Wedding Ceremony

At Cooling Castle Barn we are licensed to hold marriage ceremonies. The ceremony can take place in either the atmospheric Fathom Barn on the candle lit dais or in our pavillion which is situated in our landscaped gardens.

If you choose for the ceremony to take place in the Fathom Barn, the wedding guests enter from the adjacent Heritage Barn, where they may have been enjoying refreshments whilst waiting for the ceremony to begin. The toastmaster will lead the guests into the Fathom Barn and when they are all seated the marriage ceremony will commence.

When the bridal party are ready, they will enter the ceremony room onto the minstrels gallery and will be led down the staircase and up the aisle by either the celebrant or the toastmaster. The Groom and Best Man will be waiting at the front of the barn by the dais where they watch this dramatic entrance.

The ceremony is conducted by a celebrant and registrar from the Medway Registrar's Office. The ceremony is legal and binding and must therefore be conducted to a standard procedure. However we do suggest that the Bride and Groom can personalise their ceremony by including readings, poetry or anything that reflects their own taste. All additions to the ceremony must be agreed in advance with Medway Registrar's. The ceremony takes between twenty and thirty minutes.

Music for the ceremony is personal choice and we recommend that the Bride and Groom take time to select music from either their own collection, from a selection provided by Medway Registrar's or from a compilation of 'music for a civil ceremony' which we have at the barn.

Alternatively, live musicians can provide the music; for example a string quartet, harpist, solo singers have all been favourites at recent ceremonies.

We can seat a maximum of one hundred and twenty guests in the Fathom Barn, but we can make provision for additional guests by removing some of the seating at the back of the room to provide an extra standing area.

After the ceremony the Bride and Groom will retire to the Tithe Barn where they will be served with a complementary drink and left to enjoy each others company for ten to fifteen minutes. Meanwhile their guests will be escorted into the Heritage Barn and served a refreshing pre dinner drink.

A rehearsal for the ceremony is provided for all couples. This is an opportunity for the Bride and Groom to visit us to discuss and practice how the ceremony commences. It is also an opportunity to meet the Duty Manager of their Wedding Day so that when they arrive at the Barn it will be to a friendly face that they recognise.