Fearrington Village Reviews
Reviews
We're all about trust. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
Awards
-
![Lily]()
Lily Sent on 03/24/2025A magical wedding venue
Gilda and her team were amazing. We had such a beautiful wedding. The grounds, cake, food, drinks, setup, flowers (Once Gathered is AMAZING), logistics, planning, bridal suites, housekeeping, and everyone at Fearrington (especially our wonderful Wedding Director Gilda) made our special day that much better. Fearrington house is THE place to host a magical wedding! -
-
![Cassandra]()
Cassandra Sent on 12/28/2023A Dream Wedding Experience at The Fearrington Inn
My husband and I recently had the pleasure of hosting our wedding at The Fearrington Inn, and we couldn't be happier with the experience. From start to finish, every detail was meticulously attended to, creating a day that surpassed all our expectations.
Gilda, the wedding director, is an absolute gem. What sets Gilda apart is her genuine care and personal touch. She took the time to understand our vision and preferences, and then seamlessly brought everything to life. Her impeccable organizational skills and keen eye for detail ensured that everything ran smoothly, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in the joy of the celebration.
Kara, the cake designer, is a true artist. The wedding cake she crafted for us was not only a visual masterpiece but also absolutely delicious. It was evident that Kara poured her creativity and skill into our cake, creating a unique and delicious centerpiece for our celebration. The entire hospitality staff at The Fearrington Inn deserves applause. The ambience of the venue was enchanting, creating the perfect backdrop for our special day. The food was nothing short of spectacular, and since our wedding day, we have been inundated with compliments from our guests.
The Fearrington Inn truly knows how to create a magical atmosphere and deliver an exceptional experience for both the couple and their guests. To any couple considering The Fearrington Inn for their wedding, you can trust that the exceptional service and wedding day coordination skills are second to none, and your wedding day will undoubtedly be as magical and stress-free as ours.
We wholeheartedly recommend The Fearrington Inn and its incredible team to anyone seeking a wedding venue. Thank you to Gilda, Kara, and the entire staff for making our wedding day the stuff dreams are made of! -
![Jillian]()
Jillian Sent on 09/05/2023A true fairytale wedding
I cannot say enough about the Fearrington and Gilda!! First of all, just the ease of having flowers, cake, catering, even a wedding planner all in one place is SO worth it. They have their process nailed down and I was just along for the ride. I never had to worry that something would be forgotten or a minor detail would be missed - even after working on my wedding with Gilda for over a year. The food was absolutely delicious and all of my guests were raving about it. Our cocktail hour appetizers and signature cocktails were made completely custom for us and turned out incredible. The cake was an absolute masterpiece and the most moist, delicious cake I have ever tasted. They even made us a late-night snack of french fries. Angela is incredibly talented with the florals - she helped coordinate specific vase rentals that matched my color scheme and they were so beautiful. The bridal suite is gorgeous and had so much room for myself and 10 bridesmaids to get ready that morning. The staff are so attentive - lighting the guests' sparklers for the exit, even leaving two slices of cake and a bottle of champagne in the room at the end of the night. Gilda is a true fairy godmother. She was juggling another wedding rehearsal on the day of my wedding and you would have never been able to tell. She has such calm energy and made me feel so comfortable and taken care of throughout the entire weekend. I will be gushing over our wedding at the Fearrington forever! -
-
![Hannah]()
Hannah Sent on 07/02/2021Truly the best!
My husband and I honestly cannot say enough good things about our experience getting married at Fearrington! It was honestly the most joyful and magical day of our lives. I couldn’t believe my eyes on the wedding day because it was all a dream come true: the cake, the flowers, the decor, and the food were all spectacular, not to mention having all our loved ones in one beautiful place! We had our rehearsal dinner on the barn patio, then got married on a gorgeous spring Saturday in the gardens and had our reception in the Garden Terrace. So many of our guests commented on how delicious the food and cake was, and that it was the most fun they’ve had at a wedding. We really couldn’t have asked for anything more-- the staff really thinks of everything, and there were countless small touches that made everything all the more special.
Gilda at Fearrington is really the best wedding coordinator in the business. My husband and I felt that Gilda put her entire heart and soul into our wedding. We had the pleasure of working with her over almost two years of planning and she is incredibly helpful, kind, thoughtful, and responsive. She is absolutely lovely to work with and accommodated some unique requests for our special day. Gilda guided us seamlessly through the process of downsizing our wedding because of the pandemic, and was there for us every step of the way, even reminding us to enjoy the moment (because the wedding weekend flies by!). Thanks to Gilda, the day of the wedding was completely stress-free and I was able to be present and enjoy every single moment, knowing that she was taking care of everything. Most of all, we felt that she really cared about us as people. She worked so hard to make our wedding perfect and really went above and beyond. I know there are a thousand things she did behind the scenes, and we cannot thank her enough!
I also cannot say enough good things about the rest of the staff at Fearrington. Bett and her team did a truly perfect job with the flowers. I have never seen more beautiful floral arrangements in my life, and I loved meeting and working with Bett. Kat designed and baked our wedding cake; it looked so beautiful and was incredibly delicious. We are so grateful to the entire staff at Fearrington. Everything was absolutely perfect and we would do it again in a heartbeat! We already cannot wait to come back to celebrate anniversaries and future special occasions. -
![Acacia]()
Acacia Sent on 05/12/2021Simple and Elegant
Everything we needed was there, except a DJ and the photographer.
The food was AMAZING. The desserts were exquisite. Gilda and her team had everything covered. She helped to keep the wedding timeline moving and I didn’t feel like I needed to try and take care of things. She and her team had it all.Fearrington Village's reply:
Acacia, thank you for the lovely review, and thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! We wish you all the best as you start married life. ♥ -
-
Omar Sent on 10/14/2020
Gilda the Great
The venue speaks for its self. I'm hear to talk about the real star of Fearrington Village: Gilda McDaniel. When you book Fearrington you are getting set up with a fantastic wedding planner that will get you the most out of your special day. I can not overstate the value of having Gilda coordinating our day. The venue does come at a bit of a price but I promise that it is worth having everything taken care of from one place. -
-
Katie Sent on 10/10/2020
Perfection, Magical, Elegant
Fearrington’s beauty, elegance, timelessness, and charm sweeps you off your feet the second you turn in. It’s hard to quickly put into words just how much Fearrington did for us. To start, Gilda and her team went above and beyond all of our expectations. From the magical ceremony on the steps of the garden to the flower arrangements Bet created, to the gorgeous and tasty cake Katherine designed and baked, to the stunning plated meals. Brian tackle all of our seating chart changes, even the one minutes before, like the pro he is. Every recommendation Gilda made was impeccable. From Krystal Kast who we adore to John Oliver our chaplain, to Arioso Strings who played throughout the ceremony and cocktail hour. I truly wish I could hit rewind and marry Omar at Fearrington a hundred times over.
Our original plan was to have a “small” 150 person wedding until an unplanned global pandemic hit. Plans changed, and Gilda was there ready to not only take on any challenge we faced but to knock each of them out of the park. Gilda and her team cultivated our unbelievably special weekend so responsibly, keeping our guests safe, while allowing us to forget what was happening around the country for a moment to enjoy our new chapter.
We can't wait to see you for our first anniversary, Fearrington! 10/4/21 -
-
![Grace]()
Grace Sent on 10/01/2020Smooth wedding planning, even during a pandemic
I cannot recommend Fearrington Village as a wedding venue enough! We chose Fearrington because we wanted wedding planning to be as smooth and simple as possible. Fearrington provides that because they take care of food, flowers, cake, and all reception planning. Gilda instantly made us feel at ease and we knew we would be taken care of at Fearrington. She is extremely quick in responding to emails and makes your dream come to life. Fearrington worked with us to change our 250 person indoor barn reception to an intimate outdoor ceremony and reception due to the pandemic. They made the switch as painless as possible for us- we simply told Fearrington our visions for food, decor, and the timeline and they took care of the rest. The setting was gorgeous, the food was incredible, and we are still getting compliments from our guests on how wonderful an event it was! -
![Erin]()
Erin Sent on 11/05/2019A dream wedding and experience
Working with the Fearrington was an absolute DREAM.
Not only is the venue itself gorgeous, every single person that we worked with went above and beyond to make our day special.
Gilda is a MAGICIAN when it comes to wedding planning. My husband and I joked that we never saw her the day of the wedding, except when we needed her, and she just popped up at the right time.
The cake was the best dessert I've ever tasted, the flowers were beautiful, and the FOOD WAS THE BEST WEDDING FOOD EVER. So many of our guests have raved about the food.
If you are lucky enough to snag a date at the Fearrington, please... do so. And stay on property.
I cannot wait to come back and celebrate our anniversaries at the Inn! -
-
![Rebecca]()
Rebecca Sent on 03/31/2019Book your wedding here NOW!
Fearrington Village was the perfect place to get married on New Years Eve! Gilda was absolutely wonderful and made wedding planning easy! For the rehearsal dinner we booked one of the private dining room at The Belted Goat. It was the perfect location for a lovely rehearsal dinner. We booked The Garden Terrace for our wedding ceremony and The Barn for our reception and we couldn’t be happier with the way everything turned out! Fearrington exceeded our expectations. -
-
Easton Sent on 12/20/2018
Amazing venue!
Gilda at Fearrington was absolutely amazing. There was never a glitch or stress moment in the planning process at all. I described my perfect wedding to her, and it was exactly what I received. From the planning, to the tables at the reception, to the fireplace behind us at the ceremony, to the day of getting ready. Everything was so easy. Fearrington is such a cozy environment, and the barn is absolutely stunning! Our wedding was over a month ago and people are still raving about how perfect everything was and to do it again! I am SO happy with my choice and couldn't imagine my wedding anywhere else!!! -
-
![LSKwankam]()
Lauren Sent on 06/23/2018MARY STEVENS (Florist)
My wife and I also had the privilege of working with Mary Stevens, who designed and produced all the flowers for our wedding in April at the Fearrington. After meeting Mary, it was obvious that she had all the ingredients you could ever want in a Florist: passion, care, creativity, organization and the ability to execute. Beyond that, it was obvious how important bringing our vision to life was to her. So much so that the day after our wedding Mary was in tears when hearing my wife say the flowers were everything she could have imagined. It’s not often you find people that are willing to invest their absolute all into a product, and it’s even more rare to find someone that cares about the final outcome as much as the customer. Our vision was by no means easy to put together, but Mary made it look easy. She listened designed and executed everything flawlessly at every stage. Our wedding was the best day of our lives in large part because of Mary Stevens, and for that we will forever be grateful. Mary is an incredible florist, creative artist and an even better person. -
-
![Julia]()
Julia Sent on 05/13/2017We were thrilled with our decision to hold our wedding reception in the Barn at Fearrington. The food was delicious and we had several options for stations, plated, buffet, etc. We loved how the cake tasting was done and all the flavors were delicious. The floral designs by Mary were simply exquisite. I don't believe I've ever seen flowers so beautiful and numerous guests have written or called me to say the same thing. Mary and our planner, Kast Events, and other vendors Get Lit Lighting, Party Tables, CE Rentals, Greenhouse Pickers, and Cottage Luxe turned the barn into a show place that made us all teary when we saw it. I spent the night at the Inn the night before the wedding and the Fearrington team made sure the bridal party had sandwiches, water, and what we needed as we prepared for the wedding. Fearrington was the right decision for us. -
![User865824]()
User865824 Sent on 07/16/2012I can honestly say you won't go wrong if you choose Fearrington for your wedding. They take care of everything; catering, cake, flowers and directing. Gilda, Mary and Jill are wonderful to work with. They are all very professional and caring. The grounds are very well kept; it's such a beautiful venue. Our guests keep talking about how good the food was. The cake was beautiful and tasted great too! -
![Megan]()
Megan Sent on 06/05/2019Disappointing
We got married in October of 2018 and I put off writing this review
because I generally don't like to leave bad reviews, and it was still
so strange that our experience was subpar when everyone else seemed to
love their Fearrington wedding. The truth is there were some issues
with communication, particularly with Gilda, the onsite
planner, that ultimately affected the final result of our wedding in
ways that make me look back with less than fondness. From the
beginning we liked Fearrington because of their stellar reviews,
beautiful venue, and their all-inclusive services. We had a few ideas
about what our wedding would ideally be like, that it would be small
(about 25 people), and that it would be in the morning because I love
brunch and morning light. We emailed our inquiry and were pleased to
find out that even though we were starting planning in May, there were
still a few Saturday dates open in the fall and winter. We met with
Gilda and shared with her our ideas as well as answered some of her
questions so that she could get a sense of who we were and what we
wanted. When she found out how small our wedding was going to be, she
started steering us away from Saturday and towards Sunday. She didn't
really explain why, but later I realized this was probably because
Fearrington only does one wedding per day and she was hoping that she
could get a bigger (and more lucrative) wedding booked for Saturday,
which she did. She gave us Sunday, and pushed us away from brunch
towards dinner, saying something like, 'don't your guests deserve
that?' We expressed concern that a number of our guests are from out
of town and would struggle with our wedding being on a Sunday night.
She assured us that since the following Monday was Columbus day, that
people would be able to make it, and 'if they really loved us they'd
make it work.' We left the meeting a little uneasy but we signed the
contract, paid the $3k deposit, and began planning in June. I
contacted the out of town guests, and while some, like our families,
assured us they would make it at all costs, more of them said that
they would love to come but work/medical school/limited vacation time
prevented them from taking a Monday off. And absolutely no one had
Columbus day off as a holiday, as we suspected. At this point
communications with Gilda slowed down. We hadn't heard whether the
check and contract we mailed in were accepted until our check was
cashed and we emailed her to confirm that she was the one who cashed
it. We asked her about possibly hosting our rehearsal dinner there and
engagement photos, which she responded and offered whether we would
like flowers for the shoot, to which I said yes. She however didn't
respond again for almost a week, after our photo session was done. By
this time we also made up our minds about asking Gilda to switch us
from Sunday night to Sunday morning, for the brunch wedding I had
originally wanted and for the ease of our traveling guests. We asked
to meet and were told she would not be available for a couple of
weeks, so we told her by email what we were hoping to achieve and did
not receive a concrete response. I got upset because I had hoped to
order invitations and set up all the time sensitive elements like
photographer, videographer, etc by this time. A note--we noticed that
almost every time we emailed Gilda, there would be an automatic
response saying she is out of office or out of town, and it would take
at least a few days to hear back, even on simple questions. It seemed
she was out of town every other week. The slow communication really
made things more stressful than they needed to be, and my partner had
to email Gilda to let her know that I was actually getting a bit
frustrated with the process and lack of communication. Afterwards, she
was more responsive, at least in letting us know personally instead of
by automated response that she was going to be out of office/town and
would have to respond later to us. After this, it was established that
we could do a brunch wedding, the same Sunday we had chosen. She
offered us a choice of holding the reception at the Garden Terrace or
Galloways room, and we responded that we would like the Terrace. She
responded that she would do some research and get back to us, and then
later informed us she had booked the Galloways for us. We assumed this
was because the Terrace was not available. She also let us know that
we would get to choose from the brunch menu listed in the information
packet we were given, except that three of the ten options would be
excluded, namely the crab salad, french toast, and lox, which was too
bad because we had wanted the french toast, but we were okay with
choosing from the other options. Towards the end of July I emailed
Gilda to ask for a rough timeline of when we would do things like
choose floral arrangements, cake tasting, ceremony timeline, etc since
she had not brought it up. Again she was out of town, but at least let
us know she would be back by that Thursday, though she really
responded on Saturday. We set up the cake tasting in August. Gilda
asked for what flavors of cake we were interested in and passed it
along, though when we arrived for the cake tasting, we found that some
of the flavors we requested were not present. Luckily, Andrew who was
the new chef de cuisine and was meeting with us for the tasting
quickly whipped it up for us! He was nice and fun to chat with, and we
found out that he was newly hired and that the chef listed in the
information packet we had gotten a few months ago was no longer with
Fearrington. Neither was the pastry chef, and they still had that
position vacant. This all looked a bit unsettling. Towards the end of
September we got an email from the new pastry chef at Fearrington. She
was not informed that we had changed our cake from three tiers (which
we had been encouraged to choose during the cake tasting) to two tiers
(which we were encouraged to do later by Gilda as three tiers was too
much cake). The cake we got on our wedding day was quite different
from the samples we tried at the tasting, denser and not as enjoyable.
We had plenty left over and no one wanted to take any home. After the
cake tasting we met with Gilda to talk about some details. She gave us
a tour of the room that was booked for our reception and we took that
time to ask to see the Terrace too. She asked us why we were
interested, as though we hadn't chosen the Terrace over the Galloways
before. I'm not sure if she had just misread our email or forgotten.
We told her we had assumed we didn't get the Terrace because it had
been booked already, and she let us know that actually it had been
available but someone had just booked it that week! And moreover that
the other party that had booked the Terrace had been hoping to get the
Galloways room that was booked for our reception. She offered that she
would speak with the other party to see if they would be interested in
swapping with us. Later she informed us that the other party wanted to
keep the Terrace after all. She said that we could switch to a
Saturday morning instead, but seeing that it was only two months
before the wedding and we had already sent invitations, this was not
an acceptable solution to us. We told her the Galloways would be fine.
About a week later we received the "function sheet" draft that
contained notes about our wedding details. There were mistakes, like
our names being misspelled and the cake layers/flavors being
incorrect, which we informed Gilda, and then asked her a question
about the night at the Inn that was included with our wedding. She
sent us a response saying she would fix the mistakes later, as she was
out of town. The room at the inn was actually an interesting point for
us. Originally we had no intention of staying at the Inn, seeing as
how we lived only 20 minutes away and already had our honeymoon
travels booked right after the wedding. We asked if the included cost,
which was $575 for the superior suite, could be deducted from our
wedding cost, which was denied. Then I had hoped to use it on our
wedding night as proposed, but we were told if we did that, then we
would not have a place for the bridal party to get ready before the
wedding. We were able to wait before the ceremony in a different
place, but no place other than the room to get dressed and put on
makeup! It became apparent that even though the room was usually
booked for the wedding night, and only one night was included,
Fearrington expects you to book both the night before and the night of
the wedding in order to have a place to get dressed onsite. We chose
to book the room for the night before the wedding so my friends and I
could get dressed and we could put some out of town guests there to
sleep, and were told that we had to have our things packed and out of
the room by noon, which was still during our wedding. We made this
happen, even amidst all the wedding day makeup, preparation, and
photos, thanks to my wonderful friends. Because Jenna, who is in
charge of florals at Fearrington, was not available the day we did the
cake tasting and met with Gilda, I was told that we would be put in
contact with her to arrange a meeting later. What this really meant
was that I had to ask Gilda later for her contact info and then we
were responsible for arranging it ourselves. We did eventually meet
with Jenna. She was really nice and charming, and worked with us to
make arrangements that we liked that cost a reasonable amount. We did
make some extra requests like for some flowers on the wall instead of
the empty baskets that hang from hooks in the room, and to have our
ceremony flowers moved in to the reception room in place of some
columns with some plants sitting on them by the window. In the end,
the plants and columns were still left in the room (no explanation was
given for this), but our ceremony flowers and the flower wall were
really beautiful. We had chosen the glass vases that we were allowed
to keep with the floral arrangements after the wedding and gave some
of them to our guests. This was great, except that a wait staff member
got confused and thought we were trying to take home the ugly baskets
from the wall. We had to assure them that we were not and pointed out
that the baskets were still in the room on a table, which was all a
bit embarrassing in front of our guests. Back to our wedding weekend
in October, we decided to have a rehearsal for the ceremony with our
families the morning of the day before our wedding. Both sides were
running late, after having trouble finding the Fearrington which was
unfamiliar to all of them. It was raining a little, and just off the
heels of a hurricane that had blown through the week or so before. We
showed up to find that Gilda had arranged the chairs at a different
ceremony site than we had chosen, her reason being that the hurricane
weather had torn up some of the grass at the site we had wanted. The
damage was small, and we had chosen that site at the advice of our
videographer, so we told Gilda that we were set on our original site.
We moved the chairs, and then waited about 10 minutes for our families
to arrive. When they showed up, they took some time to greet us and
each other, some of them meeting for the first time. It was clear from
Gilda's face and tone of voice that she was annoyed by this and the
delay. I don't think it is appropriate or professional to ever let
such frustration show when you are dealing with clients.. After all,
the rehearsal only took about 15 minutes and then we all left. I have
to say that every time we had a meeting with Gilda at her office, she
was always running behind, leaving us to wait at the spa storefront.
Sometimes the spa would even be locked and we would have to wait
outside, wondering if we had gotten the meeting time wrong. Despite
the setbacks, our wedding was still magical. Everything was done very
efficiently, though not exactly as we had hoped. The cake was too
dense, as I said before, but the food was generally good, though I do
not recommend the eggs benedict, which was leftover in full pans. In
fact there was a lot of food leftover, which the waitstaff moved in to
eat before we had even left the venue. Gilda wore a bright red shirt
and a skirt printed with a graphic of colored pencils that stood out
in the background of many of our neutrals-themed wedding photos, which
was a little annoying. We actually had to ask Gilda that day (yes, at
the wedding) about receiving a final total for costs as we had not
heard from her about it. It turned out someone else from Fearrington
had emailed the cost sheet, but it had been sent to spam as it was an
unfamiliar address. We hadn't heard anything else about it, so we
assumed that we were going to find out after the wedding. Gilda did
print it out for us and hand it to us at the wedding. We got a
finalized cost sheet afterwards where we saw that we had been charged
for our photographer's meal without being told. The problem with this
is that our photographer is vegan, which she had informed us from the
beginning, and she had not touched any of the food at the Fearrington.
We brought this up to Gilda but received no response, except that
about two weeks later we got a check in the mail written by
Fearrington to give us back the price of the meal. Overall, the
experience was not bad, but certainly not great. All of our other
vendors were excellent, and Jenna the florist was wonderful to work
with. Mainly, there were communication issues, particularly with Gilda, that resulted in not getting the reception venue we had
wanted and in having to fight to get the wedding time and date that
worked for us and our guests. We often felt that we were treated as
less valued, most likely because we had a small wedding. (It may also
have to do with other prejudices, like racial bias, but I have no
evidence for this.) All I can do is wonder why we did not seem to get
the same treatment as other couples did.
Are you interested?
Are you interested?