We had our wedding here this past fall. It was spectacular! Gorgeous scenery, delicious food, and super friendly, attentive staff. We had a pretty short engagement - got engaged in April and married in October of the same year, so our planning process was much quicker than normal.
Initially our communication was with Irena, the woman formerly in charge of events. I honestly did not have much communication with her since my friend was the one who was playing pseudo-wedding-planner for me. We were able to book the simple elegance package with some additional discounts and free upgrades, I think because they were trying to get rid of their last free date in 2011 (no complaints for that!).
Anyway, we attended one of their twice-a-year tasting events in the summer, and that was a little overwhelming for me because it involved a lot of stuff that I really did not care about (besides food, you could see linens, chairs, table setups, flowers, etc. And it just wasn't a priority of ours because we were going for an intimate, funky, fall harvest, so things like china and special glasses were not on our radar). The event had maybe 100+ other brides/grooms and guests (I think you're allowed to bring up to 4 but they have to pay). We tasted a ton of food, not all of which was great, but that's what the tasting is for, to see what you like. It was at this event that we were informed that Irena had left and so another woman would be our coordinator. No worries for us, so long as our initial contract was still honored.
We worked with this 2nd woman for maybe 6 weeks before she left unexpectedly and was replaced with two current Harrington staffers (Traci and Jeanine), who I think were just pinch-hitting for the remainder of the 2011 wedding season. That was where things got a little sticky for us, because now we're on our 3rd set of planners and each time we've had to re-explain our contract, including bus vouchers that we were promised if we booked guest buses through their preferred vendor list. The buses were a problem because they were not in the contract, since Irena had said we just needed to submit an invoice that they'd reimburse us for up to $500. By the time we started working with Traci and Jeanine, they said that was not their usual deal for a "wedding of this size" (we had 66 people). So that was aggravating but finally we cleared it up after some back-and-forth.
When we started working with Traci and Jeanine I think it was about 3 or 4 weeks before the wedding, and it was hard to get in touch with them. Again, it could have just been a factor of them being thrown into a very last-minute stressful situation, but it just was hard for me not to be able to easily communicate with them. The week of the wedding, I was staying at a house in Central MA with very poor cell reception, so it was hard for me to talk to anyone. It was freakishly cold that week, and our ceremony was outside. After many struggles, I was able to talk to one of my friends and ask her to order us some last-minute heaters through Harrington, which she did after getting a price quote and OK'ing it with me. When we got the bill after the wedding, I thought I was overcharged, so I called Traci and Jeanine to figure it out, but they said I was charged the correct amount per heater, plus tax and an 18% admin fee. Well the tax and fee was not discussed when my friend booked the heaters. So that was really frustrating, but we were able to work out a deal in the end. The lesson learned here for future customers is to ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS and be very specific when getting estimates. This 18% admin fee is apparently leveraged on anything they do. So just expect it.
That being said, we really did have a wonderful, amazing wedding here. I think that there's no such thing as stress-free wedding planning, so just be planned, organized, and as noted, very specific with your cost-related questions. The Harrington staff was very agreeable to most of what we requested (specifically, it had lightly snowed the night before and I think they wanted us to move the wedding inside, but we wanted it out, so they did everything they could to literally melt some of the snow on the grass and patio). Our servers and our personal attendant was extremely friendly and helpful, making sure we got to enjoy some appetizers when we were having our pictures taken during cocktail hour and keeping our plates and glasses full at dinner. We wound up requesting some "chef's choice" foods for our apps, and she did a great job of making some foods (a butternut squash soup and a chicken skewer) that catered to our request (seasonal, not fried or covered in sauce). Our guests really raved about the food, servers, ambiance, decor....everything. As far as food goes I'd recommend the raspberry and brie puff pastry and clam chowder for your cocktail hour; and the dinner foods we heard the most raves about were the applejack pork tenderloin and the stuffed portabello mushroom. read more