Decision to hold the wedding at Brockencote

We’d been a couple of years before for Julien’s mum’s 60th birthday and the tenth anniversary of his uncle getting married at Brockencote Hall, so it is a special place for many of Julien’s family.

As soon as we got engaged in March 2024 we pretty much knew where we wanted to get married – we didn’t even look at any other locations!

A couple of weeks later we sent an email to Brockencote Hall’s inbox to see what weekends they had available for the next 18 months, and Staci from Brockencote Hall very quickly invited us to meet her so we could visualise what a wedding at the hotel would look like for us.

We knew we wanted a three-day wedding as we had people travelling long distances to be there. The first day would help people to orientate themselves with their surroundings, while having the third day meant that people could really relax and unwind on the wedding day without having to think about how they were going to get home.

Planning the wedding in just five months for 100 guests with Brockencote Hall’s support

Staci from Brockencote Hall was incredible throughout the whole process.

Although Julien had lived there for so many years, she really knows the hotel inside out, has hosted so many weddings - and even got married there herself!

On the initial walkaround of the hotel it was really nice to have the chance to talk to her about finer details such as how we might have the lay out of the tables, how we might choose and position our decorations and the flow of the guests throughout the day – so she made it feel really easy.

The main challenge was the timescales, as we only had five months to plan the wedding and we knew we wanted certain suppliers, such as Helen England who is a big florist in the local area and has a historical association to the hotel – which we managed to do!

There’s also the logistics of having 100 guests at the wedding and having to decide who is coming on what day for a three-day event.

But again, Staci was really brilliant at recommending how to approach it and arranging suitable accommodation for us.

Exchanging vows at St Cassian’s

The church is just at the bottom of the drive into Brockencote Hall, so on the day we only had a two-minute drive from the hotel to the church – so it was really convenient.

Again, this was a really special aspect of the day for us as it was the church that Julien was baptised in.

The wedding schedule

Day 1 – Friday

This was our immediate family and bridesmaid / groomsman day.

Everybody arrived between 2pm and 3pm, and for the first couple of hours we were orientating ourselves, bringing our decorations in, and liaising with the hotel general manager Jack on what decorations needed to go where.

We had our rehearsal at St Cassian’s at 6pm for 45 minutes – so lots of the guests who didn’t need to be at the rehearsal relaxed at the bar.

Clara’s family, her bridesmaids and their partners stayed at the hotel before were able to enjoy a pre-ordered meal afterwards, which was super stress-free, while Julien’s family decided to go to a local pub, The Dog at Harvington.

We decided to do this as it helped to spread us out a bit on the evening before so we could have our respective family meals.

Day 2 – Saturday

The big day!

Clara had spent the night in the Bridal Lodge with her eight bridesmaids, which is a separate building to the hotel, and her mum and cousins had stayed in the main house – so everyone went to the lodge for their hair and makeup at 6.30am.

Julien started the day with a 5k run around the estate to calm his nerves after a sleepless night, and after having a briefing with the groomsmen, they started getting ready at about 11am – with assistance from an additional hairdresser who was on hand to style guests’ hair if they needed it.

The ceremony at St Cassian’s took place at 12.30pm – which was a traditional church service with a couple of family readings – one of which was from Clara’s grandpa who is a former vicar, and the other from Julien’s uncle who had got married in the church.

We also had a string quartet performing as guests entered the church.

When we arrived at the hotel in a stylish 70s VW campervan, we had the string quartet performing once again for our arrival drinks amid a backdrop of a roaring fire – it was lovely.

Around 45 minutes later the rain subsided, and so we were also able to do a confetti shot outside with Brockencote Hall as the backdrop.

Our food for the wedding breakfast in the 3 AA Rosette Chaddesley Restaurant was bespoke, as we were able to create the menu from scratch with the help of Staci and the chef.

We then had our speeches from Clara’s dad, the maid of honour, Julien, and his best man – all of which were clean, short and snappy!

The restaurant was then quickly transformed into a dance floor for the first dance and cutting of the cake before a night of partying.

Day 3 - Sunday

It was time to wrap up and go home.

The night before we managed to stay in Julien’s old bedroom from when he used to live in the hotel.

The flat that Julien’s family used to live in has been converted into bedrooms – one of which is now a combination of Julien’s parents’ bedroom and his old bedroom put together – and Julien wanted to make sure he had first dibs on it!

In the morning we had a big breakfast with our close family, groomsman and bridesmaids – with all of our favourite people in one place.

At about 11am people started to depart.

Personalised touches

The level of attention to detail throughout really blew us away.

The food was really traditional and classic, because that was the vibe we wanted. We had scallops for starters, roast beef for main, a sorbet, and then pudding.

We also wanted to see if we could have some Crémant to pay homage to where Julien’s dad is from in France, which the hotel managed to do, which was amazing and added that extra personal touch.

Elsewhere the staff did a lot behind the scenes. For example, different people stayed in the Bridal Lodge on the first night compared to second night, so the team worked hard to ensure that bags were in the right place at the right time.

We also wanted to bring along some of our own decorations, such as candles, to complement the flowers ourselves, and Staci was even able to recommend to us what might work well, and which shops to get them from – nothing was too much trouble for her or her team.

The three days were perfect and set us up nicely for a relaxing honeymoon straight afterwards where we went on safari in Kenya, followed by a break in Zanzibar.

(photo: Peapod Media Services)