Orchardleigh House

A beautiful mid Victorian country house set in acres of rolling hills.
We got married at Orchardleigh on 5^th sept 2014 Having looked at numerous venues we chose Orchardleigh because they were so friendly and accommodating. Throughout the planning of the big day nothing was too much trouble and they were always available to talk to no matter how trivial the question.
We can’t thank the staff highly enough, Particularly Karl (our wedding coordinator) and Nicola his assistant. We would definitely recommend this venue to anyone looking for a stress-​free wedding. The candle lit church was outstanding, although unfortunutley didn’t use due to haveing many guests. I would thoroughly recommend this as a wedding venue.
Before they had even mentioned the cost we had decided this was the place for us, it just felt like a home from home. They told us that the staff will go home at night when we tell them we were finished with them (this turned out to be 8−9am) and we were told that we could play music till whenever. THEY CHARGE YOU £21 PER HEAD FOR INCLUSIVE ALCOHOL FROM THE END OF THE WEDDING BREAKFAST TO, IN OUR CASE 8−9AM!!!
Unbelievable value for money!!!
The food was fantastic and We particularly liked the fact all the meat is produced on site by the owners of orchardleigh.
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I don’t often get to use the word «bamboozled» but that is exactly how I feel when reading these sterling reviews of Orchardleigh! The best I could muster would be a «Meh, it’s okaaaaaaaaay.» Because of the occasion we still managed to have a good time but ever the objective observer, I couldn’t help but make mental notes during our stay with a plan to put them to paper, albeit digital paper, eventually. I’ll start with the aesthetics, follow with the food and finish with service.
My partner and I attended a wedding over the weekend. Firstly, the pictures on the website paint a much more appealing picture than it looks in person. The grounds are indeed expansive and I’ll concede that in January they are not at their peak of loveliness, but even our taxi driver said what a shame it is that they don’t keep up the grounds properly and just leave dead trees and piles of broken branches lying there. I can see how the back gardens could be very nice in the right weather. The outside of the house is very «Downton Abbyish» but the interior mostly disappoints. The billiard room was impressive (I assume because it was dimly lit) and the wood fires put of a pleasant scent but our bedroom (The «Ily room») was not the 4-​poster oasis we were hoping for. The furniture was a mix of some traditional pieces (often dirty — see the mini chaise) with some kind of trashy-​wannabe-​cream-​leather-​IKEA sofas. The room was freezing, the radiator leaked, the shower didn’t really work. The room did have some strong points, being a comfy bed, a nice bathtub and how spacious it was.
On to my favourite thing to review… the FOOD. The evening began with a variety of canapés and bubbly. These were all edible but unimpressive. There wasn’t any temperature variation so things that probably should have been a bit warm, weren’t. The dinner was downright disappointing. We began with what I can only describe as the worst parsnip soup I’ve ever had. I’m pretty convinced they just pureed parsnips with water. It was awful. I seriously don’t know in what universe that would have passed for a decent soup? The main was a classic roast beef with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and veg. Our roast beef was so overdone, I had to get extra water just to make sure I could swallow it. Potatoes and veg are pretty hard to mess up and the gravy made the meal tolerable but this was a pretty poor showing. To be fair, there were other roast beefs floating around that were not cooked beyond recognition, we just weren’t lucky enough to snag one of those. The chocolate cake dessert was my favourite. Unfortunately, Orchardleigh can’t get anything more than credit for presentation, as this was the wedding cake that I *believe* was outside catered. Finally, at 10:00 there was an additional round of hog roast sandwiches and a cheese plate. The pork was decent but not anything more than roast meat. I enjoyed the cheese that was on the plate. Kind of hard to mess up cheese… We didn’t make breakfast the next day because we couldn’t be bothered to get up for what would, based on our earlier food experiences at Orchardleigh, be a disappointment.
From an individual perspective, all of the staff at Orchardleigh were very friendly and helpful. On the whole though, there was some lack of organisation. 120 of us were all crammed like cattle into a hallway for canapés and were then crammed into the same hallway while they cleared the dining space to make room for dancing — this seemed to take hours! Another point of contention for us was that at 9:00am, the cleaning person burst into our room (we may or may not have been butt-​naked) without even knocking. My boyfriend managed an «OYE!» before any irreparable damage was done but seriously? We also had to be out of the house by 11:00am. This resulted in us having to totally change our plans and end up at the airport about 5 hours before our departure because, well, we had nothing else to do.
We would have loved to provided the venue with this feedback, as they provide you a lovely form to do so, however they don’t leave you a pen. I tried to communicate it telepathically but just to be sure, I put it on Unilocal too.

I have attended two weddings here in the last two weeks, and it was an absolute pleasure on both occasions.
Orchardleigh is a huge estate 10 miles from Bath and boosts a huge beautiful Victorian house. As you turn into the drive the grandeur begins, you through the golf course, green lusciousness everywhere.
The house comprises of 100+ bedrooms all varying in size and grandeur. Ours was comfortable, spacious and we had the most stunning view of the grounds and lake.
The wedding breakfast was lovely, we had breaded Camembert with salad to start, roast lamb with all the trimmings for main course and a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. It was all lovely. My favourite was the canapés we were greater with on arrival in particular the salmon risotto balls and mini sausages, wow!
They give you the option of a prepaid bar for the evening where guests pay a set amount before hand, and the drinks flow all night. This was a great idea, we certainly got our value for money.
This wedding venue is absolutely stunning, if glitz and glamour is what your looking for then this is the place for you!

Book the venue for our wedding — had the most amazing day. The venue itself is outstanding and the staff really go out theyre way to ensure the day is special.
We had 85 day guest and about 170 in the evening guest. We had all the whole house for ourselves including all the rooms fille and pre paid bar which carried on all night. We heard rumors they would run out but they certainly didnt. The food and drinks were great apart from the lamb being a bit too fatty and hardly no meat. But wouldnt mark it down for that as tasted beautiful.
We had fireworks refered by orchardeligh which went down great with our guests. And we also stayed the night before in the cottages on site which was lovely. The whole weekend was amazing for us! From one Happy newly wed couple.

Lovely venue, good food, poor service. Poor communication-​despite written & verbal confirmation too many tables set up, which led to confusion over place settings & more flowers being organised. Breakfast shambolic, known number & time not difficult to have sufficient food, place settings etc, but they did not have room to seat everyone so some ate in the hall, ran out of juice, hot water, coffee, no one supervising, did not provide cutlery once initial settings used so my husband & I spent breakfast finding staff to request more. Got the feeling you have paid so we don’t need to bother anymore. No reply to email

This was my wedding venue and it was absolutely amazing. Obviously I’m slightly biased, but every one of our guests agreed it was a fabulous place. Stunning grounds, beautiful old house, great attention to detail in the decorand above all, wonderful service, staff and organisation.
They cater for receptions from about 50 to 144, they have on site accommodation for about 120, loads of parking, a golf course, a pretty church on an island with no electricity so it has to be lit by candlesneed I go on?
I will anyway civil ceremonies are held in the ‘Great Hall’ in front of a huge romantic fireplace (not sure how a fireplace can be romantic but I guess on your wedding day, anything can happen). This means the aisle is a little narrow to walk down, but it was cosy and we had no problems with it.
They have two reception rooms connected by a wide archway for the wedding breakfast/​buffet or entertainment; The Ballroom and The Blueroom. Each stunning and opulent.
They only charged £5 corkage per person rather than an amount per bottle (which saved us thousands!) and the food was delicious (although my dress didn’t allow much room for me to take advantage of it!).
My new husband and I stayed in the ‘penthouse’ cottage — called the Bell Tower — for two nights. They have a village of cottages just a two minute walk from the main house. We put all our younger friends in these and several stayed an extra night for a relaxed Sunday eating pizza and singing karaōke. I can’t recommend this place enough.