When my fiancee and I started looking for a wedding venue in PA, I thought it would be more difficult than it really turned out. But, we did have one obstacle…location choice. Picking a convenient location for everyone’s convenience was among our list of must-have’s. Her family is from NY, mine from PA/NJ, and our friends and coworkers mostly from NJ. We didn’t want people to think of our wedding as an inconvenience or an impossibility for some of the older folks, so picking a location that wasn’t too difficult to get to was important. After looking at only a few other places, we selected Holly Hedge Estate in New Hope, PA along the Delaware River because it suited that purpose, plus it was close to where we lived and made our logistics much simpler. The area is historic and rural, which is totally our style, but with enough going on in the area that our guests had places to stay and things to do.
Holly Hedge was a perfect extension of the people we are and the type of wedding we wanted. The Estate is a fully functioning historic Bed & Breakfast, with reception hall, ceremony site, and beautiful, if not rustic, grounds. All-inclusive, extremely secluded and away from the rest of the world. Holly Hedge has several choice locations of scenic backdrops for your pictures, including fountains, gazebos, stone walls, iron fences, and other great source material for pictures. Having the overnight accommodations for guests and for us, the bride and groom, was really convenient and they had a awesome breakfast for anyone staying over and their guests! Best of all is the privacy. Since they only hold one event a day, it really becomes a nice escape and it’s all about YOU.
We had our ceremony in their “barn” which is really just an old stone building on the grounds featuring wood craftsmanship, original working fireplace, and two-story glass windows with plenty of natural light. The room was just big enough for our guest list of 150 people, while still being able to fill it comfortably. If you’ve ever been to a wedding where the room felt too big or too small for the ceremony, then you know how important that is. There was plenty of room for our string quartet, videographers, and photographer without ever feeling cramped. The best part– it was mostly all indoors, so rain wasn’t as threatening but we had the beautiful surrounding landscape too look out over and to use if the weather was good (and it was!).
The cocktail hour was held immediately following the ceremony in the “Barn” but also on the patio just outside. The options for appetizers were really creative, and our selections were a hit (including a potato bar which was mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes served in martini glasses with choice of lots of different toppings (the guests really seemed to think those were cool!), along with a special seasonal theme cocktail we actually came up with ourselves. The staff was very accommodating, allowing us the freedom to make special choices which personalized the day.
We then took a short walk on a cobblestone path down to the reception hall, where our florist was able to take a fairly blank canvas and decorate for our Autumn theme. There is still a rustic element to the hall, but the building is far more modern, which you would probably want for eating and dancing anyway. Speaking of eating, we’re all “foodies”, so the menu was important and they didn’t let us down there. The food was fantastic and imaginative. The chef on premises worked with us in advance to design a sit-down menu that we were able to tweak to our specifications. We sat down to rave reviews that day!
Our menu:
All in all, the service and coordination was excellent, the grounds were beautiful and very unique and, as far as I’m aware, a great time was had by all. Couldn’t recommend them any higher.