Hannah R.
5/5
We simply cannot recommend Ash Barton enough as a wedding venue! We got married there last weekend and it was perfect. When we started planning our wedding, we knew we wanted it to be a DIY wedding which would let us truly show off the special things in our relationship and our love of crafting without being limited. Looking at other venues which are 'DIY', the choices you can make can still be really limited to a set list of caterers, music etc. When I found Ash Barton's website, I felt emotional that the kind of place I was looking for really existed and I still feel emotional now thinking about how incredible it was. Any supplier we wanted we could have, and many of the ones we picked were familiar with the venue (and Simon recommends an A-Team which was useful, but there's no pressure to go with these). There's no corkage or curfew, so people can bring what they like and party 'til they drop! The website is great - the virtual tour helps you and guests gets a feel for the place, there is a fantastically helpful Facebook group all brides and grooms can join where people can ask questions, share ideas/tips and you can find suppliers if you need them. The grounds are gorgeous, the Manor is full of character and room for family and friends to pile into and the Chapel and Party Barn are superb. Since everything happens in the same place, we didn't need to worry about ferrying people from site to site. It also meant our photographer could spend time with both bride and groom and there was no panic about getting the bride to the venue as I was only up in the beautiful bridal suite (and still 10 minutes late...). Kids could also be put to bed while their parents partied on as they were only a few metres away (and we had a lovely childminder come for the wedding night for peace of mind). By using different parts of the venue for different parts of the wedding day (chapel, house for welcome drinks, Party Barn for reception), it felt like multiple venues all in one spot, including different spots to get some fab photos! Since we were able to make the wedding as quirky as we are, we took Simon (the incredible owner) up on his challenge that no-one had yet to get married in the swimming pool! To be able to do that as an intimate ceremony with just our witnesses and then do a big chapel ceremony with everyone we love the same day was amazing. Having the whole place to ourselves from Thursday to Monday really helped us dodge the feeling that the long build up was only for one day as it felt like we had a whole holiday with everyone we love, and got married there while we were at it. Thank you so much to Simon and the team - we'd do it all again in a heartbeat!
