A FAMILY-run wedding business with its very own licensed Hobbit Hole hopes to toast its 10th anniversary by taking the crown for best venue.
Skipbridge Country Weddings, near Green Hammerton, is making a strong comeback after the pandemic reduced its diary of 25 weddings a year to just one ceremony in 2020.
It is now fully booked until 2024 and a finalist in the The Wedding Industry Awards, having won the regional title for best venue (other than historic buildings) in Yorkshire and North East.
Bronte Hall, left, Brett Jackson and event planner Katy Mudd, of Skipbridge Country Weddings, when they won the regional award for best wedding venue in The Wedding Industry Awards.
As well as a licensed Hobbit Hole and Willow Bower, the venue has magical tipis - provided by sister company, Garden Weddings – Tipi Hire, as well as cottage and glamping accommodation.
It also has a petting farm with llamas, alpacas, resident peacock, Shetland ponies and pigmea goats which are likely to photobomb selfies at weddings.
The Shepherd Hut at Skipbridge Country Weddings
Bronte Hall had the idea to turn the family small holding into a wedding venue after her sister Katie, aka Katie Sweep the chimney sweep, tied the knot in a marque there.
"I left school at 16. I am not massively academic and sixth form didn't suit me," said Bronte, now 26.
"I asked my mum and dad if we could set up the wedding venue business. They tentatively said yes, and we did a few friends' and family weddings. It has grown organically through word of mouth."
Ten years on it is a fully-fledged family business, operating from May until September, and involving Bronte's parents Gill and Gordon, brother Tom and partner Brett Jackson.
Plans to stage other events, such as corporate gatherings and yoga retreats, were postponed by the pandemic, and Bronte said their packed diary now meant they would not be able to fit any in over the next 18 months.
The venue has become a leading outdoor wedding venue with a reputation to be proud of.
Brett said: "During 2020 our work was decimated by the pandemic, taking our strong diary of 25 weddings to a diary of one wedding with 30 guests, that we delivered in September 2020.
"Multiple postponements later and slowly but surely returning to the wedding normal, we are delighted to have been nominated for the Wedding Industry Awards. We were up against some fantastic competition throughout Yorkshire and the North East.
"On awards night, our small, family-run business took home the award for best wedding venue in Yorkshire and the North East, as voted for by our couples. We are now hoping to bring home the national award, which will be awarded at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in February."
Established in 2011, The Wedding Industry Awards are independent with regional rounds and national finals.
They are voted for by clients, with an expert panel of judges.
Other regional winners from Yorkshire and the North East were the Little Pearl Bridal Boutique in Pickering, in the category for bridal retailer. The Special Touch award went to Joy’s Bella Bridesmaids, a bridesmaid dress boutique in Riccall. The regional award for venue in a historic building went to Howsham Hall, Howsham.
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