Cameron Estate Inn — Restaurant in East Donegal Township

My husband and I had our wedding at Cameron estate on 10/6/24. While the venue is gorgeous and speaks for itself, the service and management were not up to par, taking into consideration the prices that you pay to host your wedding here. PROS: The venue was truly gorgeous, and when it all came down to it my husband and I both truly did have our dream wedding day. The staff, food, and overall cleanliness of the venue the day of was up to par! We also had family stay overnight in the Inn and they all stated that it was beautiful, cozy, and inviting! Our day of Coordinator Chloe was AMAZING! She was so sweet, helpful and kind! CONS: When booking with Cameron, they sell you on this perfect seamless, dreamy day. However, the process was far from seamless. The way that they write out the contract to book makes it look simple, and to the point. However, they “hide” a lot of the specifics in the fine print. We were told we could adjust which package we went with at the time of booking, but when we realized that the original package, we went with was a little more than we could handle and informed them 10 months in advance, they gave us the run around for about two weeks. After having our outside coordinator send the contract to her lawyer, we found out that the only way you can adjust your package is by spending MORE and not going down a package to save money. We informed them that if we are unable to lower the package we would have to go elsewhere and just lose the money from our initial deposit. That’s when they informed us that if we cancelled and no one else filled our spot we would STILL OWE what we signed the contract for. Then eventually after feeling trapped with Cameron, we asked to speak to the highest person that we could speak to just to get confirmation that we indeed cannot lower our package in any way, they suddenly sent us an email stating that they are willing to work with us in this special circumstance. The other con that we ran into with Cameron was the management staff. Cathi is very sweet and kind, however she is slightly unorganized and all over the place. She also was somewhat rude and standoffish to our outside coordinator and at one made point made a belittling comment to our coordinator in front of us. we also had to ask her and her team to include our coordinator in emails as they continuously were taking her out. There were also multiple clerical errors on paperwork that had to be continuously corrected during the entire process of our planning period. The seating chart and guest forms are confusing and hard to read or navigate, and because of this, multiple emails were sent back and forth trying to explain to Cathi our floor plan. As well as errors with our meals being swapped which could have been a disaster on the wedding day if 82 people who ordered steak received chicken and vice versa. Regarding our wedding day, continuously throughout the early afternoon, they were performing tours of the venue causing multiple groups to interrupt our portraits and us to have to stop while they passed by. My mother is a vegan, and she was served meat the day of. My husband and I also booked meals for our suites and one of my bridesmaids dropped a champagne flute causing glass to go on the sidewalk outside. someone was made aware right away, and it was still there 12 hours later at the end of the night. Finally, we had a Sunday wedding, and our scheduled end time was 9pm. And while most of everyone went home around 8pm, there were maybe 10 of us remaining on the dance floor and in the building all together. Around 8:30 the dining staff turned on the lights and started to clean the reception area while the DJ was prepping the music for the private dance for me and my husband which was supposed to be intimate and special and instead was spent watching the workers cleanup. When all is said and done our wedding day was truly wonderful, however we wish that the process leading up to the day was not as stressful and unorganized as it was, and that Cameron takes into consideration the service that...

I hosted a bridal shower at Cameron Estate Inn because it is truly a beautiful venue. That being said, I am highly disappointed on several fronts and would not choose this venue again in the future.

I was asked multiple times to sign documents and a contract to make sure all details were correct including the layout for the event. Per the contract, client set up was at 8:00 am, so my husband and I arrived shortly there after. We found the space unclean and not set up per the agreed upon layout. The floor was dirty and flower petals were everywhere, there were glasses, straws, and napkins left out on the window sills, and the bathroom was disgusting. Moreover, we were missing necessary tables that I had requested in the layout. It was evident that there was an event the night before and no one had bothered to clean things up and reset them for our event today.

There was no one available in the venue space to greet us or double check that we didn't need anything, which I found odd, so I went to the front desk and no one was to be found. I finally found someone near the breakfast area explaining I had an event in the ballroom with setup at 8:00 am and I needed someone in there to clean as soon as possible. I stressed that the setup was not completed even though I had to sign off on the event setup multiple times the week prior.

Staff showed up around 8:20 am - I explained the space is not setup on their end and I have guests showing up for a 10:00 am event and I am now delayed nearly half an hour, as we could not do our set up until their cleaning was completed. The owner Cathi did then show up and I expressed my disappointment and stress over the uncleanliness and lack of adhering to the contract. I felt very frustrated by her telling me that the event wasn’t until 10:00 am and they were still cleaning up after a wedding they had the night before. Though she assured me they would take care of cleaning up and setting up prior to guest arriving, I am incredibly frustrated because the agreed upon arrival time in our written contract was 8:00 am, which is the time I planned to provide myself to set up decorations for the event.

We did our best to begin decorating and setting up, but as the staff swept and mopped the floor, we were then limited to where we could go. Things eventually got sorted out and fortunately I had the additional help of guests who came early to help us pull off the set up. That being said, several of us were assisting in the cleaning, going as far as taking the bathroom paper towels to wipe up the venue floor 5 mins prior to guest arrival to make sure it was clean and dry. I also want to mention that due to the mopping, some of the table linens were black at the bottoms and had splatters up them.

The bathroom had cobwebs in the corners, the chaffing dishes were still being polished and arranged after 10:00 am as guests were arriving, and everything felt rushed and stressful. While some of the staff was helpful, there were others who made myself and the guests feel like a bother. It made for a very unwelcoming atmosphere.

I’m very disappointed with this venue - it is absolutely beautiful and the food was delicious, but when you sign a contract that says client set up is at 8:00 am, you expect the space to be clean and ready to come in to do what you need to do. I should have not had to rearrange chairs and tables to reflect the venue layout that I had to sign via docu sign. Cathi made it feel as we were not a priority even though we had spent a lot of money for this event. I truly felt as if she made it feel like we were bothering her and were in the wrong that I was upset that the event space wasn’t cleaned up.

I do not recommend this venue to anyone who expects high quality. It is concerning that they did not adhere to multiple facets of the outlined contract. Speaking to Cathi the day of the event when I verbally voiced my disappointment to her left me feeling like my event and feelings did not matter. As someone who is paying for this venue space, I...

It makes me sad to have to give such a low review to Cameron Estate Inn, especially since we were so looking forward to our Valentine's dinner there. We dined at CEI last Valentine's Day and everything was so good that we chose to return again this year, even though we moved out of Mount Joy. I'll start with the positives.....the banquet room that they open for their "special occasion/holiday dinners" was decorated nicely and they handed each woman a long stemmed red rose upon arriving. That's where the positives ended. Last year, we were able to order anything off of the regular restaurant menu. This year, they chose to scale down their menu and only offer select items, so if you wanted any of the appetizers, except for scallops, it wasn't available to order. They offered a "Dinner For Two" menu for $80/couple and it was obvious THAT is what they wanted people to order. I had a pasta and chicken dish off of the regular menu last year that wasn't offered this year and when I asked if I could add chicken to a tortellini dish that was being offered, I was told that she would "have to ask" and then returned to say that I could, but the price would jump from $29 to $34......for tortellini and chicken. In the end, we decided to get the scaled down Dinner for Two for $59. It did not include a scallop appetizer, upgraded side salad and dessert option. Then, the looooonnnnnnngggg wait began. Every step of this meal drug out. Even getting their bread took forever and they didn't even offer regular butter. Instead, they brought out 3 small bowls of oil, an odd tasting "spicy marinara" sauce, as our server described it, and some pink strawberry thing. Someone other than our server brought the bread and sides out and just set it down, didn't even describe what the sides were....we had to just try them and be disappointed in the flavor of each one. Plus, the rolls weren't even warm.....again, small details that you expect when you dine at a place like CEI. It actually became awkward listening to our server have to apologize to all of her tables for the long wait. The table next to us each had 2 drinks and had finished their salads before their appetizer ever hit the table. Finally, our dinner came out and strangely, they put both of our meals on 1 plate, so now we have to serve ourselves, like family style?? To make things worse, they only brought out 1 extra plate, so then we had to wait again for another plate to come out, so we could plate up our own entrees. The crab cakes were good and that's where any enjoyment of this meal ended. The tenderloin was anything but.....they chose to pre-slice it. We ordered it medium and it was so under cooked that we couldn't even eat it, but once you slice a steak, it's very difficult to try to bring up the cooking temperature without drying it out, so we ate the end pieces that were slightly cooked more how we ordered it. The food was NOT hot.....none of it.....and the sides were barely even warm. They threw baby potatoes in a bowl and laid asparagus on a plate and again, we're having to make up our own plates. It was ridiculous! How hard would it have been to plate up 2 entrees instead of having people reach over each other and have to ask to have the bowl of potatoes passed? We ended up taking the remainder of the steak home, thinking we'd cook it more the next day, but it was so tough and had so many white tendons running through it, that we ended up throwing it out. I've had better center cut sirloins from Costco and better tenderloin from Outback Steakhouse. Overpriced and not worth the quality of the food. It's too bad because the estate is beautiful, but the service is too slow and the food just isn't good enough to justify their prices. $75 later (no alcohol, appetizers or dessert) later and a complete waste of nearly 2 hours. We will...