Milling Barn

We got married at Milling Barn in August after rescheduling our wedding from earlier in the year. The venue is beautiful and we had a wonderful day however..... if you want to feel like your custom is valued, special or individual, this is not the venue for you.

Customer service is not a priority and you are certainly on a conveyor belt of weddings. The venue have a way of doing things and there is very little flexibility. We had issues with double booking of dates, lack of communication, reassurance and poor customer service. The reception catering was incorrect on the wedding day and table wine was put back behind the bar to be resold - completely unacceptable, especially with covid! The venue would not take accountability for mistakes or behaviors which was disappointing given the trust you place in them.

If you choose to get married here, I am sure you will have a lovely day and the pictures will be beautiful. But manage your expectations on service, communication and customer value.... as you will only be disappointed.





Whilst the venue is beautiful and we had a wonderful day

During our initial visit in late February, my fiancée and I fell in love with Milling Barn, compounded by the feeling that we had found a local, honest, family run establishment. Unfortunately, our trust was totally misplaced, and our personal experience has led us to a legal dispute with The Venue Group’ (the corporate parent company behind Milling Barn, based in Rugby), in an attempt to have our deposit returned.
Our timing was incredibly unfortunate as we booked on the 3rd of March 2020, two days before COVID became a notifiable disease, meaning that we were unable to obtain suitable insurance. COVID was a largely an unknown entity at this point, thus we still had confidence that our wedding date of August 28th 2021 would continue as planned. Unfortunately, COVID tore through the country and the initial summer lifting of restrictions gave way to further infections and deaths, witnessed first-hand by my EMT (soon to be qualified Paramedic) fiancé, who has worked tirelessly throughout this awful pandemic. As it became increasingly likely that the UK would face a second national lockdown, we became ever more concerned that we would soon be asked to begin making large contributions towards our £22,000 wedding. We made a visit to Milling Barn in October 2020 to highlight our concerns, to simply be told that we would need to write to the corporate office and that the staff stationed at Milling Barn wouldn’t be able to offer us any potential solutions.
We wrote to The Venue Group (Initially Director Gwil Jones), highlighting the fact that we couldn’t obtain insurance and that we were extremely nervous giving such large amounts to a company within an industry with legitimate insolvency risks given they were not able to host any weddings during lockdown. We did not wish to pay nothing at all but we offered what we felt was a reasonable and fair compromise amount, given the unprecedented circumstances. Having heard from our friends about how flexible their chosen local wedding venues were being during these circumstances, we felt confident that a solution could be found.
Unfortunately, The Venue Group flatly refused our suggestion and upon us mentioning that we may need to review whether or not to cancel our wedding on the back of their refusal, we were informed that they would not only try to keep our £2,000 deposit, but would also pursue us for an additional £5,650 (£7,650 in total) in ‘Damages’. For us, the final straw was to see that they would be looking to claim £2,500 in food an drink, for a wedding that would be cancelled a full 10 months before our proposed date.
Needless to say, at this point, all faith and trust that we once had with this company had gone and we felt morally forced to cancel, despite the continued threat from Director Richard Bray, for ‘damages’.
We have sought legal advice and we are advised that we have a very strong case against them. In particular, guidance from the Competition and Markets Authority states that wedding deposits cannot be non-refundable.
My fiancé and I are not the type of people to write negative reviews for the slightest injustice or poor level of service received. However, we will not be bullied by Milling Barn/ The Venue Group’s arrogant dismissal of both our legitimate concerns and our legal rights. If this review means another couple can avoid the stress and heartache in planning their special day with Milling Barn then our experience won’t have been in vain. We would definitely NOT recommend this wedding company!

My fiancé and I loved the venue (Milling Barn, run by The Venue Group) when we first saw it in May 2019, and it’s large capacity made it ideal for all of our families. We booked for August 15th 2020 for 130 guests.
The coronavirus outbreak meant this initial date had to be moved, and we agreed on a new date of July 17th 2021. After this, they attempted to charge us an additional and unagreed £825 because the rates for 2021 were going up. After some discussion, they agreed to maintain the original price.
In February 2021 the country was still in a state of lockdown, with weddings in particular under heavy restrictions. My fiancé and I were very stressed at the prospect of planning and committing even more money to a wedding that seemed unlikely to take place, in our opinion. We emailed the venue and requested a refund. We were told this would not be possible, and that they had information that the wedding would go ahead.
Shortly after this, the government announced that on June 21st 2021 all restrictions would be lifted, and so our wedding could go ahead. With a little more confidence we continued planning. I emailed the venue, and said that for our peace of mind, could they confirm that in the event the restrictions weren’t lifted, and it would not be possible to host our wedding on July 17th that we could have a refund as per their terms and conditions. Richard Bray, the Director of The Venue Group, responded saying that this would be the case.

On June 14th it was announced that restrictions would not be lifted. This meant that our wedding could not go ahead, as under social distancing guidelines Milling Barn could not hold all of our guests. We were told that we had two choices; uninvite nearly 50 guests so that we could accommodate their new capacity and still go ahead on the day, or accept one of their remaining unbooked October 2021 dates. No pro-rata rate was even offered for either proposal.
We asked for the refund as agreed in February, and were told that we could not have it. We even offered to accept a reduced refund, and were still denied.
When my guests have emailed Milling Barn asking for refunds for the accomodation booked for our wedding date, they have been ignored.

We are now in the process of attempting to claim this considerable amount of money back through the courts, which has caused immeasurable stress to both my fiancé and myself.

It is my hope that other couples will see this and take great caution when choosing to sign a contract with this horrible company. One of the true villains of the coronavirus pandemic.

We are always quick to complain when things go wrong but often find it hard to send praise when things go right! - we havent had the smoothest of journeys, but I just wanted to say how pleased me and my now husband were with the level of service on the day and even the run up to it all was generally fantastic, very organised and nothing was too much to ask.

We have a very young baby and everyone went out of their way to make sure she was looked after too!

Your staff are absolutely fantastic, we must give a special mention to julie & the lady who did our final planning meeting, julie was there the day we set up and the day we left, she honestly is the kindest sweetest most helpful lady we have ever had the honour of meeting & during our planning meeting no one understood us better than the lady who did this with us!

Your day and evening staff are also incredible even when they are chasing us to ensure we dont run over haha!

You are all a credit to milling barn!

The team were always responsive, helpful and friendly. Nothing was too much trouble. They helped to make our day run really smoothly, and made it special for us.

We had a wonderful Wedding Day.
The setting was beautiful, the staff really attentive and the food delicious!
I would really recommend you as a venue!
Thank you, Richard (Father of the Bride!)

We had such an amazing day at Milling Barn. Our wedding couldn’t have been any more perfect. The staff were wonderful. Nothing was too much trouble and everything ran so smoothly.
I couldn’t recommend this venue enough, and I’m sure all of our friends and family would second this!

Milling Barn were absolutely amazing throughout the whole wedding planning process - especially with all the chops and changes throughout the pandemic. They were nothing but professional and helpful, doing anything they could to make our wedding (and celebration party one year later) special. Would recommend Milling Barn to any couple!

We had an amazing wedding day at Milling Barn. Everything was perfect, the day ran seamlessly and staff could not have been more helpful. Very reasonably priced compared to other venues in the area but what they offer is just as good if not better. All our guests loved it and said how good the food and drink was. Wouldn't have changed a thing.

Tom and Jade

The whole team at Milling Barn were exceptional from start to finish. The day ran so smoothly, all the catering staff were professional and polite, all the food was delicious and of such a high standard and our manager on the day helped everything to run like clockwork. Thank you for making our day so special! Hannah and Ben xx

We got married recently and everything was perfect, including the food which was absolutely delicious. The accommodation was also comfortable and clean. Our guests all had an amazing day, as did we! We also used some of their recommended suppliers which were also fantastic.

The Team at Milling Barn are incredible, Verity the events manager helped us to organise the day with planning meetings and was there to answer any questions. On the day of the wedding the team set up the barn as requested, the food was superb and waiting staff were professional and friendly. Steph the events coordinator made the day run like clockwork and kept everything running to schedule. We had no issues at all and would recommend Milling Barn to everyone. Thank you to everyone involved, we had a fantastic day!

We were married on the 26th May 2017 at Milling Barn. We opted for a woodland wedding and prayed for sunshine and thankfully we got it! The woodland is a beautiful setting to have a wedding and the barns are beautiful, everyone keeps asking me where I found such a lovely venue.
Ella and the rest of the Milling Barn staff worked hard to set up both the woodland and the indoor ceremony area (in case it rained) and were on hand all day to ensure everything went to plan, The chopping block who provide the catering were great, food was amazing and in the evening we had a wood fired pizza oven which our guests loved. Milling Barn is an up and coming venue and although there was the odd teething problem in the beginning once Ella came on board everything ran smoothly. Ella is very helpful, professional and went above and beyond to ensure we had a perfect day! We are very grateful to all of the team at Milling barn for making our wedding day such a special one. x

Dan and I only visited this property and it was everything we wanted! Beautiful vintage oak barn, with tons of space, endless skies and the friendliest staff. This place is amazing if you want somewhere suitable for both Ceremony and Reception it's perfect! And you have the option of a beautiful woodland wedding. The caterers are fantastic - endless options and fantastic quality, the in house staff are every bit as good. Accommodating, friendly and creative! Everything you need. We can't thank them all enough - the day was seamless and we wouldn't change it fot the world. Ps this venue is so easy to decorate!! That helps massively