I’m apprehensive around recommending hotels as wedding venues. I prefer a unique venue where you have limited restriction on how to do things as well as exclusive use and hotels can’t always offer this. However Lime Wood is a big exception. Tucked away in the middle of the New Forest, within an hour and a half drive from London, Lime Wood is anything but your typical hotel and offers something very special in terms of a wedding venue.
Firstly it is stunning. Set within beautiful surroundings, the Regency era estate looks very impressive and the inside of the hotel is equally so. It took 5 years to renovate and the results are exceptional - impeccable attention to every detail. The food, by Luke Holder and Angela Hartnett, I can personally vouch for– I ate here over 2 years ago and it still sits within my top 3 meals to date! But the thing that really stands out about Lime Wood is the whole vibe and essence of the place. This is every bit a 5 star hotel but without any of the pomp and circumstance that can come with this level of luxury and, for me, that is what sets it apart.
Helen Wade is Lime Wood’s very lovely Events Manager and she’s typical of every member of staff I came into contact with at the hotel – professional, helpful, approachable with a genuine passion for what she does. Helen summed it up really well when she told me that a wedding at Lime Wood wasn’t about starched white linen table cloths and formality, it was about making sure the couple have their best day ever and, most of all, fun!
All weddings at Lime Wood are booked on an exclusive use basis and include use of all 32 bedrooms as well as all lounges, dining spaces, grounds and facilities. If all of this wasn’t enough, the hotel doesn’t advertise itself as a wedding venue so it has none of conveyor belt feel and all the feeling of being something really quite different and special. If I could get married again I’d choose Lime Wood!
image credits : Ben Pentreath