January News; Christmas wreaths, Making Plans & our last Winter wedding
A very happy new year to you.
January is always a great incentive to make plans for the year ahead, to set goals and create wish lists. Have you got anything special planned for 2023?
Here at Butley Priory, we’re using the next few weeks to get our ducks in a row for another busy year ahead before our first wedding of the year takes place in February.
Before we look ahead, we’d just like to transport you back to December to highlight what a fabulous day we had for our very first wreath making course. Hosted by Lucy from Hall Lane Flowers, our guests were treated to coffee on arrival, before they got busy creating some wonderfully unique wreaths. Whilst they were all using the same materials, we were treated to an array of different styles.
Our last wedding of 2022 for Hannah & Joel was an absolute cracker. Possibly one of the coldest and foggiest days of the year, we saw night-time temperatures of -6. With a tipi involved, we had concerns…but I’m pleased to say that with the correct heating and a lovely fire pit, it was very warm and toasty inside.
Hannah & Joel opted for a church wedding, followed by drinks & mulled cider in the Tipi. Dinner was hosted in the Great Hall with candlelight, with cake-cutting & speeches back inside the Tipi. Their final destination was to return to the Great Hall for drinks & dancing. A wonderful day enjoyed by all!
So, now onto January, and it has already proved to be a productive one. We’ve arranged to have the ground floor of the Great Hall and Drawing Room at Butley Priory sanded and re-painted, ready for the wedding season to begin. It’s already looking amazing, and we can’t wait to show you the results once it’s all finished.
To round off the year, we treated our Events team to a Christmas party night at Wherstead Park. We had such a great night, with lots of laughter – so lovely to be on the receiving end of good hospitality and a great opportunity to let our hair down after a busy year!
Christmas and New Year saw an abundance of excited, newly engaged couples. It’s the most popular time for engagements with around 40% of engagements in any one year, happening between Christmas Eve and Valentines Day. Our inbox has been overflowing with wedding enquiries and we’ve got a busy few weekends ahead filling up with viewings. On Saturday 21 January, we’ll be hosting a special Viewing Day, where the full events team will be on hand to discuss wedding plans and to show couples around the Priory, Cottage and Farmhouse.
We’d love to know what you have planned for 2023!
December News; Wedding Planners, Birthday celebrations and a November Wedding
Typically, November is a quieter month in the wedding venue calendar, however it’s felt anything but quiet these last few weeks and as we charge ahead into December with all its festive celebrations, it looks like the team will be run off their feet right to the end!
First, let us take you back to our Wedding Planner Retreat that took place last month. We invited a group of 12 wedding planners from East Anglia, London & the Home Counties to experience lunch, dinner and an overnight stay at Butley Priory.
The weather wasn’t kind at all, but only served to make the Priory feel even more cosy with the fires crackling away and the warm candlelight glow.
We started with an informal canape lunch, (because who doesn’t love canapes?) followed by a tour of the Priory, cottage and farmhouse, where we made ourselves cosy in front of the sitting room fire for tea and pretty, pastel macarons from Hilton Macarons.
To keep everyone amused, we then got busy with a cocktail making masterclass from the fabulous guys at The Bar District. Cosmopolitans, Gin Gardens and Amaretto Sours were the order of the day, with some competitive challenges thrown in for good measure!
After a little turnaround, the Great Hall was transformed for dinner with a long banqueting table complete with beautiful florals from Tudor Rose and divine tableware from Party Squared. Naturally, Peter Harrison was put in charge of catering and created an exquisite four course tasting menu using the finest local produce.
And so to bed with an early start the next morning for a Pilates class with Kelly Steventon. A gentle stretch and deep breaths to ease us all into the day and to set us up for a healthy breakfast back at the Farmhouse, before saying our goodbyes.
Late November saw the first of our festive holiday stays at Butley Abbey Farmhouse, with the arrival of some lovely guests who stay with us each year to enjoy a Christmas together before the big event in December…equipped with trees, decorations and all the gastronomic delights, the family enjoyed a wonderful stay.
“Thank you so much for letting us use this gorgeous home to create Dec 25th in November. So many lovely memories made this year, excited already to come back next year. Always special to find a house that holds our ever-growing family. Thanks again!!”
Speaking of Christmas, we’re all looking forward to settling down to watch the BBC’s The Detectorists Christmas special starring Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones which we saw them filming, in and around Framlingham over the Summer. Look out for Nigel Richardson’s (author of The Accidental Detectorist) feature in the Telegraph about metal detecting, which includes our Suffolk Sandlands tours.
Onto other celebrations and this time, it was for our very own Nigel & Daniela, who both enjoyed November birthday cake and balloons in the Events Office – Happy Birthday you two!
We hosted a delightful gathering, with mulled wine for around 60 guests for the Friends of Orford Museum talk with Gary Battell. Gary is the Woodland Advisor at Suffolk County Council and did a wonderful talk about the tress and woodlands of Suffolk, which will be followed up with a walk, through Staverton Thicks in the new year.
Lastly, we take a look back at Gigi & Tom’s gorgeous November wedding. Much to everyone’s surprise we had the mildest November day which meant guests were able to enjoy the garden late into the evening, with use of a ‘chill-out’ marquee filled with comfy chairs and a Football table!
As we fast track towards the end of the year, we’re looking forward to our final wedding of the year, our team Christmas party in the Great Hall and to welcoming two more lovely families who have chosen to spend their Christmas in Butley Abbey Farmhouse and Butley Priory.
We’d like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a bright and beautiful 2023!