Right. Yesterday we started the quest for a wedding venue by visiting Amberley Castle, just outside Amberley, west Sussex. We found out about the venue from a wedding show we went too with Jim and Gee. One stand was advertising wedding photo books and the examples they had contained photos from a fantastic looking castle. Turns out after a bit of asking around that it was Amberley Castle. Keryn rang them and we had a 3pm appointment to view.
So we set off yesterday morning with Karyn and Marie coming along for the trip. The day was lovely, if a bit windy, and the trip was without event. We were a couple of hours early for our appointment so we established where the place was and proceeded further along the way to have lunch on the beach at Littlehampton. After lunch we had a quick drive through Arundel (we’ll be going back there, the castle is fantastic) before pulling up at Amberley Castle.
This place is great, very picturesque. It all seemed quite posh though, Amberley Castle is a private residence and the owners look after it very well. Big, well maintained grounds with the castle set back on the rise. We walked in, wondering which way to go and marvelling at the Castle and the beauty of the grounds within the castle walls.
We got to the reception and announced our presence. We were shown to a sitting room and had a short wait before our host came in to start explaining things. We were asked a few questions about when the wedding will be, number of guests etc and then we were shown around the facilities. We were first led through to the ‘Great Hall’ when the actual ceremony would take place. This was a room that can hold about 40 people and has a very warm, welcoming atmosphere. Being a private residence there is much more in the way of decoration and ornaments on the walls, adding to the atmosphere. We were shown a door from the great hall that led out into a beautiful courtyard, where things could move after the ceremony. Then it was upstairs to the ‘Queens Room’ where the meal is held. This was actually being used for another wedding at the time but the glimpse we saw showed another impressive room.
Then it was upstairs again to one of the 19 rooms available, this one generally used as the married couples first night residence. This was a another impressive room, dominated by a large four-poster bed. The room, being quite high up, has great views of the surrounding countryside. There was also a bathroom that was lovely on its own, being large with shower/Greek steam room and jacuzzi. We were all impressed.
Back downstairs we were shown prices and options for food etc. We were well prepared to be shocked at the prices and were actually quite surprised at how affordable it was. We’ll put those details up in the wedding section. After that we were given the opportunity to wander around the grounds, which we did. While wandering around trying to find the in-residence peacocks a helicopter flew in and landed on the front lawn area. It looked like it was there to take the newly wedded couple away, all quite amazing to us little old kiwis.
So, we enjoyed the venue and the day, we’ll keep people posted as we get closer to decisions (we’ll probably have a venue sorted by July).
