Private Dining at Birdsall House, Yorkshire’s Exclusive-Use Wedding Venue

We’re delighted to share a behind-the-scenes look at the private wedding planner dinner we recently had the pleasure of designing & styling for Birdsall House, near York — a venue we’ve grown increasingly fond of.

The estate sits in the Yorkshire Wolds, 20 miles east of York, with sweeping parkland views both up to the Wolds and across the Vale of York. Birdsall House describes itself as “a stunning, historic wedding venue which, at its heart, remains a family home with a very personal feel.”

One of its particularly distinctive features is the newly-renovated basement event space, The Old Kitchens: the former Victorian service wing has been transformed into a 1920s-style “prohibition” private club feel venue with bar, dance floor and capacity for up to 200 people. The house and its stunning grounds are offered for exclusive use, so the perfect private setting for a multi-day wedding or event. 

Birdsall House brought together a select number of established UK wedding planners to experience the venue first-hand, to highlight its key features — the stately home, original architecture, its parkland setting, the distinctive basement bar space — in a relaxed, refined way.

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The brief & inspiration…

⁠The brief was a dream – “create a dining experience for our planner friends and don’t make it feel like a wedding, so they don’t feel like they’re at work!”

With the natural light beginning to wane in the Autumn months, candlelight became a key part of the tablescape – what appears as small lamps through the table are in fact tapered candles with a special attachment, allowing us to add lampshades to the tops – something that was very popular in the late 19th century.

Rather than covering the magnificent historic mahogany dining table in linens, we chose to let it shine. Linen always provides a textured element to a tablescape, so we opted for a linen-effect embossed card stock for the menus instead, bringing a tactile softness to the setting.

One of my favourite features of Birdsall House is the the original William Morris wallpaper displayed in one of the bedrooms – this was the inspiration for the patterned napkins and complimented the upholstered soft sage chairs beautifully.
The whole tablescape wouldn’t have been complete without the abundance of autumnal florals by Jemma Khan Studio – Jemma & her team created her signature style of untamed elegance & it’s always such a joy to explore ideas and execute them with Jemma.

The dream team..

@birdsall.house
@kelly__chandler
@gattertopdrinksco
@alo_communications
@coecatering
@langtonhallyorkshire
@soireestudiouk
@jemmakhanstudio
@rosiewilloughbymakeup
@joedodsworth_photography
@slowstoriesco
@beatiesevents
@potterchauffeur