Stunning venue, amazing team and the most perfect day!
We got engaged in January 2022 and married at Bardney Hall on Saturday 5th August 2023. Having never been to, or have heard of Barney Hall, prior to looking for wedding venues I was excited to visit the venue after my husband found the venue online. Our first visit confirmed it was the perfect venue for our wedding, and after touring the stunning grounds, house and talking through the package options with Hannah, we booked straight away.
In the lead up to the wedding we visited the venue on two open days and made additional visits to discuss further details. Claire and Hannah couldn’t have been more helpful, they answered all our questions, talked us through every detail, helped plan our order of the day and welcomed us back multiple times to photograph the venue to help us plan out styling. Our wedding photographs are amazing as there’s so many different locations to have your pictures taken in. The garden goes back even further at the back and there are two trees with swings.
As a venue, my husband and I can’t recommend it enough! Every part of our day, starting the night before as we booked the venue from Friday – Sunday, took place at Barney Hall which took all the stress out of the day. We arrived at 2pm on the Friday evening and were greeted upon arrival and started unpacking. I had a box of decorations (name cards, sweets station, arrival sign etc) which I’d left in reception with instruction on where to place them and 15 minutes after I’d arrived everything was set up exactly as we wanted.
Originally, we’d planned to have our wedding ceremony outside, followed by our wedding breakfast in the garden room and first dance into early evening outside on the patio, however it was heavily raining when we arrived and therefore made the decision to move everything inside. Whilst contingency plans for rain had been discussed at our previous meetings, they were put into place the night before quickly and without even the slightest hassle and I felt at ease that the following day was going to run smoothly. As we’d initially planned to marry in the floral garden, we didn’t arrange for any additional flowers. Claire kindly offered us all the flowers that they’d used earlier that week to style the venue for an open day. Not only did she kindly allow us to use these, but she helped my sister style the ceremony room which looked amazing when our stylist added candles, lanterns and chair decorations the following day.
After that we decided to practice ‘the walk’ as we hadn’t previously done this inside. Hannah was on hand to guide everyone to their positions and helped me time my arrival into the room perfectly with the song I’d chosen to walk down to, which if I had got married outside like I’d originally planned might not have been timed as perfectly.
Alongside decoration, we also brought lots of buffet items for us and those who were staying the night before to eat. These were all put away in the fridge when we arrived and then beautifully set out in the sitting room later in the evening with cheese knives and cutlery. The bar was open and serving drinks just for us and we used the hot tub in the garden outside, which was beautifully lit up with all the outside fairy lights.
The next morning, the house was ours to start getting ready until Hannah arrived to start our breakfasts at 8am. Myself, my 9 bridesmaids, two mother in laws and two hairdressers all got ready in the extremely spacious bridal suite and ensuite spa bathroom. The bathroom also has a fantastic shower, as well as a giant bath, lots of towels and Molton Brown toiletries, which was a nice moment alone before starting the busy day. I did my own make up and can say the lighting in the room is excellent, and both the room and bathroom has ample mirrors and electrical outlets. Each room also had an iron, ironing board and lots of hooks to hang dresses and do final touch ups.
Whilst my husband and groomsmen went down to the bar for their breakfast, Hannah brought ours up to our room on beautiful serving stands, with toast, croissants, yoghurt, fruit, tea, juice and more. Having this brought up and not having to worry about going down for breakfast, and bumping into the groom, made the whole morning even easier. Everything was then cleared away before we all started getting ready.
Throughout the day we didn’t worry or get involved with anything, Hannah, Claire and the catering team dealt with everything which allowed us to enjoy the day to its fullest. After our ceremony we were all handed prosecco and went outside for pictures before going back indoor for drinks at the bar. The bar and sitting room provided more than enough space for our 50-day guest before the wedding breakfast, they even had a little wooden trolly that they used to house our sweets and snacks station and another table for our cake.
We opted for a three-course wedding breakfast but were also given numerous alternative options including a BBQ and afternoon tea. After we were introduced, we all enjoyed our food, which was amazing, alongside wine and another glass of prosecco to toast. We can’t recommend choosing the garden room option enough as it was adorned in fairly lights and had a beautiful view of the garden. We chose to forgo traditional wedding speeches and booked a magician instead. We’d passed his details onto the venue ahead of the day and they made sure he found our guests when he arrived. Whilst he worked his way around each table, Hannah and Claire set up a tea and coffee station outside which was the perfect place for the day guests to move to after their food to meet with the arriving evening guests.
As we moved into the evening our DJ arrived and the team set him up in the ceremony room, which I was extremely grateful for as I’d forgotten to tell him about the original plans for outdoor music changing last minute. We then had the cutting of the cake, which was brough in for us alongside a cake knife and then taken away and cut whilst we had our first dance. Once our evening food, we opted for sharing boards, had been set up back in the garden room, Hannah came and found myself and my husband and took us to get a first look, and the first plates, at the food. Whilst I already knew the food was going to be amazing, I cannot explain how blown away we both were by the picture worthy layout against all the fairy lights. Hannah then brought wedding cake around to all our guest and we dance until the end of the night.
We had a wonderful night's sleep in the bridal suites four poster bed and then went down to the garden room with family who stayed the night for breakfast. This again was beyond what I’d expected. Tables were set up in the garden room and were lightly dressed using our table decorations and floral arrangements from the day before. We were served a full English breakfast with hot drinks and juice, and they catered for my husband's vegetarian grandparents and our four-year-old niece.
Neither of us can fault the venue, the team, the food, the accommodation or any part of our experience getting married at Barney Hall and would pick this venue again in a heartbeat. It truly was the best day of our lives, and that of members of our close family. We’ve had so many compliments from guests on how smooth the day ran; how nice the venue was and how much they loved the food. One thing that we, and our guests enjoyed, was having the bar, dance floor and evening food in separate rooms of the house. They said it allowed guests to move around as they pleased whilst providing a different environment to eat and have conversations away from the dancing. I can honestly say that it never once felt disjointed and just made the whole day more perfect.
We can’t thank Hannah, Claire and the team at Bardney Hall enough for making our day exactly what we wanted it to be and more. We would recommend the venue to everyone and would say book it for the full weekend....and not to panic if it rains!!