We had a fantastic day last week and thank you and the team who did such a wonderful job. It made the day a very special one and we have lots of happy memories of it.
As soon as we arrived, Tim’s words ‘I’ll take it from here - you relax and enjoy the day’ summed it up for us, as this was exactly what happened. Everything went smoothly as a result of the team at Oakley Hall’s work and this was commented to us by many of our guests. So the feedback would be entirely positive from us :) particularly a big thank you to yourself and Tim for the great job you did in hosting us and our family and friends.
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Thank you for being so helpful and responsive throughout the wedding planning leading up to and including the day itself, to make sure everything went smoothly for us! Oakley Hall was an amazing venue and we're so happy we chose it! We wouldn't hesitate recommending Oakley Hall or yourself personally, and all staff members ensured we were well looked after for the whole weekend 🙂
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We can’t thank you, Tim and the whole team at Oakley enough for helping make our wedding day dreams come true!
Right from the word go you have all gone above and beyond to help us achieve the most wonderful of days. All the staff have always been so welcoming and friendly which was a big factor for us loving and choosing Oakley for our wedding.
Tim, you could not have handled our wedding day better. Your calmness when informing of us about the hiccup with the registrar really made the news easier to digest and we can’t thank you enough.
Edel, we could not ask for a better coordinator! Your attention to detail and helpfulness was beyond exceptional. My mum has already said she will miss conversing with you!
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We both had an amazing day and couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better. We are so grateful to all the staff and how helpful they all were, nothing was too much trouble.
We would particularly like to recognize Tim for all his help, he was great through the whole wedding, as well as the tall blonde guy who was assisting Tim (we didn't get his name) if Tim wasn't around he was particularly helpful. We had a few guests comment on how great the staff were on the day. We would also like to thank you for all your support before the day and on the day.
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All was totally amazing on our wedding day, everything ran SO smoothly. I must admit when you told me you weren't going to be there I had a total panic.. but Tim and Charlie were outstanding nothing was to much trouble, they worked so hard and seemed to not stop all day!
John snatched the microphone from his best man during speeches to praise Tim personally (and loudly)
All food was amazing, I did catch the head chef on Sunday morning to say how lovely it all was. Everyone commented on the canapes especially!!
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Where do we start, when you plan a wedding you have an idea in your mind as to what the experience will be like. Smooth sailing and magical? Prepare yourself, we hope the below gives you some helpful pointers.
Food - make sure the head chef is cooking your tasting experience and that he is there on the day of your wedding. We had to go back three times due to temp chefs being in. On the first occasion all of the meat options were over cooked and or chewy, the second time the beef was swimming in a pool of bog green water and the lamb had a layer of unrendered fat. And yes we paid for drinks every time with no gesture of goodwill and apologies from Oakley Hall. Seb the most recent head chef has left, incredibly talented and thankfully came back for our special day despite having already left. Worth meeting and questioning who is cooking on your day! Check out the pics!
Wedding coordinators - take these with a pinch of salt, simply form filers, more admin than coordinating, trust your own instincts and always follow up, we experienced multiple emails / calls asking for the same information and our answers / instructions still not being passed onto other parties within the business. I have a friend who worked in the trade who said they were much more hands on for budget 5k weddings at the Hilton Basingstoke. Don’t get your hopes up in this department, you won’t feel special you’ll just feel like you are one of many and believe me they tell you that!
Allergies - we provided a clear list of allergies to Oakley Hall, our best mans wife with a severe nut allergy was served nuts! No care and attention by staff, rather worrying and we could of taken this a lot further. Still no apology!
Tim - ask for Tim to be involved at an early stage he runs the weddings and ensures they run smoothly more so than the coordinators who aren’t present on the day, he is the one that saved our wedding, such a nice genuine guy. However, if you are fortunate to have another large event on at the same time he will disappear in favour of ‘VIPs’(Oakley Halls words not ours) (Alan Titchmarsh and Micheal Gove) so expect things to go down the pan. As the other staff don’t have a clue and are half asleep.
We were left with two people serving the toast champagne to 80 people! We had to ask for deserts to be cleared and for the staff to bypass coffees as if was simply too slow.
Staff that lie - everyone at our wedding knew that Michael Gove and Alan Titchmarsh would be at another event at Oakley Hall the same day. However, when the staff were asked they lied and said it was the night before and removed a seating plan with it there in black and white. Realistically nobody gave a damn as they were their our celebrate our day. No excuse for treating guests poorly.
Buggy - always ask for the buggy to buzz you around to the different photo spots. The member of staff who took us was friendly, knowledgeable and speedy, saves a huge amount of time as opposed to going on foot.
Security guards - beware of security guards for other events stalking you and your guests making you feel on edge and not welcome on your special day. Nobody from Oakley Hall had the intuition to check the bride and groom into their suite so we were faced with rude and cold security guards when we approached reception at midnight.
The 18 rooms above the bar - chances are you will be asked to book these for your wedding party and you will be making the most noise!! However, if there is a secondary event in the purple room, be prepared to be asked to wait in the garden pavilion or head to the other bar near the restaurant. So any guests that are in those rooms directly above have the pleasure of listening to the racket from another party. Madness and poor organisation! Push back or join them leaving Oakley Hall staff looking very on edge and embarrassed.
Room 26 - avoid this room the night before your wedding, it’s exposed to loads of noise and there is no chance of getting a restful nights sleep. The Groom on our night didn’t get to sleep until 2.30 because of another functions noise.
Expect no communication - Oakley hall were incapable of advising us at the time of securing an additional VIP booking on the same date that rooms would be in demand. They failed to pick up the phone to make a courtesy call to see if we needed anymore rooms 6 weeks out. Doesn’t cost a thing and shows they really don’t care about wedding experiences there it is all about money, money, money.
Don’t accept guests paying upfront for rooms - because of Covid we didn’t push back and felt sorry for the hospitality sector. However, In our contract it stated guests could pay on departure. In light of the above and rooms selling out we should of pushed back on Oakley Hall to enable guests from all financial backgrounds to book way in advance.
Evening guests - if you are in the garden pavilion, ask where they will be told to wait. Ours were left outside in an alleyway, great first impression for them right? No offer of a drink or seat just left waiting, no member of staff from Oakley Hall present we were mortified at why nobody thought to see if we wanted them to come in.
Manuel the GM - expect no apologies, no customer service, no smile, lies about other events and how they will be managed, expect nothing it’s like talking to a brick wall, he isn’t genuine at all. If you do complain like we did 6 weeks out from our wedding you will get the ‘kind offer to cancel your wedding’. This shows how much he and Oakley Hall really don’t care or prioritise weddings it’s a cash cow for them and they are confident in back filling should you choose to cancel.
Bar tabs - we set up bar tabs however, Oakley hall set up an unauthorised bar under the name of father of *** running an open tab for £250+ with no authorisation, no signature, no room number. Charlie has a lot to answer for here opening an unauthorised tab open from 10pm - 2pm the following day and then passing this onto a guest without authorisation. Leaving unresolved issues. Three phone calls no reply, it’s taken visits to Oakley hall to get somebody to address the issue.
Think of Oakley Hall as more of a hotel and corporate function venue than a special venue. Their current vacancies list says it all, even his staff have had enough.
Feedback and reviews - Oakley hall don’t acknowledge negative reviews or feedback hence posting this here in the hope this help other couples as we doubt they will learn from our experience and make changes.
Thankfully our guests knew about very little of this, but it’s your day and your memories. Safe to say we won’t be returning and glad we had a church ceremony to save those memories.
#oakleyhallwedding #oakleyhallweddings #hampshireweddings
2021-09-17
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Rectory Road, Oakley, Basingstoke, RG23 7EL
Beautiful wedding venue at Oakley Hall Hotel is set within 315 acres of grounds More info