Shannon and James found the perfect castle venue in Kent to tie the knot.
How long were you looking for your wedding venue and what made you choose them?
A couple of months! We were set on a Kent venue as we both grew up in Kent and it was close to our families, and I (Shannon) knew I wanted a castle wedding! Luckily we’re spoilt for choice with castles in the Kent area and went to a few viewings – we chose Leeds Castle for several reasons – stunning castle inside and outside with a beautiful moat and Castle Island which we could picture our guests having cocktails on with the Castle backdrop. The dining room really stood out to us as a real banqueting room with long tables – and we loved the number of different spaces we could use for different parts of the day. The catering options stood out to us too – we were really able to create our own customised menu, fusing British and Asian cuisines!
The bedrooms were plenty and all enormous, with traditional 4-poster beds and huge bathrooms! We wanted our guests to have the same royal experience as us 🙂 Not to mention the amazing service we received from start to finish with our planning!
How did your venue assist in the planning of your big day and how was the overall planning experience?
The venue was amazing in terms of planning – and I (Shannon) didn’t make it a walk in the park! Really grateful for such responsiveness, multiple times a day, with all sorts of queries about every detail – they went out of their way to get us all the answers and ensure we could personalise our day as much as possible! They were really proactive and we really felt like we had an advisor alongside us as we planned our day down to every detail. So a huge thank you to Katie Jordan for that!!
On the big day, how did your wedding coordinator ensure all ran smoothly?
They did an amazing job! Everything ran smoothly despite me (Shannon) being unsurprisingly late down the aisle, already throwing us off schedule! Our guests were all very well looked after and the day flowed just as we planned 🙂 Our overnight guests were also really well looked after from the moment they arrived, with staff on-hand at all times to ferry them and their luggage to where it needed to go.
Who was your wedding photographer and why did you choose them?
‘Agnes Black’ aka Natalie, was our photographer and she stood out as she’s one of the Top 12 Wedding Photographers in the UK according to ‘The Wed’. We loved her editorial style and ‘fly-on-the-wall’ approach, taking truly natural and candid shots throughout the day!
