24 February 2020

Chilston Park Hotel Weddings

(Photo above taken by Matt of The RockPins while performing in the Coach House at Chilston Park Hotel).

The RockPins have been playing weddings at Chilston Park Hotel for many years now and are proud to currently be the only live band on their preferred supplier list.

And we really enjoy playing there! Its a lovely countryside mansion house hotel with fantastic grounds and a great atmosphere. (It's even got its own helipad!) And the staff are super friendly. If you are thinking of getting married in Kent, come along to one of the monthly open days at Chilston where you can have a glass of bubbly, eat some lovely cake and be shown round the hotel and grounds and meet all of the preferred suppliers. We look forward to seeing you there! (Normally a Sunday between 1-4pm).

Chilston Park Hotel Review

Having played at this venue in excess of 40 times, we're pretty well placed to review it as outsiders. (We get to eat the food!) And see how the clients are enjoying themselves. The best thing about out of town venues is they are......relaxed!! No stressful parking, no noise, no traffic jams, the list goes on! We've played many big city weddings and they are never as nice as playing out in the sticks! When you arrive at Chilston, there's a nice big driveway to navigate with cows in the fields and ducks by the lake. You've arrived! Once into the carpark, there is a big gravel driveway to the front of the hotel. And the grounds are vast - normally rabbits running around in the distance. There are a number of places for the wedding ceremony including a recently built outdoor area which looks great. The inside is charming and very well presented. Even though we are only ever there to work, we always feel relaxed and welcome.

From our point of view, when clients have exclusive use and they use the various rooms around the building, this is great for us as it generally means we can set up and sound check while the wedding breakfast is going on in another room. (Many venues have to perform a 'room turnaround' from wedding breakfast to evening reception which can be quite stressful as our set up is rush rush rush!)

Where do we play? Most of the wedding we have played have been in the Orangery. This is the room we enjoy playing in most of all. Its also really convenient as we can pull up adjacent to the room to unload all our heavy equipment. Second place is the Coach House which we have played a lot less, then finally in Culpeper's which has been fun too. TBH, there's not much in it, but for us there is just a bit more space on the Orangery side of the hotel.

The Food: This has always been great when we've been included on the buffet. And we've had so many varied menus over the years, so there's obviously a lot of choice.

Accommodation: This is something we can't comment on having never stayed there, but it is a very strong selling point of this venue. We understand there are 50 rooms available for booking so roughly can accommodate about 120 guests. This is great as it means no one has to leave early and everyone can meet for breakfast in the morning! Lovely!

Fireworks: Many clients like to have fireworks for their weddings. And Aurora Fireworks are the exclusive fireworks providers at Chilston. We've met them quite a few times at the wedding fayres and they're all lovely people. There is a lake within the grounds of the hotel and they can do them behind the lake with everyone stood in front of the lake. Apparently it's great. There is also another spot they do the shows near the helipad (adjacent to the Orangery).

The RockPins at Chilston

Below are a few photographs of The RockPins at Chilston. You can also take a look at our Videos page where there are montages of weddings we've played over the last couple of years, many of which were in Chilston Park. If you want more information on Chilston Park, we'd be happy to help with the knowledge we've gained over the years, or visit their website. Or if you'd like to chat about our services, we'd love to hear from you too! Please call / text Matt on 07832 343 772 or email: info@therockpins.com