The pub says no to every one of these. We say maybe.
The Farmer’s Dog turns down every wedding enquiry it receives, and it receives a great many. This is where they get sent: a concrete-floored barn on a working farm, at about half what a wedding venue charges and roughly twice the effort.
Why the pub says no.
A wedding takes a restaurant out of service for a day and a half, generates roughly the same revenue as a normal Saturday, occupies every member of staff, and produces a set of expectations that a pub kitchen running an à la carte service cannot meet.
It also does the thing that quietly damages a pub: it fills the room with people who are not there for the pub. Regulars who arrive and find a private event have a slightly worse opinion of the place, and they were the ones there in February.
So the answer at the pub is a flat no, given quickly, which is kinder than a long maybe. This page is the alternative and it is deliberately unromantic about what it involves.
What hiring the barn gets you.
Included
- The Big Barn from noon the day before until noon the day after
- The yard and the field margins for photographs
- Three-phase power, a tap, and lighting to the barn
- Parking for about seventy cars, plus a field overflow in dry weather
- A named person on site for the whole of the day itself
- A weather clause that lets you move indoors at four days notice
Not included
- A kitchen of any kind
- Toilets — these are hired and they are a real cost
- Catering, bar staff, or a licence, which is yours to obtain
- Accommodation, here or anywhere on this holding, at all
- Heating between October and April, which is hired
- Any kind of wedding coordination service
How it actually goes.
You come and look at it in February
Not in June. Anybody can love a barn in June. If it works for you in February with the wind coming through the north door, it will work.
We tell you the whole cost, including the loos
Space hire is about half. We would rather lose the booking at this stage than at the deposit stage.
You bring your own caterer and your own bar
From a list if you want one, or from anywhere. We take no commission from any supplier and never have.
You get the temporary event notice
Ten working days minimum to the licensing authority. It is twenty-one pounds and it is the thing people leave until day nine.
We agree the weather plan in writing
Which space, what triggers the move, and who decides. Four days out, and the decision is ours because somebody has to make it.
It happens, and then it is gone by noon
Everything down, everything out. It is a working farm on the Monday and there is no gentle way to say that.
What a hundred-and-twenty person wedding costs here.
| Line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Barn hire, Saturday in September | £2,800 | £3,200 |
| Barn hire, Saturday in February | £1,800 | £2,000 |
| Hired toilets | £800 | £1,400 |
| Heating, if winter | £0 | £400 |
| Traffic marshalling | £320 | £320 |
| Temporary event notice | £21 | £21 |
| Catering, at £55–95 a head | £6,600 | £11,400 |
| Bar, at £22–40 a head | £2,640 | £4,800 |
| Everything else you will buy | Unknowable | Genuinely unknowable |
A barn wedding on a working farm is cheaper, colder, muddier and better than a wedding venue, and it is considerably more work. Anybody who wants a venue that handles everything should book a venue that handles everything, and we will say so on the phone rather than take the deposit.
Weddings, at a glance.
Up to 120 seated
180 standing, which is the licence.
Noon to noon
Setup the day before, out by noon after.
Nobody sleeps here
Planning permission. It is not negotiable.
No supplier commission
From anybody, ever.
Where to actually stay.
Partner sites in other parishes, because nobody stays on this holding.
