zembo Shrine in Harrisburg and Civic Club of Harrisburg. Both are totally different than the hotel ballroom-type place.

Good Luck!!

ballofstress1 · February 2010

Have you tried the Holiday Inn in New Cumberland? Thats where ours was. Talk to Vanessa. She is AMAZING, and willing to do whatever. She made our day.
The barn sounds amazing... just go & see it. It probably doesnt smell like a barn, cuz they use it for events all year. Not animals.

In the end, find someone willing to work with you, whatever your needs may be. Too many vendors these days have "set" packages & arent willing to negotiate anything.

good luck

CarissaW79 · February 2010

So, I am meeting with Jim to discuss the Barn, it just looks so gorgeous! Fingers crossed that this will be the place!

keithandkristi · February 2010

We are having our reception at The Lancaster Marriott. It is BEAUTIFUL there. Their packages include everything (tax, gratuity, cocktail hour, 5 hour open bar). It's truly an experience going in there. If you are looking at Eden...I would definitely look at Marriott, especially for the prices!

cntrycutie523 · February 2010

My reception is at the country barn. It does not smell like a barn. My only suggestion is that Jim is a "business man". Meaning be careful to tell him exactly what you want and don't be afraid to tell him how it is. Beautiful location and the barn is excellent. Ours is in the bottom part of the barn. Another thing that maybe would bother someone is the up keep of the grounds, which right now would be hard to see because everything is so dead and ugly right now lol. They do have other activities going on there especially in the fall. Hope you love it like we do!

sallypa · February 2010

I had my wedding at the Country Barn back in August 2008. The barn does not smell barn-y. We had absolutely no complaints, and loved working with Jim Stauffer and his wife. Our food was really tasty (the main component provided by Country Barn for us along with the tables and chairs), and Jim was willing to entertain any ideas that we had for the day. We brought in tablecloths, flowers, wedding cake and other decorations from other vendors, and our wedding coordinator was also from outside (Lori Hemphill, who was awesome!). For us, we saved a ton of money by using Jim's cool bar but supplying all of our own alcohol and bartenders. If you would like, you can see photos of the barn all decorated from our wedding on our photographers, The Wiebners, blog (http://www.thewiebners.com/blog.cfm?postID=437). I honestly can't say enough about what a wonderful and memorable day we had, and how much all of our friends and families still talk about that day. Our wedding was also featured in Susquehanna Style magazine (http://www.thewiebners.com/blog.cfm?q=alisa+and+kevin). Please feel free to get in touch with me with any questions. Congratulations, and best of luck to you! Alisa

CarissaW79 · February 2010

Wow Alisa, thank you so much for sharing your photos!! What a beautiful wedding! The more I look at this place and the more i read and see, I am really excited to go meet with Jim. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos!

Kristi - Thanks for the Marriot suggestion,we'll check that out as well!

purple38 · February 2010

Alisa: because of your response to my request for a different reception we are having it at the country barn! I wanted to thank you for sending a link to your pics! After viewing your pics and showing them to my FI, i called Jim and I booked the barn without even seeing it! I just had to have our wedding there! When we met with Jim a week later it was still decorated from a wedding the prior day and we could totally get the feel for it. We are so excited to have it there.

honeybee8882 · February 2010

The new hershey museum close to houlians is supposed to be neat, there's also the milton hershey school rotunda, AACA museum, and country club in hershey. Hope it helps:)

sallypa · February 2010

I'm so happy to hear that the photos from our wedding have been helpful in deciding to go with the Country Barn. My husband and I looked everywhere -- and I mean everywhere -- to find a place for our wedding. We went back and forth with choosing Country Barn, and it turned out to be the very best thing that could have happened to us when planning our wedding. Jim is kind, capable and flexible -- all of which we found to be very important traits when planning a wedding. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about what we did at our wedding. We loved every one of our vendors (and I mean loved!), and would (and have) recommended them to everyone we know planning a wedding in the area.

If anyone is interested, here is who we used:

Ceremony Location -- Formal Gardens at Masonic Village in E-town

Reception Location -- Country Barn in Lancaster

Photographers - The Wiebners

Flowers - Petals and Beans (Stacia)

Wedding Coordinator - Lori Hemphill, The Perfect Plan

Cake - House of Clarendon

Band - The Source (booked through Elan Artists)

Videographers - Open Eye Media (booked through Elan Artists)

Buses (hotels to ceremony, reception to back) - Elite Transportation

Invitations and STDs - Wedding Paper Divas

Dress - Maggie Sottero (from a boutique in CT)

Grooms Ties/Socks - Vineyard Vines

Bridemaids/Flower Girls Dresses - Ann Taylor

Also, in our photos, you will see our bar menus, table menus, table numbers, etc., which I made. It took time, but was easy as pie if anyone is interested in knowing how to do what I did.

oowedding · February 2010

I looked at a lot of places in Lancaster too. We're going with Rock Ford Planataion and I'm really excited about it. I also loved Stone Mill Inn which is "on the other side of the river".

CarissaW79 · February 2010

So, now I'm curious to budgets, what is/was your overall budget?

Venue Help- thoughts/reviews on these venues

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