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Weddings at the old thorns - Brea (12th Jun 2012 - 12:00:27) Was just wondering if anyone else had had a negative experience with the old thorns, particularly regarding thief weddings. My partner and I booked our wedding at the old thorns in April 2011. Our wedding was to take place new years eve this year. We paid the deposit which they held for a year in April this year the old thorn started to contact us with regards to our wedding and bullied us out. As apparently our wedding should never have been booked for that date as they have Thier own entertainment on. However, they did not start to raise their concerns till April this year. They left us feeling as though they were going to cancel our wedding or treat us as an inconvenience. We were therefore pressured into trying to find a new venue which is not easy when you booked so early as we wanted a particular date. We found the management were in helpful and were left feeling bullied. Your wedding day is suppose to be the most special day of your life. The old thorns left us feeling as though we were unimportant despite the fact that we had contracted to pay an additional premium to be able to have our wedding on that day. Was wondering if anyone else had been left feeling as though the old thorns are providing a substandard service. The venue is beautiful so it is a shame The service is not upto scratch

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Sarah (13th Jun 2012 - 18:01:17) Brea What an ordeal for you. As if weddings are not stressful enough. Fear not...You can expect Old Thorns to extend an invitation to you for a coffee at Starbucks....because that puts everything right! Old thorns..."appropriate integrity and courtesy" ...yeah right

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Jane G (13th Jun 2012 - 22:31:24) Brea...poor you, that sounds like very shoddy treatment! If you want a lovely hotel for a wedding then try The Langrish House Hotel. They did completely the opposite as Old Thorns when we chose to have our wedding there on New Year's Eve just gone. They had booked entertainment and produced advertising literature for their New Year's Eve celebrations, but when we asked if they would host our wedding they were more than delighted to do so and cancelled all their other plans. It isn't such a large or grand venue as Old Thorns, but it was a wonderful place to get married....good luck with your arrangements!

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Kathy (14th Jun 2012 - 10:18:33) Firstly I cannot understand why anyone would want to get married on New Years Eve and have their marriage celebration potentially overshadowed by the New Years Celebrations. Most people get married in the spring or summer. Secondly I can only give great feedback from my experience of weddings at Old Thorns. It is one of the most fantastic venues in the South of England and the staff are excellent, polite and bend over backwards to help and make the day special. They have a nothing is too much trouble attitude and made my sisters wedding fantastic. Sorry for your bad experience, but i am sure there are two sides to every story.

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Debbie (14th Jun 2012 - 11:25:15) "Firstly I cannot understand why anyone would want to get married on New Years Eve and have their marriage celebration potentially overshadowed by the New Years Celebrations. Most people get married in the spring or summer." I don't think that was necessary Kathy, Brea asked for feedback on Old Thorns weddings not her personal plans for her wedding day, it would be a boring old world if everybody did everything the same way!

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Helen (14th Jun 2012 - 12:06:20) I completely agree with that last comment....I had a winter wedding...The twinkling lights, deep colours and low sunlight photos were beautiful, who on earth is to critisize when you should have your wedding!! To the lady that has had a problem with Old Thorns, I feel bad for you and hope you sort it out...however wonderful Old Thorns is they haven't got it quite right have they?

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Dave (14th Jun 2012 - 12:21:06) I agree with Helen & Debbie. As a professional photographer I have attended a number of excellent winter weddings and all have been wonderful. Judging from a couple of threads on this site it would appear Old Thorns are going out of their way to upset the "locals".

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - tony-tcm (14th Jun 2012 - 12:35:13) I have no issue with Old Thorns if you like that kind of exclusive thing, it does what it says on the tin. Silly to book a wedding on your busiest night of the year. Even worse to back out, presumably because you're worried about losing profit. doesn't look good if that's what happened. If you sell a bit of snobbery you can't then look cheapskate. Not very nice either. Still, see you for lunch next Sunday! I would also stick up for Kathy, she didn't criticise winter weddings, just stated that she couldn't see why you'd want it to compete with New Years Eve. Not sure I would either. New Years Eve is for, well, getting drunk and celebrating New Years Eve, isn't it?

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - James Perrett (14th Jun 2012 - 13:08:51) I'd just have to echo Jane's recommendation for Langrish House. They were great when we organised our wedding there a few years ago. I would also add that I used to be a DJ and you can often tell how good a venue really is by how they treat the people like DJ's who work at their events. Langrish House really stuck in my mind as somewhere that treated me well which is one of the reasons we booked it for our wedding.

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - H (14th Jun 2012 - 13:45:40) I do believe Kathy could be an employee of old Thorns? I may be wrong but her post reads like that especially the "many weddings I have attended there? It can be seen as a bit partial if she does work there!

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - dawn hoskins (14th Jun 2012 - 15:08:08) The problem is the short notice - there are lots of lovely places - but wedding venues get booked up very early so nice ones will have been snapped up. I was married in January. I think New Year wedding is lovely, you'll never forget your anniversary that's for sure! If they took the booking, it cannot then be your fault for wanting to have it there - it is their fault for changing their minds and not wanting your booking after taking it in the first place. This is unnaceptable for any business - but especially one that deals in weddings and knows how much organisation has to go into the event. A contract is a contract - in writing or made verbally. They have breached that and I would have expected them to be bending over backwards to compensate you for the upset and inconvenience!!!

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Kathy (14th Jun 2012 - 15:47:06) Yes i have been to a few weddings at old thorns over the last few years. I really like it there and i am very impressed with the development and think someone has to be on their side on this site, therefore i am! Yes i do have a few friends that work there, but as i live in liphook and Old Thorns employ so many local people it would be hard not to know someone who works there. I am also a member of the fabulous new gym which i love. I have always found any staff there really lovely and reasonable which is why I state there are always two sides to every story, they may not be the ogres they are being portrayed here. We have also planned to spend New Years Eve there this year as we like it so much there. It was a fabulous evening last year but was very busy which is why i would not choose it as a new years wedding venue if that was the day i was choosing to get married, what if you ended up with a load of wedding crashers from another party - i personally would not like to risk it on my special day. But each to their own... what a terrible person i am to say good things about 'Old Thorns' - I must be a traitor of the liphook locals and an insider... how ridiculous! What happened to freedom of speech

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Diane (14th Jun 2012 - 17:02:32) I would advise anyone to choose Langrish House for a wedding. My daughter got married there a few years ago. Robina and her staff were so helpfull ,friendly and went out of their way to please and the food was oh so wonderfull. Praised by all who attended.

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - PETER WHITELEY (23rd Jun 2012 - 19:03:44) If you want the perfect Wedding,Why not come to Whiteley's in Standford,we do Weddings for up to 150 people.We will always look after you and our venue is free!

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Brea (15th Feb 2014 - 11:38:18) Thank you for the feedback, we chose New Year\'s Eve as our family are not local and thought it would be nice to have all our closest friends and family at such a special time of year. The purpose of nye for our wedding was symbolic of starting a new year and new life together. As I said old thorns looks beautiful and I had been to other functions there. If the day was to be an issue they could have notified us earlier. In the end we didn\'t get married due to not being able to find a venue a such short notice we are however, getting married this year. As for spring & summer being the only time to get married its a daft idea. Winter too is very romantic. Not everybody wants to get drunk at new year it\'s about out with the old and in with the new.

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - JJ (17th Feb 2014 - 13:25:31) I suggest, whilst you're looking for a suitable venue, you add to your list Cain Manor, part of the Bijou group, easy to find on the internet, and just a few short miles from Old Thorns between Headley and Churt. Very easy to get to. It's a beautiful place, that you could have all to yourselves without the New Year's Eve revellers leaping around Old Thorns., it's a much more intimate, private, venue, of high quality, without over punching it's weight on anyone's budget. Not forgetting the Bijou group have other venues too. Good luck.

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Jenny (18th Feb 2014 - 14:34:40) I'd second Cain Manor - we got married there back in 2008 and had a fantastic day. The service was excellent and the fact its private hire is brilliant. +1 from the editor as well

Re: Weddings at the old thorns - Julia (19th Feb 2014 - 20:01:18) I have a friend who has worked at old thorns for a few years. She told me that a male couple booked their wedding there and the establishment appeared happy with the booking. However they had no intention of going through with it as they didn't want that sort of thing here thank you very much! They contacted the couple shortly before the ceremony and can't remember the exact reasoning but cancelled with apologies. They got their deposit back but because of the short notice their day was wrecked and they had to re-schedule. I've had friends and family members who've also been been treated badly so I personally wouldn't go there for anything.

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