South Farm Venue Reviews

Hi Laura,

Know it's abit late but just wondering what you decided to do! I have also fallen in love with south farm!

Appears to be very popular we are looking at 2017 and there are zero Saturday dates avavaible until November!!

Did you go with it? We are even considering a Sunday there now!

Claudia

We reserved a date for May 2017 at South Farm, it's beautiful isn't it. I know quite a few people who've got married there although never been to a wedding there.

In the end we decided against it for a few reasons (just personal preference), & sometimes I do still worry if we made the wrong decision!:

• Due to the fact that there's weddings there 7 days a week, it felt a bit like a conveyor belt
• The difference in cost between a weekday & a weekend made us wonder why they felt they could justify charging SO much more for a weekend wedding
• We wanted to have a bit more of a relaxed day, whereas the regimented example plan of the day they showed us in the kitchen area seemed a little too organised for us! ?
• We quite fancied the idea of afternoon tea - & theirs was actually more per head than the Ritz charge!

We didn't go & look at Milling Barn in the end as we'd already found our venue by then, so I cancelled our appointment, but it looked lovely from what we saw (we drove by & the location is very pretty), & did seem more reasonably priced. The only thing is they don't offer overnight accommodation, which is the great thing about South Farm - everything is in the one place.

Other places we looked at were a bit varied, & not sure where you're based, but other places on our list to consider were:

Sheene Mill

Hexton Manor

Redcoats nr Hitchin

Bassmead Manor - I think this is v similar to South Farm & I've heard lots of good things about it

Anstey Hall

Hi Mrs Crocket!

I've shot at South Farm before and loved it. I found it really well run without being too intrusive, nothing was too much for the staff there and everyone was really nice. Especially when the ceremony is outside and there's lots of places to go to for photos and it's just pretty everywhere you go and in turn quite an interesting place to be at for not just you but your guests as well. It's one of my favourite places to go to.

Chapples suggestion of Hexton Manor and Bassmead Manor are also great (not been to the others mentioned) and each venue has their own specific feel.

Hexton Manor has their reception in a Marquee (but it's a full on professional one, sturdy and very big - doesn't 'feel' like one) and Bassmead Manors Barn has had a stupidly large amount of work done to it recently and it's got a very new feel to it.

South Farm's Barn is the nicest Barn I've shot in though, just something about it I really like but regardless budgets have to be considered as I know when I got married it ran wayyyy away with us and we spent a lot more than we had initially figured. On the subject of budget there's always two considerations - what people 'think' the price should be and what the 'realistic' price is.

I get it a lot when I speak with couples about wedding cakes, most people can't believe bespoke cakes can range between £300-£1500 as it's not something they've ever had to think about and it's not just with weddings as it trickles down to everything when it's a first time purchase.

Ooh yes Chris, the barn is wonderful - especially now they've put the glass extension bit in - we got really excited about the idea of having that slightly segregated area.

I'm remembering everything else I loved about South Farm now, I think if you do decide you can afford it, you'll definitely not regret it.

Thanks for advice Chapples, and the list of venues!

we have just provisionally booked there as they only had 1 date in July left! We are viewing Saturday fingers crossed its the one!

I completely get what you mean about the number of weddings there. I actually couldn't believe how booked up it was. And the cost of weekends compared to week days are just ridiculous but then we are finding most places we are looking at are the same or pretty much more!? Did you manage to get a weekend at your venue?

Hi

We went to a Friday wedding there in October and it was absolutely beautiful, we even got to stay in the large green gypsy carriage on site.

Felt so different from anything we'd seen before and so discreet to the wedding party, friends and family as we had the run of the whole venue. We were almost gutted we hadn't searched further out in Hertfordshire when we got married.

My friend had a stunning autumnal theme and the couple are a wizz at being creative, so they decorated the entire venue with lots of pumpkins, candles, bunting, dried leaves - the works, including favours in the bathrooms depending on gender and favours in the carriages and bedrooms and the venue were completely accommodating. Plus it was so reassuring for my friend as only one wedding is the only wedding there so no one but your guests are going to be using the hairspray, lip balm and deodorant that you've prepared. If you choose to do that obviously.

I agree with the others you'll regret it if you rule it out completely plus watching the animals in the farm in the middle of the venue was a real ice breaker for guests who didn't know each other in between the cemormony and wedding breakfast.

All the best

We did - we're getting married on a Saturday in June 2017 at Burloes Hall in Royston - well the ceremony is just down the road but that's where we're having our reception, in a marquee in the grounds of a lovely house - I should have added that to my list really shouldn't I! They only have one wedding a week I think so you have a good few days before the wedding to get in & set up, which appealed to me, & it's the same price whatever day of the week you use it I think.

Good luck with the viewing, I'm excited to hear what you thought!

Oh that's so great you managed to find somewhere else that you love!

Funny enough I actually contacted Burloes Hall. As much as I love south farm still want to keep my options open.. Couldn't hardly find any information on their site which makes me think it's way out of our budget!

I saw that they did no corkage which is amazing! Have you organised much else? I'm feeling so overwhelmed with it all! Just trying to get the venue out of the way first..

Loving all the comments we went for Fanhams hall in the end in ware. As soon as we walked in it felt like the one and we can't wait! 29.07.17! Xx

I'll PM you Garagegirlie about price etc! We've booked a photographer, band & DJ too, & meeting the catering companies at the moment so we can at least get an idea of what it's all going to cost. I also ordered my BM dresses the other week as there was a sale on! It's all v exciting, it was nice to be able to crack on with sorting the big things once we had a date & place confirmed, & then we can have a few months off before getting back to it after the Summer I think.

MrsCrockett2Be - I grew up just down the road from Fanhams, it's amazing isn't it! When I was about 15 I worked as a chambermaid up there for a bit too.

We looked at The Manor Barn in Harlton but they don't do ceremonies. You have the additional option of the house gardens, it was stunning but still out of our price range (was around the 3K mark for hire but had to use their caterers). http://themanorbarn.com/weddings/

We ended up with a barn in Bourn however this wasn't a wedding venue (we got married in the church in Toft) and it took a lot of convincing by us to let us have our reception here. It was a complete DIY though. I think they were planning on offering it as a venue but not sure when. It is an old Tithe barn tho our guests loved it has a court yard where there was hay bales for seating and lights around.