Briar Barn Inn — Hotel in Rowley

The most frustrating aspects of this place with such great potential are that they made many rookie mistakes, and everything about it makes it somewhat conducive to being a wedding venue but not a vacation hotel.

My sincere suggestion is that they only book weddings and other groups.

The place was built in the 2010s, which easily allowed for it to be so much better.

The restaurant is a good example of the latter. It is touted as a strong feature of the hotel but only serves dinner and only is open a few nights a week. It frequently is fully booked for private events on those nights.

Rowley could use a nice mid-range place for lunch and dinner. It seems that building a restaurant that could accommodate both the general public and special events would have been a no-brainer.

The same demand exists for a quality hotel with ample parking near Newburyport, which only has faded place that offer a small fraction of the needed parking. I love the area and was excited for the place to open when I first learned that it was being constructed.

Similarly, the joke that you should wait a few minutes if you dislike the New England weather shows that a hotel should offer both heat and air conditioning. This place has only one or the other, and it seems that switching over was tough.

The second-floor rooms are better, but the first-floor standard rooms are small and dark. You also can hear every noise from the room above you. My partner is the most tolerant person ever but had to call twice, including late at night, because of high-heels clicking above during a solo stay.

This relates to the overall aspect of the place being a wedding venue. Guests who are not part of the blessed event are subject to the noise and hustle as wedding guests go to and from the wedding events. The soundproofing is minimal to non-existent.

These leads to the all-female “mean girls” front-office staff. One gets the vibe of a younger group of golden girls operating the Golden Palace.

Hiring desk clerks who are wedding friendly makes good sense for a place that primarily handles that type of business. Never having been anything but friendly makes it tough to stand there while the clerk and the women in the administrative office finish discussing what is going on in their lives.

There is also a huge contrast between being a guy who is there to enjoy the area for a few days and a bride checking out the place or already having booked it and there to plan.

This extends to reading reviews of female guests getting small gifts and reading reviews that mention that but not getting anything yourself. A little token after spending a night that got into the 40s without any heat would have been nice.

It seems that an Air bnb is a better alternative until someone opens a nearby place that it is...

We had our wedding at Briar Barn/Grove. We booked our wedding date in 2018 before the venue was built. Belinda was our rep who was amazing throughout the planning process until she went back to Willowdale Estate. She explained the whole process and helped us with the beginning planning steps.

Due to the pandemic, we had a small wedding ceremony/dinner in October 2020 (original wedding date) and had to reschedule our reception for a year later. As expected, there were a few bumps in the road in 2020 due to state mandates and guidelines but Briar Barn did a great job accommodating our needs and scheduling our mini ceremony. This ceremony went better than expected. The ceremony went smooth, the private space was set up quickly, the service was great and the food was AMAZING. We would definitely recommend having your private event held here. The only downside was lack of flexibility for the inn's 2 night minimum in the fall. We had family traveling out of state but briar barn refused to offer 1 night stays even during the pandemic. We offered to pay pre pandemic pricing ($300-$450/night) for 1 night stay but they mentioned they're not able to accommodate our request for a few rooms due to no business incentive after cleaning costs were factored in. This was very frustrating during a stressful time. We even had guests ask the inn the night of our wedding and received a 1 night stay rate of $175. We wish we knew this in advance but we received numerous denied requests via email.

Over the next year we planned our reception for September 2021. The online web portal made it easy to plan our seating charts and guest list. Briar barn also recommended reliable vendors. We used their recommended photographer & DJ, they were both familiar with the venue and were easy to work with. Our reception exceeded our expectations. The food was cooked to perfection and offered unique sides we haven't experienced at another venue. We recommend the corn bisque in a shooter, our guests loved it! The servers were top notch and the bartender was a hit. The entire reception was amazing and we would recommend Briar Barn/Grove to everyone. The only negative for our reception was the 2 night minimum. Despite booking the venue and room block 3 years in advance, they were not able to accommodate us a 1 night stay. We would have thought having booked 2 events at this venue and difficult times rebooking vendors/dates, we would have few rooms accommodated with 1 night stays. This resulted in only a few guests staying at the venue and most, driving home after the reception.

Overall, we loved this venue, food, and experience. We would recommend this venue to everyone. Thank you Briar Barn for a...

There is not one thing that I would have changed about having my wedding at The Grove! It was everything I imagined, and more! Where do I even start? The ambiance is absolutely breathtaking, it was so warm, inviting, and cozy! I knew from the start I wanted to have a barn wedding, but after looking at a few different venues nothing caught my eye. Well, all that was just meant to be because the second I saw The Grove I immediately knew that that was where I wanted to get married! It is stunning, charming, and intimate to say the least! We went for a tour, and after seeing the venue, the grounds, and the inn I was in awe! The booking process was very straight forward, and every staff member that we have met along the way has been so friendly and helpful! And I can’t forget to mention the absolute life saver that they provided us with, Planning Pod! We were able to make payments, create our floor plan, put in our guests’ meal choices, and so much more! The process really couldn’t have been any simpler! We decided to get married in December, which meant that The Grove and the grounds were beautifully decorated for Christmas! The garlands, the wreaths, and the thousands of lights just completely sealed the deal! It was an absolute fairytale! Julia was our assigned event coordinator and she was the sweetest! On our first meeting, she put my mind completely at ease and already had everything under control with the schedule of events and locations of where everyone needed to be at what time on the day of the wedding. She had no problems with any of our menu customizations or requests, and pretty much answered all of my questions before I could even ask them! She went above and beyond on the wedding day with making sure that we both had enough to eat and drink, that we had a piece of each flavor of our wedding cake to try, and even boxed up our food that we didn’t finish so we could enjoy it later! Speaking of food, it was delicious!! When I tell you that our guests are still talking about how amazing the food was, and all of the hors d'oeuvres that just kept coming out, no one went hungry that night! As another plus, it is so convenient to have Briar Barn Inn only steps away from The Grove, not only for us but also for our guests if they chose to stay since we live 2 hours away! We stayed 2 nights and I’m so glad we did! The rooms are beautiful and clean, the staff were so friendly and helpful with whatever we needed, and we cannot wait to go back next year to celebrate our anniversary! I could go on all day, but just know that you will not be disappointed with having your special day here at The Grove! It was so magical, I instantly missed it the...