by sarah • December 31, 2021 • Heaton House Team
Life at Heaton House Farm never stands still. There are always new animals to look after, barn renovations to work on and lots of weddings to prepare for. But it’s safe to say 2021 has been a year like no other.
After basically shutting down our country wedding venue for the majority of 2020, we couldn’t wait to throw open our barn doors and welcome our lovely couples and all their wonderful friends and family back to our home.
“Nothing beats a good wedding,” as owner Sarah Heath says. “2020 was just heartbreaking for everyone here, as wedding after wedding got postponed, plans were thrown up in the air and we all missed the laughter, the love and the long-lasting memories that are made here every day. We were all eager to get celebrating once again in 2021.”
So as soon as restrictions were lifted, our team were right back at it, packing weddings and celebrations into every available day.
We’ve increased our team from around 25 back up to over 80 to meet the demand, and our on-site caterers have been working non-stop.
When we launched Stable Yard Catering in 2019, we’d planned to have around 40 weddings for our first full year. With the lockdown postponements, we ended up going from 10 to over 100 weddings!
But our chefs, waiting staff and everyone else who help make our weddings possible all rose to the challenge – and having a catering company on-site who works so closely with all our events team has made a huge difference.
All our teams – and our suppliers – have been doing everything they could to make those dream weddings come true for our couples.
After over 20 years of weddings at Heaton House Farm, you might think we’ve seen every wedding imaginable, given the creativity of all our couples. But 2021 brought a couple of new firsts for us – both of which were amazing.
Earlier in the year, with restrictions still in place for indoor gatherings, we celebrated our very first wedding with outdoor dining. Our terrace was transformed with tables, all decorated with beautiful displays, and the setting was stunning.
It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding, and we expect there to be many more outdoor weddings to come. And then a few months ago we also celebrated our first llama wedding, as one lovely couple chose to share their big day with several friendly llamas who were brought in to watch from our field – a totally unique experience.
