Guide to Weddings at Balbirnie House
INTRODUCTION
Balbirnie is recognised as an absolutely wonderful venue for weddings. Balbirnie is, as a destination, a truly splendid backdrop which wedding photographers dream about. The house plays host to special events in all shapes and sizes but with one thing in common – a tradition of personal service. Our main wedding promotional material contains lots of helpful information. For example, suggested menus, helpful hints, a comprehensive wine list, and even some detail on protocol.
For the avoidance of doubt, it is our policy to only ever provide a destination for one wedding per day, and with the means to tailor your day to your own precise requirements, our special events department will offer every assistance with planning the fundamental timings and details of the day.
Each and every wedding is quite individual and as such we discuss every wedding on a one to one basis with respective Balbirnie brides, grooms and parents. We have a range of delightful rooms that may or may not be utilised for the various elements involved in making up your successful special day and at the time of initial discussion we will outline the various areas within the hotel which are available, and the best ones applicable to the size of your special event. Once we understand the particular elements of the entire day’s proceedings, the management of the hotel will intimate the best choice of areas. On certain occasions room hire charges or facility fees become applicable. In approximate terms these are outlined herewith but for the avoidance of doubt this detail would form part of any wedding discussion.
In passing, we mention that any wedding that takes place at Balbirnie has the dedicated attention, for planning aspects ‘within the hotel,’ of an in-house personal Wedding Co-ordinator. Particularly for brides who live out with the local area, we do have many requests for planning services in a wider overall context, and subject to limited availability, if you would like advice and assistance for example with everything from the choice of dress, cars and transport, hairdressers, string quartets, stationary, gifts, etc etc, with a complete personalised service for all planning, we would be delighted to quote for this on an individual basis, dependant upon your requirements.
The following pages provide a brief insight into the details of planning a wedding. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information.
THE BALLROOM MAXIMUM CAPACITY
The vast majority of wedding meals at Balbirnie are for 70 to 150 daytime guests (see under “small and intimate below” for smaller wedding parties), with the wedding breakfast held in our magnificent Ballroom. Our absolute maximum numbers for a meal in The Ballroom are 216.
Allowing space for a dance floor and band, there can be physical seating for up to 180 guests. We would suggest that our maximum capacity for the evening celebrations is no more than 250 guests.
Use of The Millennium Ballroom includes the floodlit Ballroom Gardens (awning slides out 5m to cover garden terrace), The Ballroom Bar, Ballroom Lobby with same bar service hatch, and Lobby Terrace outside. The combination of all of these areas provides for exclusivity and privacy, enabling all guests to be part of the celebrations for the duration of the occasion.
Our standard dance floor is wooden, however we will be delighted to discuss the inclusion of our fantastic midnight blue dance floor inset with 1000s of LED twinkly lights, subject to the overview of individual special occasions. We mention in passing, that were our black dance floor to be hired elsewhere- eg for a marquee wedding, there would then be a charge applied by a dance floor rental company at circa £4,500.00.
In the words of one of the first ever brides to take to the new floor for the first dance-
‘We will never forget the spontaneous “oooooh!” from our guests when the LED dance floor was switched on! Amazing! We could not thank Balbirnie and the team enough for adding magic to our day and it is our only regret that we can’t re-live the experience again!’
Mrs Rozanne Galloway Boynton
THE WEDDING CEREMONY
We offer the opportunity to host your actual wedding ceremony at Balbirnie. The service can be of either a religious, humanist or civil format. We can put you in contact with several Church of Scotland Ministers who will be happy to conduct the ceremony at the hotel, or indeed you may wish to opt for a civil service arranged via our local registrar’s office.
Should you opt to have the ceremony at the hotel, then a room hire charge is applicable.
FOR CEREMONIES UP TO 100 GUESTS
The Long Gallery is the main ‘central’ room of the original Grade A listed 1777 house. With Georgian lunette windows, arched ceiling, and of course the trompes d’oeuil (tricks of the eye) painted into the coves of the ceiling, The Gallery is an atmospheric room which works very well indeed for ceremonies.
- Room hire charge: £850.00
FOR CEREMONIES BETWEEN 100 AND 150 GUESTS
The Orangery was added to Balbirnie in 1999 as part of the Millennium Extensions. With a mirrored tinted glass ceiling, floor to ceiling lunetted Georgian windows, an air of tranquillity and views out to the surrounding parkland, The Orangery also works very well for ceremonies.
- Room hire charge: £950.00
Weather permitting, we can also host ceremonies in our picturesque gardens. This of course is a decision which needs to be taken on the day, and one of the above areas would have to be reserved to allow for our Scottish weather!
Alternatively, there is of course the option to have your ceremony outwith the hotel and there are a number of delightful local churches within the surrounding area, including our local Markinch village church - a very picturesque church which sits on a hillside just 5 minutes drive from here.
RECEPTION DRINKS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
We have a range of delightful rooms which can be integrated into your wedding reception, depending on your proposed guest numbers. Once we understand the requirements of your own special day, we can at the time of our initial discussions with you outline the various areas within the hotel which are available, and the best ones applicable to the size of your wedding. Generally speaking, these will incorporate our Long Gallery and Library Bar for drinks and our West Room which overlooks our gardens will also be available as a private area for you, set aside for your photo session and possibly a cake cutting toast.
WEDDING MEAL MINIMUM GUEST NUMBERS
Weddings at Balbirnie can take place each and every day of the week and we promise that yours will be the only wedding held at Balbirnie on your special day. Our minimum number requirement throughout the year is as follows:
- Fridays: 90
- Saturdays: 100
- Sunday to Thursday: 70
Please note - if eventual wedding party numbers on the actually wedding date are below those stated as above, a surcharge prevails equivalent to £55.00 per person. This applies to weddings held on any day of the week, and for our wedding packages.
WEDDING PRICING STRUCTURE
We offer a range of wedding packages and also bespoke pricing, depending on which day of the week and which time of year you would like to hold your wedding. Additional guests can be added as required and there is flexibility to further personalise packages as desired.
See our range of packages here.
THE SELECTION OF MENUS
At an early stage, and as the menu element of the day is being considered, there is a huge choice in the selection of dishes that formulate the menu. As the arrangements evolve, the choice will be made and menu selected. For all large gatherings at Balbirnie the final selection would produce a pre-set menu, and for avoidance of doubt this means there is not a multi-choice option. The reasons behind this are varied. Importantly, our wedding menus are cosmopolitan, universally appealing, and tried and tested over the course of many special gatherings. In simplistic terms our endeavour is to ensure the highest of standard of quality and an efficiency of service. In other words, we endeavour to offer to a large banquet a similar experience to dining in our restaurant. And of course, if on the day anyone does express a wish to have something else, rare thought that is, then we are readily available to assist.
In mentioning the above we also integrate into detailed discussions the need for specialist menus to cover guests who may be vegetarians, vegan, require gluten free menus etc. And of course we are delighted to prepare a special menu for children… (usually 3 courses priced at £14.95 and consisting of melon, chicken goujons with chips and garden peas, and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce to follow…)
In passing, should you wish to sample a selected menu, it is possible to do this on a set menu basis for a minimum of 4 people. This must be pre-arranged with the wedding co-ordinator. Sample menus are charged at full price to the main account.
THE SELECTION OF WINES
WINES
Our Events wine list offers a wide selection of wines at varying prices and the Special Events Co-ordinator will be pleased to elaborate and explain more fully the advantages of one wine over another. Please also let us know if we can source any particular special wines for you.
CORKAGE
We offer the opportunity for you to provide your own wine at Balbirnie for your special day. If you choose to do this there would be corkage charges applicable which would be as follows:
£12.00 per bottle of wine
£14.50 per bottle of sparkling wine
£18.00 per bottle of champagne
The above prices are including VAT.
We will of course store wine on delivery and serve the wine on the day.
Please note that we do ask that any leftover bottles are removed from Balbirnie the morning after the wedding. We have no facility for storing these items. Please note- due to lack of storage facilities, any leftover wine which is not removed from the premises on the morning after the wedding will be disposed of.
SMALL AND INTIMATE WEDDINGS AT BALBIRNIE
We are also delighted to cater for small and intimate weddings, subject to date availability throughout the year. Yours will of course as always be the only wedding taking place in the house. Please contact us for date availability.
We have a number of lovely rooms suitable for smaller weddings, all with super views over the gardens, and can offer a choice of:
The Garden Room (up to 16 guests):
- £75 room hire for wedding breakfast or £150 room hire for ceremony and wedding breakfast
- Wedding Menus from £35
The West Room (up to 42 guests):
- £150 room hire for wedding breakfast or £250 room hire for ceremony and wedding breakfast
- Wedding Menus from £35
The Orangery Restaurant (36- 70 guests):
- £375 room hire for wedding breakfast
- £850 for Long Gallery ceremony if required
- Menus from £35
Please note that musical entertainment during the wedding breakfast is allowed but that there is no facility to have evening dancing in these areas. The Ballroom however can be hired for an evening reception if proposed numbers are suitable.
Please do let us know if this is of interest and we would be thrilled to show you around the hotel.
