Ironstone Ranch

Don’t expect to ride horses here. In order to do so, you have to make a reservation, but doing so without an online reservation system, an email address, or anyone to answer your phone makes it impossible to do so. For over a week, I called and left several messages on the trail ride number (717−413−2660), spoke to someone at a different part of the business, and even wrote in their website’s «Contact Us» section and the end result (besides being ignored) is that they didn’t have any availability the weekend I was looking for. Perhaps it was because they took forever and an act of Congress to get some customer service. Here’s a hint for those seeking trail riding at Ironstone Ranch: just don’t.

Our daughter just got married at Ironstone Ranch (May 2015). The weather was perfect and she married a great guy with a great family. So, right out of the gate things were pretty smooth. You may want to filter this review with that in mind. My wife and I have also only paid for one wedding (Yay!). The profits from the Ironstone Ranch are funneled to Brittany’s Hope Charity, which is something else that influenced our choice.
No one is giving anything away when you arrange a reception. I felt Ironstone Ranch had pricing that made it easy to stick to the budget and it was reasonable. There weren’t any surprises or unexpected fees.
You don’t have a choice on caterers. You must use C & J Catering out of Harrisburg. I didn’t like that idea at first, until we worked with them. Great food and staff, but that is for another review.
Bottom line, I grew weary of answering the phone the next day. Everyone was calling to tell us what a great time they had and how much they were impressed with the ranch, the staff and the caterer.
The only thing we would do differently is rent the farmhouse for the night. Mark tried to talk us into it, but after going over prices for all the other stuff, there was a little bit of sticker shock. However, by the time we paid for hotel accommodations and transportation to the hotel (about 4 couples), we could have rented the farmhouse and continued our festivities.

Wonderful wedding venue. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. They take the bride and groom on a carriage ride through the woods for photos. As the photographer I appreciated this.