Such a Warm Welcome
Our wedding at Bateman's was, for want of a better word, fantastic. We had a fantastic sunny day (well 2 days actually) in July and the venue looked spectacular in the sunshine. The day ran like clockwork and John and Nicole had worked extremely hard ensuring the venue looked perfect. We actually ended up having a small official wedding on the friday with just close friends and family and then the 'big day' on the saturday, on the friday wedding we had afternoon tea canapés, which I just couldn't get enough of.
Food for wedding thoughts
My only compliant would be that the strawberries dipped in chocolate were too juicy and delicious so it was inevitable that i'd get some on my white shirt. The food on the Saturday was a much grander affair and we had canapés followed by a full 3 course wedding breakfast for our 120 guests. If I could pick a favourite thing about the wedding it would be the food, Nicole prides herself on the food at Bateman's and you can see why. There were no pre-set menus (which is a huge difference from any other venue we saw) and we chose a menu, with huge help from Nicole, based on what was in season and what was grown right there on the farm. This intimate knowledge of seasonal produce plus Nicole and he teams ability to produce stunning food was a highlight of the day.
Raising a glass
I would also like to praise the staff, they literally can't do enough for you; I was tired just watching them. The bar is John's domain and he runs it well, the drink prices are very reasonable (this coming from a northerner is praise indeed) and there was never a wait for a drink. Nicole and her team managed to turn our wedding thoughts and dreams into a reality, even when I wasn't sure how I wanted the guest book table to look, Nicole took the bits I had bought for it and made it into a masterpiece. My only problem now is that want to do it all again. Sadly I've been told no to having a yearly wedding but here's hoping we'll get to call into Bateman's soon.
Listen to the lady
If you do book a wedding at Bateman's one piece of advice I would give is, listen to Nicole's advice on local suppliers; thanks to Nicole we had a fantastic florist, a brilliant hog roast and some lovely local cask ale.
John and Nicole run a tight ship at Bateman's but they know what they are doing and the end result as I have mentioned was fantastic.
Mark & Alex 10th-11th July 2015
