Orchardleigh House, Frome, Somerset Reviews

Orchardleigh House, Frome, Somerset
★★★★☆
4.4
89.0% of users recommend this
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Latest Reviews

“Staff are amazing”

★★★★★

written by RyleeMerritt on 11/07/2021

Could not say a single bad thing, staff are amazing, grounds are heavenly, had a wonderful time whilst dealing with emotional trauma. Thank you everyone including Eric the peacock and poppy the dog.

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“My Daughters Wedding”

★★★★★

written by fatherofbride on 08/02/2014

Being the father of the bride I was keen to have an excellent venue. Orchardleigh was excellent, staff were friendly, helpful with warm open fires to greet us on entry. The wedding co-ordinator was very professional, caring and attentative. She guided us throughout from start to the Wedding day and evening. Food was very tasty, hot and all meals brought out very quickly. Rooms were large and spacious and very clean. Booked the Rolls Royce Phantom to take us to the church and the helicopter for my daughter to fly her from the church to the house and was a wonderful surprise for the couple. Orchardleigh is five star for Venue, Food, Service and Staff helpfulness also the advisor was very friendly, warm and helpful, always answering his phone when contacted. I would book this venue again if an occasion came up.

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“Orchardleigh Wedding...AMAZING!!”

★★★★★

written by on 19/12/2013

From the moment we arrived at the Orchardleigh Estate my heart was set on tying the knot at this beautiful venue, the main house and grounds are breath taking! We attended an Open Day and we were given a very thorough tour, description of the history of the house, all the options available...it seemed to us that nothing was too much trouble...even the opportunity to arrive in style by helicopter! (which I strongly recommend!) We were hooked and knew this was the perfect venue for us, the staff were incredible, always helpful even when we needed to make some last minute changes to numbers and dietary requirements. The day arrived and I must say it was truly AMAZING...the house is absolutely stunning, the smell of an open log fire, the beautiful Christmas tree in the main hall, the house to ourselves...great food.. great accommodation... it was everything and more than we had hoped for. I am a complete perfectionist and I must say I expected some hiccups but the day went incredibly smoothly...all my guests had a fantastic time and said our wedding was fantastic! I cannot thank you enough for making it the most amazing day ever...just wish I could do it all again!! Highly recommended!

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“Superb wedding venue ”

★★★★★

written by Jayne0712 on 29/11/2013

Our wedding was amazing from the very start, the staff were so helpful and it took a lot of the stress out of planning. Our day was wonderful, we couldn't have wished for any more, the staff were amazing and nothing was too much trouble. We had so many compliments on the venue and the food, which was excellent, cooked and presented exactly as we asked. People were amazed at how beautiful the house and grounds were. If we had to do it all again we wouldn't change one thing.

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“Not Impressed”

★★☆☆☆

written by Dumbledore32 on 15/11/2013

I recently attended this venue for a wedding of a family member and I have to say, we were not impressed by the venue, the service or the staff. The venue is not at all disabled friendly with only one VERY steep ramp access to the rear of the property which would not meet regulation incline. Despite the wedding finishing around midnight, the staff continued to clatter trolleys until 5am, keeping a few guests awake. The noise continued again from 6am when the next shift started. The service was appalling, served by kids who appeared untrained in waitressing, the food very basic and near cold. The rooms were far too small with tables badly organised. I would certainly not recommend this as a wedding venue.

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“Best venue ever”

★★★★★

written by KarenandPeter on 06/08/2013

Carl and his team were amazing, all staff were so helpful and understanding and quick to respond, especially Carl .This is such an awsome venue, the house is to die for, the food is great .Incredible value for money considering the whole house is yours for 24 hours. The best day of our life. Only downside, it had to come to an end! This from a man who is not easily pleased, the Father of the bride!

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“Totally Amazing Venue for Weddings”

★★★★★

written by on 10/04/2013

I had the great pleasure of attending a wedding at this most beautiful house. I cannot speak highly or reccomend this venue enough, not only is the setting breath taking what sets this venue head and shoulders above everyone else is the staff and service we received. Big thank you to the owners for everything you did and for making this wedding unique and magical for my best friend.

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“Best day of our lives at Orchardleigh”

★★★★★

written by on 02/04/2013

Beautiful venue, helpful and attentive staff, gorgeous food, accommodation good but quite a variety of rooms. Married in te church in Lullington which was picturesque and our vicar was Andrew who made it so special for us. Married July 2012

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“Magical ”

★★★★★

written by on 25/03/2013

I can't believe it has nearly been a year since we got married at Orchardleigh. We really did have the best day of our lives and would recommend this place to anyone, however a couple of tips for future brides... 1. Request [name removed] as your coordinator - she is AMAZING and nothing is too much trouble. 2. The owners daughter gatecrashed our evening do but turning up drunk with her friends - the owner was extremely apologetic about this the following morning but maybe check this won't happen to you!! A and N May 2012.

Charliefraser's Comment

Written on: 09/04/2013

Sure it wasn't meant in a bad way. The team at Orchardleigh are amazing, highly proficient and incredibly professional. I would recommend Orchardleigh for all weddings and events.

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Gemanddan's Comment

Written on: 11/04/2013

We got married at Orchardleigh 6 months ago and it was actually because of the owners daughter that we booked. She spent hours showing us around, explaining the history of the house and how the family came to own it. She (and her father) where so helpful with our unusal requests. (we had an activities day on their land which involved dune buggys carving up the field!). We found them to be very professional in all our dealings and couldnt reccommend them enough.

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“Awesome venue for a wedding”

★★★★★

written by SarahRath on 21/08/2012

I am so pleased that we chose to get married at Orchardleigh, as we realloy did have the day of our dreams. I did a lot of wedding venue research and had a tick list of features I wanted for our wedding day and Orchardleigh was the venue that met them! We really wanted to get married in a church and I fell in love at first sight with St mary's Church (the island church) on our initial visit. Unfortunately with a wedding of 140 people using this church wasn't possible and instead we used All Saints Lullington, which is so beatutiful inside and had all of our guests take a vintage bus (Quantock Motor Services were brilliant) from the house to the church and back again. The elegance of Orchardleigh gives all the wow of a stately home wedding but as it is filled with replica's and not filled with original priceless pieces of art and furniture we did not have to worry about anything getting damaged in the course of having a good party, which was a concern at some of the other venues we looked at. The major selling point of Orchardleigh was that we could have all of our guests (our wedding was for 140) stay with us for the night and join us for breakfast the following day and 130 of them did. As this is all done through the bride and groom and not your guests dealing with orchardleigh directly, it is hard work and if you go beyond the capacity of the house and have to use the cottages as we did, the fact that the cottages have a later arrival time complicates things a great deal. You also have to pay for 50% of the cottages at the time you book which is scary because at that stage we were not entirely sure of who was staying. However despite this being my largest point of stress in the run up to the day, it was worth it! Our freinds have all commented how nice it was to be able to pop to their room and change shoes or outfits! But being able to say goodbye the following morning means you can have a proper party on the night of your wedding and not have to turn off the music and have everyone leave at 11.30 - 12pm like most venues. The food was excellent, we opted from Menu 2 with the Thai Fishcakes and the Roast Pork which were both delicious. The chef is lovely and we really enjoyed the food tasting. The orchardleigh team are also great, we visited the venue on several occasions beforehand, had numerous phone calls and emails and it all worked out well on the day. Karl ran our day for us and he was brilliant, really keeping everything under control when everyone turned up (although i would recommend a team of ushers to help with this), but making sure that the bride and groom got drinks and canapes too! Of course there are small things that could have been changed or could be run more smoothly for example the fact that you cannot dress the ballroom for your wedding until 11.30am if there has been a wedding in it the night before, or the fact that in hindsight I wouldn't have put my grandparents in the downstairs room with disabled facilities because it is noisy if you party as late as we did then the cleaning starts, but I dont think any of these detracted anything about our day, With more time I could have dressed the ballroom myself but I don't think it would have looked any better! The venue is great, you will have a wedding day that you will never forget and just be organised, have a good team of people to help you and go with the flow because it really will all work out fabulously!

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“Wondeful place! ”

★★★★★

written by on 08/06/2012

My partner and I recently attended a wedding at Orchardleigh over the bank holiday weekend, the venue and location was fantastic and all the staff gave the impression nothing was too much trouble, in particular the young lady in charge - Lucy. She made sure everything ran on time and allowed the bride and groom to enjoy their day without worrying about the little things. One of my elederly relatives was taken ill on the day and Lucy really helped us out by sitting with him at times we couldnt. She looked after him with such care and compassion while running around organising things she truely amazed me! Orchardleigh is a wonderful venue, in a wondeful location with wonderful staff. Everyone should and needs to have their wedding here!

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“Truly Magical and Enchanting With Fantastic Staff ”

★★★★★

written by joeshanklin on 14/05/2012

Orchardleigh Review: We would both like to say a massive thank you for making our day perfect!! Even months after the big day and people are still talking about our wedding saying how amazing it was. Some of our guest told us that they have eaten in top London restaurants and they said the food was the best they've ever had and it truly was delicious! I cannot fault our chef we had, he catered to all our needs including the garlic haters and diary free. Service was top notch and from the minute I arrived to get ready everything was taken care of. We had a civil ceremony in the house and it was intimate and romantic which is what we wanted. The grounds for our photos were stunning and I still look back at them and say "wow". and the added bonus of the owner coming to say "hi" in his helicopter for the photos was first class. Nearly all our guests stayed in the house so we all had breakfast together, which meant the wedding spread over the weekend to make it extra special. Thank you Orcharleigh for providing the setting for my perfect wedding! I hope people will continue to talk about it for years to come. Please do not judge this place from a website, this place HAS TO BE SEEN to be believed. Joe and Helen Shanklin

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“The venue is amazing.”

★★★★★

written by on 11/11/2011

I recently attended a wedding at the stunning location of Orchardleigh House. The venue was really beautiful, and the wedding stood out as a truly memorable day for all concerned. All the staff were very helpful, polite, and very welcoming, and the service was really professional. The food was excellent. I would definitely recommend this venue to any prospective bride and groom and I would like to stress how wonderful the whole day was for everyone concerned.

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“Amazingly spectacular day!”

★★★★★

written by robyn26 on 05/10/2011

We got married at Orchardleigh Church and House on the 11th September 2011 and the day was utterly amazing! The staff at Orchardleigh are out of this world, so helpful and made our day so special. We had Chris (the owner) fly us in his helicopter from the church to the house and then take guests up for a flight during reception drinks. It was a real talking point and highly recommended!!! I would really recommend this as a wedding venue to anyone, it is relaxed yet formal, grand yet homely............a real find and people just keep talking about the day.

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“Looked good then all went downhill”

★★☆☆☆

written by on 29/09/2011

Me and my fiancé went to view the venue and instantly fell in love. We provisionally booked the venue and sent of details of what we wanted for our big day. It was then we found out about extra food/drinks charges that took us well over our budget which we were not informed about at our viewing. When trying to ring the venue to sort this problem out and find out the final prices we were told different sets of prices again, I felt like they were making it up as they went along. We were also told people were out of the office all day then when we rang again they were in. really felt messed about and the lack of organisation was unbelievable. Although the venue looked stunning I would make sure you have everything in writing before giving them any money. We have since cancelled our wedding at this venue and have found somewhere much more reliable. I’m glad I read these reviews and found out that this was not a dream venue before the big day.

Samantha99's Comment

Written on: 11/11/2011

At Orchardleigh we are very open about our prices, and they are all in the Wedding Pack which can be found online, and also given as a hard copy when couples come to view the House. Each Wedding we have is individual and priced accordingly, we do not do packages. When a provisonal booking is taken, this date is held for the couple for 14 days, so within this time we can discuss prices and budgets. In reference to people not in the office. We are a small and busy team, and people are in and out of the office all the time. We endevour to call people back and to reply to emails as soon as we can.

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“Nice setting, but avoid the outrageously overpriced...”

★★★☆☆

written by on 21/06/2011

In summary, this is a good daytime venue, but the accommodation is simply not up to scratch for the price. First, the positives: The house is beautiful from the outside, the grounds are fantastic and the little church is a romantic place to get married. The food for the wedding breakfast was also good. On a sunny day, it is a magical place to be. And the negatives: As we were coming from London, we stayed over in the house and paid £140 for a double room, plus £10 each for breakfast. So, a total of £160. This seemed quite expensive - it's double what you'd pay for a good B&B after all - but we assumed it was just quite luxurious so my boyfriend and I went with it for a bit of a treat. The room was incredibly disappointing. It really is hard to express how crestfallen I felt when I first opened the door and saw it. The carpet was the hard, thin and rough stuff that you get in the public areas of government offices. The furniture was old and flimsy - we're talking well below Ikea quality. There was an iron on the floor next to the empty fireplace, but no ironing board to be found. This wouldn't really have mattered if the bed had been comfy, but the mattress was extremely uncomfortable. It was either very old or very cheap, or more likely both. In another review on here (03/01/2011), the owner responded to a comment on the beds by insisting that they cost over £2000 each. I simply do not believe this - I can only imagine from this comment that some rooms have nice beds and others terrible beds. From what I could tell, it was an open sprung (as opposed to pocket sprung), cheap mattress. And there wasn't even a key to the door so I had to carry my handbag around with me the whole time. I'm not a prima donna, and if we'd been paying 60 quid for the night I wouldn't have cared. But the price tag of £160 led me to expect something on a different level. I just couldn't get over this disappointment. Even now I feel a bit gutted. My advice is, if you get invited to a wedding at Orchardleigh House, book a local B&B and a taxi to take you from the venue to the B&B at the end of the night. The level of comfort you would get paying 80-100 quid for a B&B, plus a taxi fare, would be far above what you get here. Sometimes owners respond to reviews saying things like "why didn't you raise this at the time, we would have been happy to offer a discount etc". Well, I couldn't complain to the owner about it because it would have been terribly embarrassing for the bride and groom whose wedding I was attending. As for the chance of a refund, we didn't pay Orchardleigh directly. The bride and groom had to pay up front and we then wrote the bride and groom a cheque. It would be awful to raise this with them after what was otherwise such a fantastic day. My guess is that Orchardleigh gets away with charging so much for its terrible rooms precisely because of this.

Guest's Comment

Written on: 14/07/2011

if you knew how the booking process for the rooms at Orchardleigh worked you would not be commenting on it like this. Let us just say you indeed have embarassed the bride and groom

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Samantha99's Comment

Written on: 11/11/2011

In response to the comment of 20/10/11. This not correct. Rooms in the house are allocated and payment is taken by the Bride and Groom. Orchardleigh then invoice the Bride and Groom one month before. In very extreme circumstances do Orchardleigh take individual payment for the rooms.
Rooms prices are set by the Bride and Groom, Orchardleigh mearly gives a price that they require but Brides and Grooms do add on Breakfast, Pre paid bar ect.

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Guest's Comment

Written on: 11/11/2011

To refer to the last comment. That is not correct. Rooms are taken by the Bride and Groom, and they set their own price. We do set a guide that we require per room. In very extreme circumstances do we take payment from indivial people, but this is not our policy. All payment for rooms are taken by the Bride and Groom, and then Orchardleigh Invoice one month before.

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Guest's Comment

Written on: 20/10/2011

I got married at Orchardleigh and confirm that the rooms are not included in the price of the house. Rooms rates are set by the owner and rooms can be hired individually, after seeing the rooms are our wedding guests were hiring rooms on the day and paying the house directly.

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Guest's Comment

Written on: 19/10/2011

I was under the impression that the bride and groom hire the house including all the bedrooms? If that is the case the bride and groom therefore decided to charge you for your room and set the price themselves!

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“My husband and I were married at St. Mary's...”

★★★★☆

written by on 06/03/2011

My husband and I were married at St. Mary's Orchardleigh in September 2009 & I have already recommended this venue to several friends based on our experiences. The house and grounds are beautiful, yes to echo previous reviews some rooms are bigger & better decorated than others but this is reflected in their individual cost, which personally worked well for us as some of our guests could not afford £110 etc but were happy to stay in a cheaper room. What really made this the place for us was the number of bedrooms it had without the formality of a hotel setting - it really felt like we had borrowed a friend's country house for 24 hours! Another big plus was the flexibility of the venue - we could combine and plan in advance for any combination of guest plans: those staying all day, arriving for the evening only, staying the night, leaving before breakfast etc. We opted for a pre paid bar which was brilliant (and extremely worth it when so many guests can stay overnight in the venue and therefore let their hair down!) and I would advise going to the food taster sessions they provide as we changed our menu choices completely after seeing and trying what they had.

Being completely honest there were points in the run up to our wedding when we found it hard to get replies/contact etc with Orchardleigh, but having experienced the level of care they provided for our day I believe this is because they are so hands on (and were therefore busy dealing with someone else's wedding taking place that day!), and our organiser Karl was fantastic from start to finish in the helpful & friendly service he provided from Orchardleigh, which is clearly a very busy place. If you do choose this as your venue, keep an eye on the details yourself (or choose a bridesmaid to do it on the day) and go through the final costs with your organiser carefully - there is usually a meeting to do this a month or so in advance. Then relax and have a wonderful day - Orchardleigh's staff certainly did their utmost to help us enjoy ours.

PS - I'd recommend Tilly Tomlinson Flowers in Bristol too - they were much more personal and helpful than the two florists I met in Frome who clearly expect to do every Orchardleigh wedding.

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“What an amazing place to get married! We are still on...”

★★★★★

written by on 13/02/2011

What an amazing place to get married! We are still on cloud9!

We got married in the candle-lit island church late December 2010, we had almost 100 guests to the wedding and they all stayed over at the house. From the day we found this venue our planner Nicki was absolutely brilliant, she was very organised but chilled out and nothing was too much for her to deal with. The day was perfect, the church was unique, the rev Brian Thomas imparted a relevant and very amusing service. The reception drinks and canapes and the wedding breakfast was exactly as we had wanted...good quality food and plenty of it...the pre paid bar worked really well

We would very highly recommend this venue...the experience was better than we could have imagined and the photos at the church an house are amazing. Nicki and Karl were fabulous.. It's not the cheapest but i think its good value

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“This is indeed a beautiful house to hold a wedding. ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 03/01/2011

This is indeed a beautiful house to hold a wedding.

The food was excellent, the service was average.

The cleanliness of the suite was disgusting and this will be taken up with the management forthwith. It is obvious that the chambermaids/cleaning staff are are not trained or supervised, the quality of the furnishings is very poor, and I would suggests that the amount of money charged for Brides to marry at this venue is NOT re-invested into the up keep of the rooms and it's furnishings.
We were unable to use the shower as it was so dirty, the wash basin plughole was clogged up with waste matter, the lavatory was filfthly and excretia was splattered down the wall at the back of the toilet.
The 4 x Poster bed was cheap & squeaky, the mattress was thin and uncomfortable.

There are many more complaints about this property and I would suggest any potential Brides checks the rooms in closer detail before proceeding with a marriage at this venue.

Chrisvincent's Comment

Written on: 11/01/2011

My name is Chris Vincent I am the owner of Orchardleigh. Firstly I would like to thank the reviewer for their comments of "Beautiful House" and "Excellent food". However it does appear that our cleaners completely missed the bathroom our very sincere apologies, we do have systems in place to avoid omissions but obviously this time it failed, the system has now been changed. I am very surprised that the reviewer thought the bed was cheap whilst not being a King Henry VIII bed at £10000 it did cost over £2000. We have not heard from this reviewer yet, may I ask that he/she call me (M 0788 751 2450) as obviously we would appreciate any further comments and would like to compensate for our obvious oversight.

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Guest's Comment

Written on: 04/06/2012

Oh dear, not sounding good for Orchardleigh, sounds as though it needs a massive redecoration and refurbishment before any bride and groom decide to hold their wedding at this venue.

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Mikaila's Comment

Written on: 24/03/2013

I am about to check this venue. I'm excited however whoever Im speaking with has only replied to me TWICE and I've sent about 6-10 emails for questions etc...I called them of course but its putting me off that my queries aren't accommodated. It kind of shows the type of service they could offer....

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“We got married in August 2010 at Orchardleigh and it...”

★★★★★

written by on 28/11/2010

We got married in August 2010 at Orchardleigh and it was the best day of our lives. Our wedding co-ordinator Karl was fantastic from start to finish, from the moment we booked the date Karl was so helpful and always got back to us (we sent so many emails with many questions and he was great!). If you book a wedding at Orchardleigh, we strongly recommend Karl. The day was perfect, everything went really well and all to plan. The food was amazing and all our guests said how lovely the food was, we had unlimited drinks at the reception which our guests throughly enjoyed!!! Overall, lovely venue, perfect location with plenty of accommodation, excellent food and drink packages and a fantastic wedding co-ordinator.

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