Would you say ‘I do’ at Grange Fair? For Centre County native, it’s a dream come true

When Centre County native Carly Hoffman learned a Grange Fair wedding was possible, there was no turning back.

Hoffman looks forward to the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair every summer and never missed a year before the 2020 fair was canceled due to the pandemic.

“Once it became a possibility, there was no doubt in my mind,” she said. “I don’t care about the beach. I don’t care about vacations. I just like going and spending my few days at the fair every year, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world, so as soon as we found out it was a possibility, I mean, there was just no question about it for me.”

Hoffman and fiancé Zachary Reed have been together for more than six years, and while Reed is originally from the Philadelphia area, Hoffman introduced him to the Grange Fair experience early on in their relationship. Hoffman’s family has camped at the fair since her mother’s childhood and Hoffman said she, on average, stays overnight about three to four days at the fair each year, but is also there just about every evening after work.

It was Hoffman’s mother’s idea to approach Grange Fair officials about the possibility of a fair wedding.

“She was like, ‘Do you think they’d let us have your wedding in one of their empty pavilions?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, probably not.’ And she was like, ‘I’m going to ask them anyway,’” Hoffman said. “So she made a few calls, got connected to the right people and they just said, ‘Let us see if we have anything that’s not rented out yet.’ And after a few days, they got back to us and said the equine pavilion was available for four hours on one of the days during the fair, if we wanted to rent that out.”

Even beyond the fair setting, Hoffman says her Aug. 21 wedding still won’t be “traditional.” The 50- to 60-person, Harry Potter-themed wedding will include a short ceremony at the pavilion, along with some refreshments and social time. But Hoffman said she doesn’t want her guests to stick around the rented space for the entire day.

“Since the fair couldn’t go last year, I want to provide business for it and I want all of my family to go and have fun and eat fair food and play games,” she said, noting that many of her extended family have never attended Grange Fair. “I’m really excited to introduce some people who have never been to the fair to it, and a lot of my cousins right now are having kids, so hopefully some of them can make it a yearly trip.”

For Hoffman, it’s the fair’s sense of community and the strong nostalgia factors that make it so special.

“My entire mom’s side will come visit the tent. We don’t all stay the night there, but they’ll come visit. We talk to each other. It’s a point in time where there’s virtually no electronics. We don’t bring a TV. All we have is our cellphones, and honestly, reception there isn’t fantastic. So it’s just a good time to focus on each other. ... It’s a lot of nostalgia for me,” she said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 7:00 AM.