I can’t express enough, just how much we LOVE Upthorpe Wood during those gorgeous Summer months. It’s a truly inspiring woodland wedding venue, green, luscious and without doubt one of the most beautiful natural venues in Suffolk in which to hold your ceremony and wedding reception. The wood and gardens are alive with colour as well as scent from the many honeysuckle, jasmine and other fragrant flowers planted especially with our upcoming weddings in mind. The sun shines through the trees in the ceremony glade leaving an amazing dappled shade below, perfection!
However, Winter viewings at Upthorpe Wood are something which myself and Allan ponder about every year. Should we.. or shouldn’t we show our enquiring brides and grooms around during the miserable Winter months?
Once October passes, the foliage slowly disappears leaving behind a very brown and completely different venue. Most of the abundant colourful flowers have long since faded often leaving bare brown twigs..Not our best look!
Even the lane along which we’re located changes, in summer a beautiful green tree lined tunnel for your guests to drive through.. in Winter though it’s open to all our neighbouring surroundings and to be brutally honest...definitely ugly! Bear with us though... it will most certainly be worth it come Summertime.
The easy answer would be to show couples round during the summer months only.. Here we hit a MASSIVE dilema!
Christmas and Valentines Day are our busiest times of the year for all those gorgeous proposals and engagements. Understandably, it’s also our busiest time for receiving enquiries and there’s definitely nothing we enjoy more than meeting all you lovely newly engaged couples looking to start your wedding journey.
The excitement is contagious and hearing all your ideas and plans is what it’s all about. We’re here to make those ideas come to life at the Wood.
One of the first things on your list of exciting things to do is to book your venue, let’s face it until the venue is booked and you have a date, not much else can be planned. Your ideas will be inspired by your venue and lots of suppliers won’t be able to book you in until you’re sure of your exact date. Venue viewing is paramount to wedding planning and therefore we expect lots of couples to ask for a winter viewing.
So, if we can ask all couples visiting during those dark and dreary winter
months to bear this is in mind when coming to look around. Come with a VERY open mind, knowing that you won’t be seeing the venue at its best and if it’s a cold day, wrap up warm.
We realise it is much harder to visualise a beautiful Summer woodland wedding in the dead of winter. There’s no leaves on the trees, it’s much chillier and browner and maybe not too inspiring BUT for those of you who follow us on Instagram www.instagram.com/upthorpewood if you would just have a quick look through our feed you’ll see just how beautiful we REALLY are in Summer. During a viewing we also have lots of videos and photos filmed mid Summer to help your imagination.
We often hear the concern.. what happens if it rains. Well, Upthorpe Wood has been designed to give you the maximum amount of undercover space possible... without any added expense for yourselves.
There's no need to hire in additional marquees or Tipis.
We have our existing Woodland barn which is a fab entertainment area and new for 2020 you'll find several new areas. The first is our Cartlodge which is a great space for you and your guests to dine under. It has a feeling of being an outdoor area even though its covered. Our second new covered space is the Chill Out Lounge. This is located just outside the woodland barn and is great for a those looking for a quieter space to relax in.
There’s also the options of fire pits and outdoor gas heaters for those cooler summer evenings. Great for creating a gorgeous atmosphere.
We look forward to your Christmas and Valentines enquiries ... fingers crossed for all of you waiting for a small square box under the tree!!
Please get in touch and start your wedding journey, we’d love to hear from you. hello@upthorpewood.co.uk