Fern Hill Weddings at C. Barton McCann School of Art

ble to rent out a place for the bridesmaids and a place for the groomsmen to get ready. Sue is a delight to work with. I would absolutely recommend this place because Sue is back now!

on us 12 days before the event (which is absolutely true). First off, the owner called me in the middle of my bachelor party and started screaming at me about our plans for the wedding and threatening me with "I'm a lawyer and you will not be able to have your wedding here". I was in such shock that my bachelor party was essentially ruined because of how cruel he was. For background, we signed a contract outlining all the plans for the wedding and even sent a thorough proposal, so there was no confusion. We were nothing but TRUTHFUL and UPFRONT about all plans for our wedding. When the management changed several months before the wedding, they agreed to uphold the contract even though we were hosting a unique wedding. They could've easily let us know AT THAT TIME INSTEAD OF 12 DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING that there were issues. What ensued was the epitome of a nightmare situation. Instead of enjoying the two weeks before our wedding and planning all of the unique fun things to do, we instead were on the phone with lawyers trying to get them to uphold a contract THAT THEY SIGNED AND AGREED TO. The owner went so far as to threaten to have the police at our wedding to shut us down if we decided to proceed (the father of the bride can attest to this). After we luckily found a new venue that was sympathetic and supportive, we had to continue the legal battle just to receive our deposit back, because the owner demanded we sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (hmm, I wonder why) just to receive our refund on a contract that they broke (I have proof of all of this). Along with this, we had to re-coordinate all of our vendors: food, booze, artists, airbnb's etc. To directly address some of their comments: "the groom, 3 weeks before the wedding date, advised us for the 1st time that you would be having a wedding that was to include open fires, pyrotechnic activities" 1. We had a belly dancing fire performer who is a close friend attending the wedding. I asked if they could do a performance away from all the trees on the pavement. They said no fire is allowed, and I said "ok, that's fine, we won't have any fire performances or fires." I don't understand how asking a question and being respectful of your rules is grounds for dismissing a contract. 2. As far as "uncontrolled use of alcohol on the their property" - this is a complete farce because we hired a licensed and approved alcohol vendor that they recommended and even decided to NOT serve liquor to ensure that people did not get too intoxicated (I have proof of all of this). 3. "When your father followed up and inquired if a conventional wedding without such a party would be possible, we gave him a resounding “yes”! - This is another farce, because the owner clearly stated that if we were to have the wedding there, he would have police on-site to ensure everything got shut down at 11pm and all guests were off the property - Not a resounding yes in my book. In closing, as long as David Corneal is the owner, stay away from this place. He does not deserve your money. Although the place is beautiful, I have never been treated so cruelly by someone, and he is the epitome of a rich & ruthless person. Sue was nice though up until the craziness, but I think she had to tow Mr. Corneal's line once he flipped out on us.

very step of the way. While the venue is pretty, it is overpriced, inconveniently located, and their communication is terrible. Not only did the event manager lie to us and lead us to believe we could throw our dream wedding there for an entire year, but they didn't honor our contract and canceled the event less than 2 weeks before our day. We did some digging in the area and found out this was not the first time they had done something like this. The owner is a retired lawyer and he has a reputation in the area for ripping people off. To top it off, before issuing us a refund he tried to make us sign an NDA that we wouldn't say anything bad about the property. A letter from our lawyer made them quickly change their mind as they were clearly not allowed to make us sign an NDA to get our money back, but we did not receive a full refund until 10 days after they canceled on us, leaving us no time to use the money for another venue. Add to this there is no cell phone service on the property, and it's very easy to get lost. I would not give money to the owner or the people who work there as they are heartless.

he cabins where the bridal party stayed the night before, the lake with the beautiful gazebo, the sculpture garden for the ceremony, the art gallery for the cocktail hour, and the wonderful pavilion for the reception. The entire staff was amazing. They were so helpful with the initial planning all the way through the last- minute worries. They provided golf carts to transport the bridal party around the grounds for pictures as well as for guests who needed special accommodations. A special touch was whisking the entire bridal party away to a home on the grounds immediately following the ceremony and providing us with much needed hydration and food from the cocktail service while the guests were able to leave the ceremony area and proceed to cocktail hour. The whole staff was available with a smile on their faces from the early morning hours until the party was over late that evening. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect venue and are so thankful to everyone at McCann who played a part in making it happen!

o detail was amazing. My daughter and her fiancé chose the outdoor sculpture garden in front of the gazebo to exchange vows. They wanted to include a special sand ceremony and Sue had everything set up perfectly. Sue and her team worked tirelessly to ensure the ceremony and reception went smoothly. It poured rain shortly before the outside ceremony was to begin, but the second it stopped Sue and her team were drying the chairs and cleaning up. They went above and beyond anything I expected. Sue offered some suggestions, some of which I resisted at first, but upon further consideration, my husband and I and the bridal couple decided Sue's ideas were right on target. Sue and her team have done this dozens and dozens of times, so enjoy the benefit of Sue's knowledge and experience and listen to her. Everything from the location, the setting, the proximity to Penn State (we hired school buses to transport guests), the limo, the caterer, the late evening wood fired pizza snack from Doan's Bones, and ESPECIALLY Sue and her team made my daughter's wedding absolutely beautiful. I suggest you schedule a visit and tour, you will definitely be glad you did.

ut the entire wedding, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and wedding ceremony! The ground at McCann are absolutely breathtaking. If you are looking for a beautiful venue with friendly and helpful staff, I suggest you check into McCann weddings.

ed the Art Gallery. Would highly recommend McCann Weddings to anyone looking to have a peaceful and enjoyable wedding!

ed the Art Gallery. Would highly recommend McCann Weddings to anyone looking to have a peaceful and enjoyable wedding!

the venue in my opinion. Most of the good reviews and testimonials that you will see come from their old coordinator Sue running the show and I believe she is the one that truly made your experience and wedding day special and run smoothly. When we originally booked the place she was our wedding coordinator and one of the main reasons we decided to book the place. In a little over a year we went through three different wedding coordinators here and the supporting cast of helpers also left with the first two coordinators. This was the warning sign to start with and I wish we would have been able to change venues when Sue had left. The wedding coordinator that we ended up getting stuck with was just Justin Bierly's (who runs the show) wife Peggy. I personally believe she lacks the wedding and event planning experience and was just thrown in there because they couldn't find anyone as a replacement. Then on top of that, if you have a problem you are just dealing with her boss, which is her husband, so there is already a conflict. Where to start...first off and the biggest thing is that we were lied to multiple times in writing and to our faces. The number one thing I would recommend is to get EVERYTHING in writing! The contract reads that "At the conclusion of bar service any remaining alcohol will be locked in the Education Center for next day pick up unless prior arrangements have been made." We asked multiple times if we could grab any alcohol that we wanted (a case or two of beer/wine/liquor) to take back to the house for the wedding party, after the other guests were gone, that were staying over with us at the house and were assured we could. We thought"Prior arrangements" was someones word, only to find out that equaled one champagne bottle and one bottle of wine... If we would of known this we would have kept more at the house and this would have never even of been an issue, but instead we were lied to multiple times. The second issue was that we had switched to the Fern Hill house during the confusion of the first two coordinators leaving. We told them multiple times that we were going to have the wedding party (16 in the wedding party plus a few significant others) stay at the house. Told all of this to all three coordinators including Peggy in front of my mother and Aunt during a tour we did together prior to our wedding. Supposedly there was a 8 person maximum limit for the house, but were never told this once ever! They said it was in our contract and invoice. It was no where in our contract. They just crossed out Studebaker House and wrote in Fern Hill and our invoice just says Fern Hill with nothing ever written about the 8 person maximum. Even after the second coordinator left Justin sent us an email confirming that we wanted Fern Hill because it was just written in our contract and again, never mentioned the 8 person maximum. Again we mentioned the wedding party would stay there which Peggy very well knew was 16 people. So when the security deposit comes around it turns out that they withheld $325 for too many people in the house meaning we were lied to again! I guess they just nickel and dime you and the $7900 we spent wasn't enough for them. (Part one of review)

ion, but you have access to the whole property and it's worth it if that's what you're going for.

ast minute and the staff made it seemed planned...they were so wonderful and nice. the setting is absolutely perfect if you love the outdoors...beautiful

re garden and enormous outdoor roofed pavilion - among other perks. Clear contract, excellent customer service. This venue comes highly recommended.

was very helpful and made things easy. No worries. Also had a good relationship with the caterer and rentals, so they were able to take care a lot of the little details. Again, this venue is in the woods - certainly not for everybody. But for true nature lovers it will go beyond your expectations.