A stunning barn; beautiful location; amazing food; accommodation on site: Cooling Castle Barn is the perfect setting for your wedding. 

Now we are opening up the venue for a very special Open Day – where you can take a look around the venue for yourself, enjoy our hospitality, get introduced to the team and meet a host of our recommended suppliers. 

If you are hoping to get married in 2023 or 2024, this is the perfect time to wander around the venue and grounds to get a feel of the place. You can take a look at our new outdoor cooking area, all ready for an amazing evening feast and enjoy our new rose garden area and secret garden. You can admire our stunning duplex master suite, with roll top bath; be shown around the beautiful suite where the bride and bridesmaids can get ready; and take in the picturesque surroundings. 

Many of our recommended suppliers – from cake designers to florists and dress fitters to photographers - will be on hand, so you can meet them and take a look at what they do best. 

Our Open Day takes place on Sunday, 15 May and is by appointment only. Due to limited space, each slot is for one car and lasts 90 minutes. 

To book your space and find out more, take a look at the website and follow the link here. 

Hurry, because spaces are filling quickly! 

In a previous article, we spoke to our two most trusted photographers Nicky and Dan - who have been on our recommended supplier lists for almost 25 years between them. After learning about their craft and being treated to some of their best photographs they have managed to whittle it down to just one.

Here we find out about their favourite shot taken at Cooling Castle Barn and what sets it apart from others.

Dan Potter from Dan Potter Photography (photo above) has been a recommended supplier at Cooling Castle Barn for more than eight years.

He said: “I love this one. It’s a confetti shot, with the bride throwing her arm in the air. It might not be the best confetti shot there ever was, but because she is in the moment, loving the day, the emotion comes through and makes it a great photo in my eyes.

 Nicky Tulip at Nicky’s Photography has been a recommended supplier at Cooling Castle Barn for 15 years.

She picked this shot above as her favourite.

She said: “It was taken quite recently. The couple’s wedding was booked some time ago, but because of Covid it got moved. They had already moved it once and their last wedding date was a day before it was announced that they couldn’t have the wedding. I remember being on the phone with them and how upsetting it was. 

“It was an amazing thing to eventually complete that journey with them. They popped a bottle of Champagne, they shook it up and it fizzed up and I felt really close to them. From booking, it was three or four years of being on that journey. You get to know them and they even mentioned me in their speeches, which was lovely.

“As a photographer, you build up a relationship, you have to make sure you understand your couple, ensure they’re happy and make sure that you’ve understood what they want out of it.

“So with this photo it felt like mission accomplished.”

“A recipe has no soul - you, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe,” American chef Thomas Keller once said.

And at Cooling Castle Barn, our experienced chefs will bring the menu truly alive for your wedding day feast.

We’re always delighted to get positive feedback about our amazing food, and here we have brought in the experts at Fleur Challis Photography, to help us showcase some of our spectacular dishes.

Just don’t start looking through the gallery on an empty stomach!

How cool is this? We don’t often blow our own trumpet, but Cooling Castle Barn was featured in an Elle Magazine article - which put us in the Top 32 wedding venues in the UK!

They said: “Choosing a wedding venue for your big day can be one of the most stressful yet crucial decisions of your ‘wedmin’.

“From barn conversions, Grade II-listed properties, farmhouses and hotels, the UK has thousands of wedding venues to pick from, making finalising your list of possible destinations for your nuptials all the more challenging.

“Additionally, some wedding venues come with wedding planners, dry hire fees, accommodation, weekend packages, linen hire (yes, that’s a thing) and menu tasting, which makes choosing your wedding flowers, wedding photographer and wedding dress a piece of cake in the grand scheme of things.

“That’s why we’ve compiled an in-depth list of the most stylish wedding venues in the UK, no matter the religion, culture, style or party size you wish to cater for.”

Lovely to be appreciated - we were placed 28th!

Read the full article here

From a beautiful barn and stunning grounds, to carefully curated food and drink menus and amazing accommodation on-site - Cooling Castle Barn has it all!

But who is the team behind it that ensures each and every one of our couples have a day they’ll never forget?

In the second feature of our new series introducing some of our hard-working staff, who help us bring everything together, we chat to wedding co-ordinator Emma.

What path did you take to get to where you are today?

I’d worked in hospitality but had always wanted to do something to do with weddings. Why wouldn’t you want to be involved in the happiest day of someone’s life?

I was never really sure what aspect, but going behind the scenes rather than being front of house as I was in hospitality, was the natural step. 

I’ve now been a wedding co-ordinator for four years and love it!

A wedding co-ordinator is often talked about as one of those dream jobs – what makes it so special? 

I love seeing people on the day of the wedding, but that is a cliché. I enjoy seeing the progression from soon after they have got engaged, to their big day. So, watching a couple through the whole journey. A few weeks ago, I was duty manager for a couple I had shown around two-and-a-bit years ago. I saw them just after they got engaged, was there while they planned it and then it was lovely to be the duty manager on the day they finally married. 

It’s a rewarding career, I expect?

Day-to-day you are planning the best day of someone’s life - you can’t really go wrong. If you are helping them plan the best day of their life, you are making them happy, fulfilling their dreams, especially brides. All of their dreams, from when they are little are now coming true, which is lovely to see.

What are the challenges?

Everything at Cooling runs like clockwork, so there are very few issues on the timings, part. We do in excess of 300 weddings a year and are so used to it. There is really hardly anything that goes wrong, ever!

The hardest part was having to ring couples during COVID to postpone their weddings. We were saying to them we weren’t able to host their wedding through no fault of their own. It was very upsetting. We had no indication from the government of when we would be able to put their weddings on and these were the questions we were being asked. Normally, we have all the answers, but this time, we just didn’t.

What is the best thing about Cooling Castle Barn?

All the staff, definitely. It’s such a nice team atmosphere. We are very good at bringing people on board that ‘fit’. We had a few wedding co-ordinators start recently and we really look at personality. 

One of the most common bits of feedback we get back are that the staff really enjoy working there – and we really do. Everyone enjoys working and doing their job. I come into work and just have the best time with my friends. 

It’s so true, that if you have a job you enjoy you don’t work a day in your life. Obviously, there are days when you feel it a little bit, but I enjoy it and that’s a lot to do with the staff.

We are all a family, even up to the owners and they are very good to us. They are very fair. They did everything they could during COVID to look after us and keep things going in really difficult circumstances. 

What are your most memorable moments?

Halloween weddings. They are so fun! When some couples look at dates they are concerned about going for a wedding then, but for me, when you look at the designs, such as pumpkins carved out with flowers arranged in them, you can really play around with it all and make it fun. You have to make the most if it around Halloween! 

What’s your life like out of work?

I’m planning my own wedding right now. It’s very odd being on the other side of it. I’m getting married in Spain - my partner is Spanish - in a rustic farmhouse in the middle of the mountains. I can’t talk Spanish which doesn’t make it easy. I was just saying the other day, I wish I could fly out Danny, one of our recommended florists! They are a little behind in terms of style of flowers and make-up. But we get married in May next year, so that’s taking up a lot of free time at the moment.