This week we were at Sarah & Luke’s wedding celebration at Hempstead House in Sittingbourne, which is about a half an hour drive from us.
Sarah & Luke had married earlier in May in Cuba, so this was the party to celebrate the wedding for friends and family back in England.
Despite its grand name The Heritage Suite at Hempstead House is actually a nice contemporary carpeted room, I would guess it can hold a good 150 guests. There is no bar built into the room but there are several in close vicinity and I believe these remain open for residents after the party has finished.
I had worked at this venue a couple of years ago in the restaurant, however this is a larger room with a better option for DJ set up as in the restaurant the disco sets up on a ledge away from the floor and theres no opportunity to install a booth or anything symmetrical as far as the lighting is concerned.
In this function room this venue provide white fairy lights around the entire room which gives the room something a bit extra. There is also a standard mahogany dance floor provided but you have the option to upgrade your package to include one of our starlit floors if you prefer that option.
For DJs visiting the venue access is pretty good, you can get quite close to the access point and once you are in the room set up is right inside the door. There is no sound limiter, however the use of haze etc is not permitted for lighting effects.
Sarah and Luke were dressed for the occasion in full wedding attire ..and it was great to see the couple obviously have a fantastic sense of humour as for the first time in my career I observed the wedding collapse during the cutting of the cake prior to the first dance.
This could have proved to be a difficult moment for Sarah & Luke but along with all their family and friends they laughed it off and I’m sure when they look back at the photos they will remember that moment with a smile on their faces. Thats the great thing about photography, you remember the ‘fun’ you had when that moment was captured. Fair play to them both, I’ve never seen it happen and doubt I will see it again, although a couple of years ago I did see the father of one bride trip with a tier of the wedding cake when prepping the marquee for his daughters wedding :/
Luke’s dad who is a guitarist in a band played the first dance for the couple along with Luke’s sister on vocals, which was a nice personal touch. With the buffet out at around 9pm guests were in full party mode by around 10 on a night dominated by R&B, Dance with some Classics thrown in towards the end of the night to ensure everything ended on a high and all guests were catered for.
Despite it being a hotel venue, Hempstead House and the Heritage Suite does have an exclusive feel to it as other residents don’t really venture into the area where the function room is and it does have its own exclusive entrance.
All the best to the new Mr & Mrs Tingley, next week we are looking forward to our first visit to a very interesting venue in Berkshire called The Beaumont Estate, its not a venue that I have visited before but having done the research on google images the architecture and surrounding buildings look simply stunning.