Orchard House Granville — Attraction in Granville Township

My husband and I got married at this venue Jun 15th, 2019. I want to start off by saying that I had a really lovely time. I really enjoyed the scenery, vibe and experience as a whole. Dean was awesome to work with, very kind and professional. I'm still receiving compliments from friends and family members about the venue and experience as a whole.

I know how hard it is do decide on a venue, so I want to give a detailed review.

We rented out the whole BnB for the weekend, which was pricier, but made things much easier. Since this venue does not come with a staff, you'll need time and friends to get your decorations set up. I knew this, and was okay with it. Plus, having the venue for two nights allowed us to relax a bit, spend time with friends visiting from out of town and even enjoy two really dang good home-cooked breakfasts courtesy of Dean.

The ladies got ready in the main house, which is tastefully, eclectically decorated and I just loved it. It's not super ritzy, so if that's your thing you probably want to go elsewhere. But we were all very comfortable, had plenty of space to get ready - mirrors, bathrooms, etc. I'm still waiting on my photos, but from the sneak peaks I've seen, the Orchard House made for a beautiful backdrop for the getting ready activities. The guys had the Carriage House to get ready in - a separate, albeit smaller space. But I know they had a great time and were able to enjoy some drinks and cigars on the adjoining patio, listen to music etc.

The spacious common areas are great too. It was nice to enjoy coffee in the breakfast nook while tearfully writing my vows (I'm a procrastinator).

We would have enjoyed a bonfire on the premises had it not been pouring down rain, but we just took the after party to a dive bar in Pataskala. Which is fine for our group.

Obviously, the pinewoods are gorgeous and make for such a unique and beautiful ceremony setting.

The BnB has 4 bedrooms total and comfortably sleeps 10 (4 beds plus a pull out sofa). We squeezed a couple in on an air mattress in one room as well. This was really nice, but made for a bit of a hassle in planning. It didn't exactly accommodate our whole wedding party and so we had to be selective about who stayed there, where and when.

We had other out-of-towners stay in local AirBnbs, hotels, etc. One big bonus is that everyone was able to get Ubers and Lyfts with only a 10-15 min wait. That seemed to be a great alternative to hiring a shuttle service.

Dean was super chill, and accommodated all of our crazy needs.

So that's the awesome, good stuff.

About RAIN: Even though you have tents, rain can (and will, if you're me) muck up your perfect vision. The reception area is essentially in a field. Dean does a good job of orchestrating set up and tent lay out to minimize the negative effects of rain, but there's only so much that can be done. We were lucky in that we enjoyed dry sunshiney weather until about 6-7pm/cocktail hour. But it really came down after that.

This meant: A) our dance floor was placed under the tent, so we lost that sq footage for seating, guest book etc. My guestbook/photo booth didn't get set out until late because of the rain and limited space and so I only have about 8 entries.

Also, I think this was more our caterer's fault BUT, our food was ice cold because the wind was blowing the sternos out. The caterers were under a tent, but it didn't have a curtain (I chose not to rent the curtain). Had the caterers (or anyone) taken some initiative we could have rearranged and avoided this. I would recommend renting larger tents and for more space than you think you need. If you choose this venue, ask Dean about this :) Or, I would recommend Dean just include all the curtains in the rental price, to prevent that - I'm not sure?

Prepare for muddy dresses and shoes. We're a laid back crew and can dance in the mud. In fact, it made the night more memorable.

I highly recommend this venue to anyone who wants a unique experience, wants the pleasure/control of some DIY, and doesn't mind a little...

I will start off by saying the venue itself is beautiful and whimsical, however if you have anything but optimal weather leading into your wedding prepare for an incredibly stressful and unpleasant experience.

From the get go Dean was very slow to respond, at one point going over a month without responding to my messages just asking him to process our next payment on our payment schedule. This may be ok with some people, but as someone who used to plan many large events for my company, lack of communication threw up red flags for me.

The week going into the wedding, and most of June had left the Orchard House yards very saturated with rain water. As we went back and forth trying to figure out the driest way to set up tents, the tent company came and set up tents in the lowest, wettest part of their entire property on Thursday, so it was shaded and even less likely to dry on Friday and Saturday, the first days of pure sunshine in a week. When we arrived on Friday afternoon to start setting up my entire family, as well as my fiancées, were completely stunned at the lack of common sense used by Dean and the rental company he uses. The tents were set up completely opposite to the last message I had sent. As a venue, you must be intelligent enough to set up tents not in the middle of a pool of mud and water rendering the tents completely useless for the wedding and be surprised when the entire wedding party is not happy. Dean on multiple occasions said he “was going to walk away in order to not say something regrettable to us”. And instead of trying to help dry out this area all day Friday he was out buying “sugar shakers” at garage sales and reading in his yard so by the time he said he would go get some woodchips to put down under the tents, the company was closed for the day and he could not pick them up until the next morning so we could do no set up until the morning of the wedding.

My family and I ended up moving all our tables into the yard, despite table and chair set up being something Orchard House was supposed to do. We did not use the tents at all except for about eight feet on once side which was covered with sawdust my father purchased himself to make any part of the space usable for our catering and bar tables. My family and friends came together and we worked all morning and early afternoon to make the space beautiful and usable, but can honestly say Dean did nothing to try and help solve problems and preferred to hide in his apartment to avoid conflict, while our families came together to get creative in setup. He also made sure to charge my card, without letting me know what the final amount was and without my final authorization while we were in the driveway packing up to leave. Which isn’t legal.

I will say one antique in the house was apparently broken over the weekend which I was not aware of and for that I am sorry. But he made sure to help himself to drinks, food and cake all night and refused to even consider refunding $250 for everything that happened. Claiming he didn’t know what extra work I was talking about.

Location is beautiful, but I truly believe they need to hire an event manager if they want to continue. Not every wedding is going to be perfect weather without issue, and they are not prepared to handle anything unexpected or use commonsense to solve problems or act like professionals. Hope they...

We just had our wedding here in mid-June and it could not have been more perfect. We chose this venue because of the beautiful pine tree grove for our ceremony, but we ended up loving every single thing about this venue! Our family was able to stay in the main house the nights before and after the wedding and my husband and I stayed in the lovely carriage house. It was so nice to stay at the venue because we did not have certain times that we had to be there or leave. It made getting ready and cleaning up very stress-free! We had such a wonderful experience 100% due to the owner, Dean. He was so great to work with and made the planning process and the whole wedding weekend feel as relaxed as possible. He was extremely helpful every step of the way! He made us a fire after the rehearsal dinner, helped us coordinate with the vendors, made us delicious breakfasts and coffee, and was always around to help with little details like fixing my husband's collar when he was getting ready :) I could not recommend this venue more! We had such a wonderful experience. We can't wait to come back and stay as guests...