Yorkshire Wedding Venue – an Interview with Wentbridge House Hotel

Went­bridge House is quite unique in that it has a church next door – do you work along­side the church?

Although reli­gious wed­ding cer­e­monies are less com­mon than in years gone by, a large per­cent­age of cou­ples still wish to get mar­ried in a church.
Of course, this adds another fac­tor to con­sider, as you search for a suit­able venue that has a per­fect church in close proximity.

At Went­bridge House we con­sider our­selves very for­tu­nate to have the beau­ti­ful Went­bridge Church so close to hand. The Grade 2 listed build­ing is sit­u­ated just behind the hotel grounds and can be eas­ily walked to in just 5 min­utes. And we can vouch for how lovely the local vicar is, as he always attends our wed­ding fairs!

How impor­tant are the gar­dens to a wed­ding venue, and do cou­ples use the grounds on their wed­ding days?

As you can see from the pho­to­graph of Went­bridge Church above, Went­bridge is a pic­turesque lit­tle vil­lage that offers a lovely back­drop to your big day. How­ever, it isn’t only the sur­round­ing area of Went­bridge House that is impres­sive and we take great pride in the 20 acres of land­scaped gar­den and wood­land in which the hotel is set.

The grounds are well main­tained through­out the year, with the sprawl­ing lawns, ancient trees and huge vari­ety of flow­ers pro­vid­ing a fan­tas­tic area for you, your friends and fam­ily to relax and enjoy the day. The grounds also offer a roman­tic set­ting in which to have those all-important wed­ding pho­tographs taken, so that you can look back on your day with fond mem­o­ries for years to come.

What are your thoughts on exclu­siv­ity? With larger wed­ding venues should exclu­sive use be an option?

A com­mon worry that we hear from many soon to be mar­ried cou­ples, is whether they will be shar­ing their spe­cial day with another cou­ple. If you choose Went­bridge House then you can be sure that you will be the only bride and groom to be found on the grounds, as we never allow two wed­dings on the same day. We also offer the option of hav­ing com­plete exclu­siv­ity of the hotel if you pre­fer total pri­vacy; giv­ing you full use of the 41 bed­rooms, pub­lic areas, grounds and whole hotel team.

Can wed­ding guests stay at Went­bridge House?

At Went­bridge we like to think that we have cre­ated a hotel with gen­uine charm and per­son­al­ity and this is car­ried through to our indi­vid­u­ally designed bed­rooms. Old and new are fused together to cre­ate a truly bou­tique expe­ri­ence, includ­ing duck down pil­lows, Egypt­ian cot­ton sheets, hand­made over­sized mat­tresses, air con­di­tion­ing and Molton Brown bath­room products.

Wed­ding guests are offered spe­cial accom­mo­da­tion rates both on the night of the wed­ding and the night before. All our bed­rooms include a hearty full York­shire break­fast, accom­pa­nied by a morn­ing news­pa­per. We should also point out that, unlike many venues, we do not insist that a min­i­mum num­ber of bed­rooms are booked before we will agree to host your wed­ding recep­tion at our hotel.

Cater­ing and excep­tional meals for guests are impor­tant to Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog read­ers. How do you ensure the very best food for your cou­ples and their guests?

Whilst our full York­shire break­fast is a sight to behold and taste, it is by no means the extent of our culi­nary skills. Our Fleur de Lys restau­rant is renowned for excel­lent food and drink; hold­ing 2 AA Rosettes and a Notable Wine List Award. Our Head Chef, Michael Ward, and his team are fiercely proud of the rep­u­ta­tion that they have built up over the years and will care­fully pre­pare and present every dish that leaves the kitchen, in order to pro­tect it.

Michael is pas­sion­ate about using fresh, locally sourced ingre­di­ents to pro­duce a huge selec­tion of dishes with a mod­ern twist, so you can choose a menu to suit everyone’s tastes. The cater­ing team are able to cater for up to 130 guests at your wed­ding break­fast, all of whom will be seated together in the stun­ning Crys­tal Suite. For your evening recep­tion the max­i­mum num­ber of guests is 200.

Is Went­bridge House an easy place to find, espe­cially for guests trav­el­ling a long way?

In the mod­ern day, most cou­ples have guests who are trav­el­ling from numer­ous des­ti­na­tions across the UK and often even fur­ther afield. We think it is essen­tial that a wed­ding venue should be well con­nected to the var­i­ous travel net­works.
Went­bridge is ide­ally located in all areas, whether guests are com­ing by road, rail or air. The hotel is just half a mile from the A1, with the M62/A1 inter­change 4 miles south. Pon­te­fract train sta­tion is a 10 minute drive from the hotel, with the larger sta­tion of Don­caster just 20 min­utes away. Those that are trav­el­ling from dis­tant cor­ners of the UK can fly into Robin Hood’s Air­port, which is 30 min­utes by car. Guests trav­el­ling from other coun­tries can arrive at the Leeds/Bradford air­port, which is a 40 minute drive from Wentbridge.

Cather­ine Har­rild is the hotel man­ager at Went­bridge House. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the venue please visit www.wentbridgehouse.co.uk/weddings or down­load the free wed­ding brochure with all the lat­est details from the venue for 2013. www.wentbridgehouse.co.uk/wedding-brochure/

This is a spon­sored Eng­lish Wed­ding blog post. (Click the link to see what this means.)