Longfellow's Wayside Inn Reviews
Reviews
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![Sasha]()
Sasha Sent on 10/13/2014Our reception at the wayside inn was incredible! Everyone was polite, helpful, and answered all emails in a timely manner. They set up the reception just as we talked about, and it was perfect! The inn itself is so beautiful! We utilized the Martha Mary chapel, and the horse and surrey to make our fall New England wedding perfect! We couldn't have asked for anything more from a venue, and we recommend this place to anyone! -
![Lynda]()
Lynda Sent on 05/24/2011The Wayside Inn and its Martha-Mary chapel provided the ultimate colonial backdrop for our perfect country wedding!
We found the sexton, the hostess and her waitstaff to be nothing but professional and very attentive to all of ours and our guest's needs.
Our reception was held in the Main Dining Room of the Inn. We had 90 guests and everyone was in there very comfortably. All of the dinner courses were perfectly timed, and Linda the hostess was on top of everything. She really did a great job of putting the room together.
The only thing that did bug me were the columns in the middle of the room, which the dance floor was contained within. Sometimes guests were hidden behind the columns, so the photos are going to show half of a guest behind the columns. That was only a minor bug though.
For the beauty and charm that The Wayside Inn possesses, The cost value is an incredible deal! All one has to do is check out the property to see that it is indeed something very special. And the price per guest is in the $40 range! Places with twice the guest cost DO NOT have the same kind of charm that this place has!
We are very satisfied, and hope that we help another couple experience the same here! -
![Joanne]()
Joanne Sent on 05/09/2010This location is wonderful. every aspect was beautiful -
![Kristen]()
Kristen Sent on 12/10/2021Wayside Wedding
I reached out to the Wayside Inn to get pricing & info on the venue. My now husband & I lived minutes away from the beautiful historic land and had many milestones there growing up. I never thought I'd get married in a little white chapel but here we are. Overall we loved our day & we did go with the Wayside obviously but there were a few pros and cons we would like to high light to help other couples make their decision. Firstly, Mark MacKay is amazing, he was the first initial contact I had at the venue & was really there for us throughout the entire process (of over 2+ years) due to postponing & the pandemic & he was so accommodating about everything from our date change to meetings, decor, etc. That being said I did feel like there was no real structure around weddings at the Wayside. Besides the outline of food, beverages & payment and what you cannot do for decor in the chapel I felt like I was the one doing a lot of the planning & outreach to get things done (I realize they are not wedding planners but I did expect a little more follow up). We were super happy a lot of our $ would go back into restoring the inn & we liked the innkeeper Steve as well - we had him officiate our wedding. My biggest problem with this venue is the lack of help for set up at the ceremony. It was not clear to my fiancé & I that we would need to have folks decorating the chapel for us and at first we were told we could go in and decorate the night before at our rehearsal but then someone had a wedding (someone's daughter who worked there) & so our rehearsal and decor planning got messed up). Although we asked a few times about this it was very confusing we were told we would have help and not to worry but then the final time I asked we were told someone would need to do it like a friend or a guest because they needed all hands on deck at the reception. They have a "day of coordinator" too who was very nice but I met her the day before our wedding for the first time & she's only really there to help set up the reception. I feel like there is enough help that I would hope she could really be with me all day doing the things my loved ones ended up doing which took away from my joy. I would have hired extra folks to be runners if I knew this would be the case. I feel like it needs to be more clear either in the contract or in initial communication before booking. I had signs, bows and other little things that needed to be set up at the chapel & my MOHs parents ended up doing it & I paid them because honestly it was such a big help and ask of them when I'm paying a venue so much money to use their space & have their service. I will say the actual settings were beautiful and for the most part the set-up for the reception was right but I provided pictures & I feel like some things were not accurate oh well. I did feel good the day before planning out the seating chart & everything with Mark but I wish I sat my fiancés parents closer I didn't realize what a bad view they had. Another con was my aunt who is handicapped like many guests of the Wayside Inn could not make it safely up the trailor stairs to the bathroom it was a little rainy making it slippery and she can't climb stairs, I don't know if they had a ramp somewhere but she ended up leaving early - if I had known I would have helped her or found someone to help her or brought her inside to the inn. I'm surprised by this since they have so many older guests. Our guests all agreed the food was so delicious that was a pro & the chef somehow whipped up mashed potatoes for me which was super nice considering its not what guests were served ha-ha! I loved it! He also made a special pasta dish for my husband who doesn't eat meat! The cake was so good but I was upset that the venue didn't offer a food or cake tasting...I feel like that's part of the fun of being an engaged couple planning your wedding these little things really bothered me I felt like I got jipped & its such a simple thing that could add value & happiness to clients. Mark was awesome with updating our contract whenever something changed & getting correct pricing for us nothing was really a huge surprise to us but we were a little annoyed we had kept asking to add extra $ to our open bar fund because we decided we would do open bar for beer & wine all night to everyone & somehow the cocktail hour went way over the $1,500 we put down, not a huge deal the DOC told us but we then said ok please tell us if we reach $3k & we were never told. I also wonder if folks were crashing our wedding at the cocktail hour because there were a ton of people we didn't know outside when we arrived to the cocktail hour after pictures we were both confused obviously the inn has guests & dining & visitors but they were in the garden so what was stopping them from getting served free drinks? It just seemed a bit disorganized. During videos the servers were walking right in front of the sweetheart table across the dance floor, I don't mean to sound rude but I'm paying thousands of dollars for videography & they walk in front of the camera during speeches? Its just rude, isn't it common sense to go behind the video? Finally the sextant is my last comment - although very nice to me she seemed super stressed at our rehearsal even though we had the chapel until 4pm that day & everyone was listening but she was kind of rude very bossy like there is a polite way to speak to people she was kind of barking orders at everyone and we had asked for the cross to be taken down she actually asked us and we said yeah we don't want it up & they never removed it so its in all of our pictures now which for us isn't a major deal but we aren't very religious & I'm sure anyone who really wasn't would be pissed. Its a non-denominational church too they should really take it down unless someone asks for it. They are so strict about time too we offered to pay more to keep the party going, its a wedding venue & this is the one night we wanted to really party with all our loved ones I get people need to clean up & go home but the timing is so specific you can only have the tent for so long, you need to start the ceremony at a certain time based on that. I don't know for how much we spent I just wasn't 100% happy with what we got. And this isn't their problem but the 1 hotel that's closeby was terrible I will never recommend the Fairfield to anyone, too bad they are the only close hotel. I really think the Wayside should have a devoted team only focusing on the wedding side of things it seems like everyone is spread so thin there, whenever we walked in Mark was answering phones downstairs and running around. I think as a wedding venue there is so much room for improvement that will make it amazing. I still appreciate everything folks who worked that day did for us but I just wish we had some support with the ceremony space. I also think they should work based on first come first served, the fact this wedding was planned over 2 years in advanced and someone's daughter slipped in to have a small wedding during our original rehearsal time & our wedding weekend is messed up, it really threw the entire weekend off. Anyways, I hope if you choose this venue they improve because there really is so much potential & I know the staff are all good people they just need a little more departmental structure or someone with wedding industry experience to get in there. -
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![Kerri]()
Kerri Sent on 12/22/2022Great venue, coordinator sucks
The wayside inn is a magical place to get married. It was one of my most favorite places to visit. I loved the history, the fiddle band, the smell of one of the many fireplaces. My family had a wonderful time exploring the grounds and taking in the beautiful and charming Massachusetts scenery.
The Chapel: The chapel is lovely and picturesque. Additionally, Michelle the sexton was flexible, understanding, and organized.
Food: The food is the same as the restaurant and is delicious. The cake (which is not something they offer at the restaurant) is absolutely superb. Even the vegan meal was great and we had about 10 at our wedding and they had many compliments.
Staff: The bartender Marvin was especially kind and his banter really hit it off with our guests. The staff was handling the fact that they were doing two weddings at once extremely well and our waitress the next morning stated that she had worked the previous night. That is some extreme dedication.
The reception: The staff did an an incredible job making the reception area look beautiful. They executed the décor flawlessly and the attention to detail was noticed.
What didn’t go well:
Mark Mackay is the wedding coordinator at the wayside inn is extremely difficult to work with. I understand that we were having a wedding as we are coming out of a pandemic, however there are some situations where Mark straight out lied to our faces. His haughty nature makes you feel like you’re the idiot in any and every conversation you have with him. For example:
(1) Mark assured us that (a) our wedding was his first priority and (b) that the only other event that would be held on our wedding day was a memorial service that would be over before our wedding cocktail hour even began. The truth was (a) we didn’t even see mark once that day even though he wasn’t our coordinator. He could have at the very least introduced us to the coordinator we had (Janice) as we had never met her before. To add insult to injury here, mark was at the wedding in the tent (or should I say memorial service); (b) As I said - the memorial service was actually full on wedding which was something mark said the staff wouldn’t be able to accommodate during normal times let alone covid. Which also makes me feel bad for the clearly overworked staff and lack of planning on his part.
(2) The “memorial service” was so loud that no one at my cocktail hour could hear the fiddle band I hired. If I had known that was going to happen – I could have gotten a microphone and a speaker from the DJ so we could actually hear them. I wish he had just told us the truth so we could have planned better.
(3) I pointed out to mark in an email that the contract states “no open flames” He responded that I could bring as many votives as I wanted and no one really pays attention to the contract. Turns out he was wrong again.
(4) Mark makes times for meetings between Monday and Friday 9-5pm.
If you love the wayside inn as I did. Do yourself a favor and spend the money to hire a wedding planner so that they can deal with the disaster that is Mark Mackay. If he just told us what was actually going to happen we would have been much happier.
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