Washingborough Hall Hotel
Since we cover the county of Lincolnshire for wedding dog chaperone duties I thought it would be a good idea to contact some dog friendly wedding venues to see if I could schedule a visit. The first of these in my diary was Washingborough Hall Hotel which I visited on a beautiful, crisp February day.
Having looked at some of the images and reviews online this was a place I was keen to visit as I can imagine this venue would hold lots of appeal to a certain type of wedding couple.
Some Key Points About This Venue
In talking to Lucy Herring (who had kindly agreed to meet with me and show me around Washingborough Hall Hotel) it became clear that this venue differs from many others I visit for a few key reasons:
- Unlike some wedding venues like wedding barns, wedding income is only one part of their income stream. Whilst wedding barns may also hold conferences, it’s fair to say that weddings make up a huge part of their income. Washingborough Hall Hotel on the other hand functions as a quality hotel for more days than it does as a wedding venue. The vast majority of their weddings take place at weekends. Midweek weddings can be booked but unlike other venues there is not a discount for a midweek wedding since they have the option of other streams of income during the week. For this reason the vast majority of their weddings take place at weekends when couples have sole use of the venue. Washingborough Hall Hotel aims to hold 50 weddings a year.
- Washingborough Hall Hotel is one of those rare venues where there is a traditional church on-site. St John the Evangelist church is just a 2 minute walk to the hotel through a wooden gate. This gives couples a choice about where the wedding ceremony takes place. If you don’t like the idea of singing a hymn or two and some of the religious aspects of a wedding ceremony you can marry inside the hotel in a choice of rooms depending on the wedding party size. If however you like the tradition of a church wedding with stained glass windows and the lovely sound of church bells ringing out you have that option too. In terms of capacity the church matches the hotel perfectly and the fact its so close to Washingborough Hall Hotel is ideal.
- I suppose I should mention capacity at this time. Washingborough Hall Hotel can cater to a total of 110 guests for the ceremony and wedding breakfast. In the evening this number can increase to 150 guests. This number seems to be the sweet spot in what the vast majority of wedding couples are looking for.
- Unlike some other dog friendly wedding venues, Washingborough Hall Hotel also has 5 dog friendly bedrooms. For many of my dog chaperone bookings, couples book my Gold package, asking me to stay the night with their dog in their own home. For those bookings where the wedding venue has dog friendly bedrooms couples tend to ask for a custom quote between my Silver and Gold package where I am asked to stay at the venue with the dog until 10pm or 11pm, at which point a family member who knows the dog will take the dog to their dog friendly bedroom for the night.
Washingborough Hall Hotel Gallery
Because photography is a hobby of mine, I’m always looking at those little features when I visit a venue that I feel will compliment the wedding photos. Perhaps many wedding couples these days (who will be younger than myself) don’t look for such things but I can’t help but notice certain features that a grand looking venue sometimes has that some wedding venues don’t have. For instance the beautiful church, lovely landscaped grounds with features like pagodas or fountains, a spiral staircase or large rooms with high ceilings and tall windows that fill spaces with lots of beautiful, natural light. It’s fair to say that Washingborough Hall Hotel has more of these features than some other dog friendly wedding venues. You might not remember the wedding meal in 20 years time but the photos from the day will stay with you and it’s these little features that can result in a more interesting, varied wedding album. The gallery below shows just a few images I took during my visit. They include one exterior view of the church, a quiet area known as The Snug, a room where the wedding ceremony could take place (the seating would look completely different on a wedding day) and an example of one of the dog friendly bedrooms. Lucy was also kind enough to send me some photos of previous weddings at Washingborough Hall Hotel where dogs were present. I’ve added a couple of these images to the gallery as well.
Washingborough Hall Hotel Reviews
In looking at reviews for Washingborough Hall Hotel they come from a wide section of people and are almost always hugely positive. Some will be regular overnight hotel guests, others will be people who visited for a meal or afternoon tea. It also seems a popular venue for funeral wakes. A decent number though are from people who attended Washingborough Hall Hotel for a wedding and many of the same positive points come up in many reviews. I looked at reviews on a few different platforms, including Google, TripAdvisor and a couple of dedicated wedding websites.
Concentrating on the reviews that related to weddings it’s clear that the team at Washingborough Hall go above and beyond to make sure the day goes smoothly. The fact that the venue itself is ideally suited to make it a memorable wedding is just the icing on the top.
If you would like to find out more about Washingborough Hall Hotel you can visit their website by clicking the link below:
