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Goldsborough Hall’s First Marquee
The marquee at Goldsborough Hall
After six years of hosting fabulous and elegant Yorkshire weddings within the main house, Goldsborough Hall’s first marquee was put up for the wedding celebrations of our friends Catherine and Andrew in October 2011.
When they came to us with a guest list of 250 plus people, the question was how were we going to fit them all in?
Spread over two rooms Goldsborough Hall, as a venue, has hosted weddings and private dinners for up to 200, but this number of people was going to require something that bit larger.
The grand entrance
A marquee was the obvious answer but the next questions was where and how? Goldsborough Hall is situated at the far end of the picturesque village of Goldsborough, near Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, with commanding views over unspoiled landscape, but has some rather sloping lawns which are not ideal for marquees!
We settled on using the main gravel area in front of the house, as we could then use the front steps as a dramatic entrance into the structure allowing guests seamlessly to move from one to the other.
Florist Angie Walker puts the finishing touches to the flowers
Mark Oglesby, owner of Goldsborough Hall, says, “We utilised all available space at the front of the house and the area worked incredibly well. Up to 25 tables fit comfortably in this 15m by 15m space.
“We were very happy to be working with Charlie from C & J Rentals, specialist marquees and will be working with them again for another wedding in December, where the structure for 200 guests will be hidden from view in the rear courtyard.”
Setting up the venue
Angie Walker, the florist for the day’s celebrations, was amazed at what she saw. A regular florist at Goldsborough Hall’s wedding venue, Angie was thrilled at the size of the space, giving her the opportunity to design some dramatic and large arrangements.
Wedding marquee at Goldsborough Hall
Logistically a wedding this size in such a huge space needs a lots of planning. A 25-strong team were enlisted to set up the wedding and to serve some fabulous canapes and champagne in the 17th century Jacobean Library and the Princess Mary Drawing Room. The grey skies and drizzle on that Yorkshire day were kept at bay with two roaring logs fires in both rooms.
Event Music kept everyone entertained
Musical entertainment was provided by Chris Hilton’s Event Music Company. Chris is also a regular at the Hall and was delighted to see the marquee.
“What an absolute pleasure it was to see this wonderful wedding venue transformed from its usual luxury into a glorious entertaining space. The marquee was mind-blowing. Where there is normally a grand entrance and a gravel courtyard became a seamless link into a perfectly square and surprisingly large wedding breakfast,” says Chris.
The delicious mille feuille
Four chefs, led by Goldsborough Hall’s head chef David Stewart-Pybus, had been preparing all week and produced a fabulous menu for the wedding guests. Dishes included Yorkshire smoked trout on a lemon and dill potato salad, loin of pork stuffed with apricot & thyme with herby mashed potato and blackberry & raspberry mille feuille.
A Yorkshire cheese board appeared with Goldsborough Hall chutney and a glass of port. Tea, coffee and mints rounded off the evening well.
Andrew, the groom, summed up the wedding perfectly, “It was a great do Mark – the professionalism shown by you and all the staff was just awesome and exceeded my expectations.”
Mark Oglesby says, “This may be the first marquee we’ve done but will certainly not be the last! It created a whole different set of issues from our usual wedding set up, but with our excellent team it all ran like clockwork on the day. A big congratulations to all the team. It certainly shows how versatile Goldsborough Hall is as a private wedding venue.”
