We booked Friendly Crossways as our venue last year - we were so excited to have the beautiful grounds and entire farmhouse available to us and our guests for the entire weekend, and Mary Helan and Keith just gave us a great vibe - equal parts professional and personal!

We are even happier now with our choice. When COVID began, the team at FC outlined several options for us. We chose to move ahead with our original date and dramatically downsize our guest list. Even though the wedding was definitely different from the one we had started to plan before the virus, we still had an amazing and safe wedding weekend. The team at Friendly Crossways was communicative, helpful, and so kind as we wrestled with so many unknowns during the planning process. I can't imagine going through the stress of planning a wedding during COVID without Mary Helan's guidance and kindness. And we still had a magical wedding weekend with amazing food and the cozy, family-oriented vibe we wanted.

We feel so lucky to have found The Farmstead for our wedding venue. Bill and his team are truly incredible people to work with. From the moment we began the planning process, Bill’s kindness, professionalism, calming presence, and quiet confidence shone so bright. He made every step of planning easy and fun. We felt prioritized, taken care of, and we always left each meeting with Bill’s reminder to “focus on our love, because that matters more than anything”. The venue itself is absolutely breathtaking, and feels so secluded, intimate, and romantic. Our guests raved about the venue: they loved having the ability to explore the grounds, play with the animals, and immerse themselves in complete serenity. Our wedding day was a total breeze: Bill and his team were flexible to our needs, and constantly checked in on my husband and I to make sure we were enjoying the day. We truly felt so cared for on our special day. To put the cherry on top, Bill’s culinary skills are fabulous, top tier, unbeatable. The menu he put together for us was absolutely delicious and farm fresh, truly I’ve never had better food at a wedding. To summarize, we more than recommend The Farmstead for your wedding. Bill and his team have created something truly special.

I just had to give a massive shout-out to Bill Ference and his incredible team at The Farmstead in Harvard, Massachusetts. Bill is an exceptional chef, and his long experience as a caterer really shows in the quality of the food.

The Farmstead itself is breathtaking—a beautiful farm-to-table venue with incredible views that add to the magic of any event.

I've been in the wedding business since 1976 and have literally performed at thousands of weddings across my career. I’ve played at the most prestigious wedding venues in New England, so when I tell you a team is exceptional, you can take that to the bank.

Recently, Bill and his team at The Farmstead ran an event – my youngest stepdaughter’s marriage – that was absolutely flawless, despite a very challenging and iffy weather situation. Things did not look like they were going to go well, but the entire staff worked together seamlessly to deliver a truly great event. It was absolutely perfect. If you’re looking for a venue where you know the team can handle anything and deliver perfection, you need to call The Farmstead. They are the best in the business.

Friendly Crossways was such a fabulous and unique venue for me and my husband's wedding this past August. It is a large, old farmhouse in Harvard, MA, surrounded by stunning grounds and a working farm. Mary Helan and Keith and their staff were attentive, flexible, and incredibly hardworking - honestly every detail of our wedding day went smoothly and better than I could have imagined. My favorite part of Friendly Crossways is that since it is a working hostel (we rent out the entire house for the wedding though), we could have 30 of our closest friends and family spend the entire weekend there with us. It was truly a dream come true!!

Thank you for making our day so special !

We had our wedding here this past weekend (Oct 2021). We had 30 people and was everything we could have asked for. The micro wedding package fit our needs perfectly. The ceremony space is gorgeous, with so many beautiful spots for pictures. Dinner under the tent was delicious, Mary Helan the chef-owner made an incredible meal, much of it sourced from her garden and orchard. We loved Friendly Crossways especially for the retreat center which enabled us to host all of our guests who chose to spend the night with us, we moved to the fire pit after our reception and got to put off clean up until the morning. We got to be present with our guests and we had an absolutely perfect night. I can’t thank Mary Helan and her team enough. They were very responsive via email and answered all my questions, making suggestions and offering insight that helped us plan our day. I would recommend Friendly Crossways to anyone, planning big or small.

We had our wedding at Friendly Crossways, about 30 guests. Friendly Crossways provided both the venue space and the catering, both were super huge parts in making our wedding day so perfect.

Mary Helan was a breeze to work with, super quick to respond, so helpful and friendly. We had friends and family stay with us both before and after the wedding which was so special to have all at the venue location. THE FOOD!!! The cooks use fresh food from the garden right there, it was so soooo good and does not get any fresher than that!

Everything was so seamless on our day, Mary Helan helped us with so many steps to make it all go so well. I would highly recommend this for anyone who wants to have a stunning outdoor venue with great food and people around you!

We selected friendly crossways as the venue for our wedding that took place in June 2021. From our first meeting in April of 2020, we were blown away by the professionalism, attention to detail, integrity, and thoroughness of the staff and crew.

Facilities:
The venue is situated on a gorgeous and functioning farm in a beautifully rural area of Massachusetts that is still easily accessible from the Boston/Worcester metropolis. The grounds are gorgeous, featuring, relevant to events, brilliantly maintained rolling hills, covered with lush, expertly maintained grass, beautiful gardens and large, ancient trees that provide plenty of shaded areas for ceremonies etc. We performed our wedding ceremony on a picturesque boulder set into a hillside, overlooking a shaded glen where the audience was seated, bound by hedges and flowering trees and bushes.

There is also a large, flat area suitable for reception tent placement nearby, with beautiful views in three direction of rolling fields and the adjacent managed forest.

Convenient to the area where we conducted our reception is the retreat center building itself. A sprawling farmhouse/ hostel, our bridal party spent the better part of an hour wandering it's hallways and staircases and hidden ways, discovering bunk rooms and lofts etc. We were able to accommodate all of the bridal party in comfort, and had plenty of picturesque places to get ready for our moment. It was also an incredibly convenient way to keep guests safe if they were unable to drive home as there was plenty of extra space for folks to crash after the festivities.

The staff:

The owners are not wedding planners, but sometimes it felt that way with the degree to which they knew what need to be done every step of the way. Through their recommendations (and discreet, polite and completely justified non-recommendations), we were able to connect with an amazing team of vendors, who knew the property, and were able to all coordinate together, with friendly crossways management involved and in communication with them all, so that everybody knew what was needed, what would work with the property and the resources in the area, and what to expect. The email chains were long and complex, with many people cc'd in, and friendly crossways management team was in every chain, closing loose ends, making connections and missing nothing. On speaking to the vendors after, they without exceptions raved about the professionalism and thoroughness of the venue. I cannot speak enough about how far above and beyond our expectations they went in every way.

The level of logistical competence was far in excess of what was needed. These people could run an invasion of Russia in the wintertime.

I'll stop babbeling.

We got far more from the venue then we ever could have expected. We got far more then our money's worth for choosing them. I absolutely recommend them for any event or retreat.

We were so happy and still thinking about our day at Friendly Crossways. We were very happy with everything. Your place was very beautiful. The weather couldn’t have been better. The big green area that kids could roam around freely was perfect. Food and servers were all very professional. We have recommended you to multiple friends already."

My brother got married at Friendly Crossways this year, and it was an absolutely wonderful venue. They had planned to have a larger wedding, but chose to scale down so they could still get married this year. Mary Helan and Keith, the business owners, were so warm and welcoming, and they kept everything running smoothly and safely. The wedding was small, only about 30 people or so, and it all felt very intimate and special. My brother and his wife got married in their wedding glade, on these beautiful rock steps surrounded by a very woodland vibe. There couldn't be dancing, but there were lots of fun lawn games that let everyone get involved and hang out together while still saying safe. The bride and groom also came up with a specialized trivia game for each of the tables to have an activity during the reception. The ceremony was lovely, we all had a wonderful time, and it was just a truly special occasion despite all the uncertainty with COVID and the last minute changes.