Coombe Lodge is situated next to Blagdon Lake South of Bristol. It’s a beautiful stately home that used to belong to the Wills family, famous for their tobacco industry in Bristol.
Besides being a little bit of a trek through the winding b-roads of the area, it’s worth it. The grounds are lovely, and particularly in summer when guests can look over the gardens toward the lake outside.
Inside, it’s all nicely compact which is good news because the last thing you want at your wedding party, is everyone spread out across dozens of rooms – kinda kills the vibe a bit. There is one large main room that’s a good size for most wedding breakfasts, a large hall runs adjacent to the room where there is a bar in a separate room, and a kind of foyer area with a grand piano and an open fire.
A small drawback as far as having a band is concerned is that the wedding breakfast is held in the same room as the evening entertainment – this is a frequent issue with a lot of venues though and a good band should be able to work with the timings, slipping in after the speeches and having everything ready to rock in about an hour and a half max.
The acoustics are ok. It would benefit a lot from more soft furnishings to absorb echoes, but the company who runs the venue are new to the place, and are currently restoring / re-fitting the upstairs as accommodation, so things may still change downstairs!
In summary, as far as stately home style wedding parties go, this is a great venue. The number one factor for keeping the party vibe going is keep everyone in one place as much as possible – it’s compact enough for that to happen here and not so large that smaller wedding parties rattle around in it.
Visit their website at http://www.coombelodge.co.uk/
