The Horniman Museum & Gardens

We booked the Horniman Conservatory for a Friday afternoon ceremony and drinks reception - it was a perfect venue for stunning pictures, a unique ceremony and a fun relaxed afternoon. The beautiful conservatory made the ceremony feel extra special, and booking it meant we were able to use our own wedding celebrant, musicians and caterers.

We used Horniman's approved caterers Caiger & Co - who provided amazing service, very yummy vegan canapes (as we were having a veggie wedding but they have the full range) and it is a female-led, sustainability-focused caterer which I really appreciated. Overall, booking the conservatory through them and using their services felt like really good value for money too, which is appreciated for a London wedding!

One thing to note is that the conservatory can get hot on a warm day, but it was still worth it for us, and we made sure to keep the ceremony brief and then there is a great space for drinks and canapés around the conservatory for before and after. We also arranged a London bus to pick up the guests from the Horniman to transport them to the wedding breakfast at a nearby pub. The Caiger & Co team were extremely helpful at every step of the planning and the on the day coordination. Would highly recommend the venue and this team!

I had been eyeing up this venue to get married at long before we even got engaged, knowing how beautiful it is. The glasshouse is gorgeous and the setting in the gardens provides a perfect backdrop for photos.

However I am not sure that I would recommend this venue to other prospective couples for a number of reasons.
- Throughout the planning process you are not actually able to directly liaise with the Horniman, all contact must be through one of three catering companies
- The Horniman requests a 6% commission to be paid to them on top of ANY supplier invoice. They do not have a list of recommended suppliers for which this is not applicable (something that had been implied at the start of the planning process). Prospective couples will need to bear this in mind when booking any suppliers (photographer, florist, entertainment etc). I am still not sure what this commission covers.
- Obviously we were expecting it to be hot inside in summer, but the venue provided just 3 tiny floor fans and wanted an extortionate amount to provide any further measures to ventilate the room
- The organisation between the catering company and the venue was poor, we had been promised access to various parts of the venue throughout the day, and at every point we were made to wait ages for keys from security
- The toilet facilities were vile: wet floors, taped up flushes, all urinals out of order (leaving just one cubicle for all the men!), taps only dispensing scalding hot water
- Not a secret, but the venue is completely dry hire, so you will need to pay for hire of every piece of furniture/decor in the room (including water jugs!!)

Overall I had the most fantastic wedding day, but if I could turn back time and start my wedding planning process again I would choose a venue well versed in managing events, specifically weddings. I have separate, mixed feedback regarding the catering company's management of the event, which I have largely omitted to keep this review focussed on the venue itself.