DO NOT BOOK YOUR WEDDING HERE!!!

A few weeks before our September 2023 wedding, which we had spent 2 years planning, we got a phone call from Kingston Registrars to ask if we knew that the venue hadn't had a licence since January, they had been shut down by London Fire Brigade, and they are cancelling weddings last minute.

We were obviously devastated and so grateful to the registrar as we thankfully had just enough time to book a new venue.

The previous venue managers were so lovely and a big part of why we booked our wedding at Raven's Ait, but there are new owners and staff who took over this year. Their communication is shocking, compassion is non-existent, and they really shouldn't be working in an industry that is supposed to spread joy.

If you have an event booked here, I recommend getting in touch with them ASAP so you don't end up in the same position as us. They returned our deposit (even this took multiple emails as they kept making empty promises on when we would receive it) but this has obviously cost us last minute wedding fees, so much stress and all the negative emotions you really shouldn't have to feel in the lead up to your wedding. Beyond disappointed and disgusted with how our situation was handled and hope this review helps another couple to not have to experience the same.

Initially everything was great and we were set for our wedding with 5 months to go.

They seem to have had some management changes in the time between us booking the venue and our wedding date, and as such they had decided we couldn’t have our entertainment which we had discussed and planned (and paid for) 6 months earlier.

They don’t allow music on the lawn, but this was ok as we were told could have live music. They made a decision to no longer allow drums specifically, which for our Indian wedding was essential and our Dohl players were booked. We found out that they had made this decision 2 weeks after our booking in July, and not told us until we went for a meeting in January to discuss the specifics of our day saying it was noted in the terms and conditions (which it wasn’t). It then took a further 2 weeks to get proof of this not being allowed by being sent a copy of their music license. This itself wasn’t the issue, but the lack of transparency and communication was appalling. When then being faced with the decision to either move our wedding to another venue, or remain without the entertainment planned and lose the money we’d paid for this, we asked what they could do to compensate for this, to which we were offered nothing but told that they hoped we would stay. Fortunately we were able to retrieve our deposit but would have expected much more in the way of an apology.

I understand now they no longer allow outside catering or corkage, although had we decided to stay we would have been on to do this as it was previously agreed. You also have to pay nearly £300 to use the sailing club car park, and there is no facilities to stay overnight or get ready at the venue which for the price, is included in other local options. They also can’t guarantee you won’t be faced with other events using the venue at the time of the wedding unless you book out the whole venue, which means there is a lack of space for guests to mingle on arrival without going straight to the ceremony space.

We decided we had lost all faith in the venue and I have suggested they make very clear their limitations on entertainment, especially given they are a venue that claim to be able to manage Indian weddings. Luckily, we were able to find another venue to have our wedding day with and haven’t missed out too much, although I would not be recommending this venue to others.

We had booked to have our wedding there in July 2023, and they ended up cancelling on us four weeks before the date because they had been unable to renew their fire safety certificate.

We had been to see the venue almost a year prior, and decided to move forward as we liked the place (specifically the marquee and lawns) - it was different to everything else we were looking at and had the kind of relaxed garden party vibe we were going for. Between then and our wedding date, there were numerous issues. On trying to book our registry, the registrar informed me that they hadn't renewed their license to hold civil ceremonies. The event manager (then) told me that this had 'slipped through the net' in between management changes and this was now all in hand and they just had to do the admin - they continued to give me incorrect information while the registrar was giving me the actual updates, and even after they had applied, the were unable to secure the license. By the time the nature of this problem had become clear, a lot of other venue options we had looked at were already booked up. They continued to tell me to wait before making other arrangements for the registry (which after May I did not) and were generally coming off pretty disorganised and cagey. In tandem with all of this, they decided a couple of months before the date that they didn't want to allow outside catering anymore, despite that being in our contract and our caterer being booked - we eventually resolved this. Having arranged our registry separately, a month before the date, I was trying to finalise the details for the reception there and the event manager (the third that took over our event in the space of a few months) was unresponsive. Eventually I got a call back from someone else who informed me that they had failed a fire safety inspection, and that they were cancelling our event. Very little empathy for the situation, no viable alternative offered, just 'sorry it is what it is' kind of attitude.

We had to make alternative arrangements and ultimately had to pursue legal action to recover the difference in spend, but even worse than the additional costs being incurred was the stress that this caused at what was meant to be a happy and exciting time. We missed out on time with people who came from abroad, had to cancel any pre-wedding get togethers, scramble to find vendors at the height of wedding season and had to re-organise everything that we had spent a year planning. The lead up to a wedding is supposed to be fun, and the experience here plus the attitude from the people running the venue was dreadful. Suffice to say I would never book an event here again after this experience, and would strongly caution others.

We would give it 0 stars if we could.
We originally booked our wedding reception at Ravens Ait (Marquee & Lawns) in September 2022 to be held at the end of May 2023. The communication between us and the venue suggested nothing untoward in the months leading up to the wedding.

We were made aware at 7.30pm on the Thursday before our wedding on the Saturday that following an inspection by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) that afternoon, the venue was issued with a prohibition notice which restricted the number of guests attending events at Ravens Ait to 50 (we were planning to have 90-100 guests) and were faced with the decision to either move the whole wedding or cut our guest list in half.

Whilst they offered us an alternative venue, they made it clear that they were under no obligation to do so (despite having no feasible alternatives with 36 hours’ notice) and that for them to have to make alternative arrangements was a great inconvenience and a significant additional cost. The alternative venue had several restrictions and prohibitions which impacted on the timings of the day and did not make it a substitute for Ravens Ait.

It subsequently became clear that there had been previous enforcement notices issued by the LFB relating to Raven’s Ait in September 2022 which had not been addressed. Ravens Ait had not informed us of any risk to our wedding reception despite having been aware of the LFB notice and we were left with 36 hours to rearrange our wedding reception.

Throughout these events, they displayed poor communication skills and little empathy for the situation we had been put in (through no fault of our own) on what was meant to be our special day; they offered little to no compensation for the disruption and distress caused. After considerable effort we have been offered minimal compensation as a goodwill gesture only.

We have seen that other couples have been put in a similar position due to the issues with the venue and would caution anyone looking at Ravens Ait to think twice before booking any event there!

This place is a mess. Nothing looks good. Apart from the river next to it. The decor is dated, the chairs all broken, the staff don’t care. The sound system is horrific so not speeches can be heard and it makes an event a total car crash. Avoid at all costs until they completely change what they are doing. Appalling.

Just a note firstly to say thank you to everyone at Ravens Ait who helped to make our big day on Friday, so special.

Dear Ravens Ait Team,

We would like to render our sincere appreciation and gratitude to you guys for all your great help over the last couple of months.

Also a huge thanks goes to the boys who always helped us load,unload and ferried us across to the island. we couldn't have asked for a better place to be married.

Our guest deeply enjoyed the experienced and were amazed there is such a place in London.

Richard - you are a star, thank you so much for keeping a cool head and calm persona with such positive outlook. you always looked for a solution to problems.

Lucy and Jess - Thank you for all your help in putting this together. we really appreciate all you did.

We had a great time at Ravens Ait and you and the staff have been very helpful.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you for everything you have done. The decorations looked amazing and everyone commented on how good the food was.

Thank you so much, it was a really good day, can't believe it is over already.
Lucy and Richard did a great job setting it all up for us, they had set up inside as it was drizzly but seamlessly moved it outside for us when we asked!
Even when we were running behind schedule they remained calm, polite and didn't rush us along helping us to really enjoy every minute of our day!

Hi Lucy and Jessica,
Just a quick note to say a huge thank you Saturday. Lucy you were amazing at keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes. And you were both super helpful in the run up to the big day.

Morning Jessica and Lucy

Thank you so much for everything you both and Richard did on Saturday- everyone had an amazing time and loved the venue. We've had people calling to say that they had so much fun and that it was one of the nicest venues they have been to as to specifically pass on their gratitude to you.

Lavell and I are also extremely grateful for how you and the team made everything run so smoothly. Everything went to plan which made us feel more relaxed and could enjoy the day more- so thank you.

Thank you again and speak to you soon!

Ashmi & Lavell

We were absolutely over the moon in terms of how you and your team delivered our dream wedding day. Every minor detail we requested was executed exactly as we wished.

Lucy did an amazing job of running the day, no job was too small or large for her. She was fantastic on the Friday helping with the setup and on the day was cool, calm and collected.

The feedback we had about how good the venue looked, the standard of food and overall service was all excellent.

Please pass our huge thanks onto the whole team. We have some amazing photos that I will share with you.

Once again thanks, you really did make sure our wedding day was the the dream we both wanted.

Many Many Thanks, Mr and Mrs Worthington x

“Thank you so much for everything. Will and I had a fantastic day and even the rain couldn't dampen our spirits. The support from yourself and the team at Raven's Ait was fantastic, we knew exactly what was going on and all of our requests were dealt with and in swift fashion. On the day, everything went pretty much to plan and you were brilliant at letting us know when different things needed to be done!”

Our wedding on Ravens Ait was absolutely beautiful. The professionalism and dedication we received from your team was second to none. Nothing was too much and our guests were absolutely blown away by the venue and how stunning the marquee looked. Thank you so much for giving us such a memorable wedding day.