Nam Nuptials: Fernstone Retreat

As you may or may not know, I got engaged on New Year's Day! So between working and writing and trying to enjoy free time, too, I've been slowly plugging away at planning a wedding. And...I haven't made much progress. But I have gained blog material! While I live in Washington and it's looking more and more like my wedding will be in Pittsburgh with Pittsburgh-area vendors, Fayette County isn't out of the running just yet, and it's worth discussing what the Nam has to offer in terms of weddings, especially if you're like me and want something a little different than a social hall.

While we still haven't settled on a venue, one of the ones previously in the running was Fernstone Retreat in Farmington, a beautiful oak pavilion with such things as overnight accommodations and a waterfall on the property. And for a couple who got engaged at Ohiopyle, that's a pretty serious contender. Packages start around $10,000.

Unfortunately, we never got to see the venue in person, and this is where Fernstone lost me as a customer as a result--they couldn't work with our schedule when it came to taking a tour. Now, due to work and the hour-long travel time, we wouldn't have been able to make it to the venue before 5 in the evening, and while I understand this isn't ideal for venues and their staff who tend to keep typical 9-5 business hours, we were led to believe this was doable, only to have our tour canceled twice the day of the tour. Upon the second cancelation, we were told to let them know if we were ever able to make it at 4 instead, a mere hour earlier. If they couldn't really work with our schedule, I would've appreciated an up-front explanation rather than to be strung along and bailed on twice, wasting my time as a result. I lost about two weeks because of this, when I could've spent that two weeks looking at other venues. Hell, I could have one booked by now--the original plan was to look at Fernstone a week ago and make our final decision by the following Monday, and now I'm back to square one.

So if you're interested in Fernstone and can make it up there by 4 on a weekday, go for it. It looks like a great, unique place.