Astley Bank Hotel Wedding Terms & Conditions

 

These terms and conditions intend to clarify certain aspects of the booking process and to protect all parties, setting out a clear understanding of contractual obligations of both the client and venue when confirming a booking. We have tried to make them as straightforward as possible; if, however, you have any questions, please feel free to speak to us before signing.

Terms & Conditions

 

The Terms and Conditions below are specific to Weddings & Events held at Astley Bank Hotel and are in addition to the General Terms & Conditions of the Hotel as well as the privacy policy. Please note that these Terms and Conditions are subject to change.

1. Wedding Viewings

To ensure that our team’s time is respected, we now require card details when booking a wedding viewing with us. If you need to cancel your appointment, please let us know in advance and we will not charge your card. If you attend your scheduled viewing, no charge will be applied. However, if you fail to show up without notifying us beforehand, a £20 charge will be processed to the card details provided.

1A. Saturday Wedding Viewings

On occasion, we may need to conduct a wedding show round on your wedding day. We will do our utmost to avoid this, but it may be unavoidable at times. These viewings will take place no earlier than three hours before your ceremony and will be limited to the main function room and any unoccupied bedrooms. The Boudoir and Bridal Suite will not be included in these viewings.

2. Booking, Confirmations & Payments

If only one person is making the wedding booking, that person confirms that s/he has the authority to make the booking on behalf of both persons intending to be married. Our contract will therefore be with both such persons. Any error or omission in any information or document issued by us shall be subject to correction provided that the correction does not materially affect the contract. All payments & deposits (mandatory & voluntary) are non- refundable. To confirm your booking, a booking fee, along with a signed contract of terms & conditions will be required. The fee is only for the agreed date. Three months after booking, a second deposit is required and six months after booking, a further deposit is required. Six months prior to your wedding a final deposit is required. Final balances are due 28 days prior to the event. Any changes in numbers thereafter are non-refundable.

We appreciate that on occasions someone else (such as a parent) may wish to make payments due to us on your behalf. We are happy to accept such payments, but please note that unless we agree otherwise with you in writing you are legally responsible for any payments due to us. Payments can be made by debit/ credit card or bank transfer. The venue reserves the right to cancel the wedding if payments are received late. All prices include V.A.T at the current rate and are subject to any additional V.A.T and duty increases. We reserve the right to amend our prices on an annual basis.

3. Arrangements

It is your responsibility to book the Registrar for your wedding. If you have not booked the Registrar before making your booking application with us, we advise you to do so as soon as possible after you have received our confirmation of booking. Please confirm with our Wedding Coordinator once booked.

All suppliers must be agreed in advance of the Event, and sight of suitable public liability insurance is required. We reserve the right to refuse suppliers we deem unsuitable for the Venue or its environs. Astley Bank has a resident DJ. If you wish to book his services, please speak to the wedding coordinators. Please note that the DJ is an Astley Bank supplier and not an Astley Bank employee, and as such, he has his own Public Liability Insurance and any incidents/accidents that might occur directly from use of his equipment are his responsibility and not Astley Bank’s. You are entitled to cancel the DJ’s services for free as long as it is more than 60 days before your wedding. If you decide to cancel the DJ less than 60 days prior to your wedding, you will be fully charged. Should you engage on your own entertainment this must be approved by the hotel and a valid public liability insurance document will need to be provided 7 days prior to the event.

Details of third-party suppliers we provide to you are intended to help you in arranging other services to be provided in connection with your wedding. If you do engage these or any other third-party suppliers, we accept no responsibility for their performance of services, and you should take up any complaints with them directly. You are also responsible for paying their charges directly. We reserve the right not to allow into the Venue any third-party suppliers who do not meet our requirements, intended to ensure the safety and welfare of property and people at the Venue.

Fireworks, marquees and Chinese Lanterns are expressly forbidden at all times at the Venue, due to the nature of the location and the presence of trees in the immediate vicinity. Sparklers are only allowed outside for photographic purposes and are to be handled and disposed of in a responsible manner. Naked flame candles are not permitted unless they are in lanterns or glassware. For the evening entertainment part of your wedding, only battery-operated candles will be allowed. Failure to comply to these terms will increase the risk of fire in the property and, therefore, incur a fine of £100. In addition, only natural eco-friendly types of confetti may be used at the Venue, including bubbles and dried petals. Paper confetti is not allowed and should it, or any other type of non-eco-friendly confetti be used, a charge of £100 will be incurred.

Our gardens and some communal grounds of the hotel are available for photoshoots for couples that are not getting married at Astley Bank. The fee is £250 for 2.5 hours of photography. Alternatively, the couples can also use the abovementioned areas for their wedding photographs if they book our Bridal Boudoir (our hair & make up room) for a £250 charge. This will allow access to the Bridal Boudoir from 8am on the day of the booking. Should couples wish to stay in our Bridal Suite on the night of their wedding, this is charged at £200. Both the Bridal Boudoir and Bridal suite are subject to availability.

3A. Package Bookings (Applicable to our Essentials, Crystal & Twilight Party/Bespoke Packages)

Your booking is dependent on all suppliers being available for your selected package and on your chosen date. We will liaise with you if suppliers are not available and discuss other options.

Once availability has been confirmed by all parties, your booking will be confirmed and you will receive an email with all the contact information for the suppliers. All details must be discussed and confirmed directly with the suppliers.

The suppliers are self-employed and are not part of Astley Bank staff. If there are any circumstances beyond our control such as supplier illness, force majeure or other unexpected instances that prevent the supplier performing their contractual obligations, Astley Bank cannot be held responsible, and the client will have to liaise directly with the supplier. We accept no responsibility for their performance of services, and you should take up any complaints with them directly.

3B. Price Changes for Wedding Packages

Bookings for our Essentials, Crystal, Twilight Party, and Twilight Bespoke packages are subject to price changes. Due to supplier cost increases over time, we are unable to guarantee exact prices for weddings booked 18 months in advance. If you choose to secure your wedding date more than 18 months ahead, please note that your package price may be adjusted if the suppliers included in your package increase their prices. You will be notified of any applicable price changes in writing no later than 12 months prior to your wedding date. 

4. Final Arrangements

A minimum of eight weeks prior to the event, menu and wine package choices are needed. Please note it is strictly only a choice of 2 starters, mains and desserts for the adults as well as one starter, main and dessert for the children. Dietaries will be catered to on top but if you have Vegan & Vegetarian guests then for the main course they will have to have a vegan dish. You must confirm final numbers no later than 28 days before your wedding, so we are able to raise a final invoice. Due to the way our packages are calculated, if you have less than 50 day guests, the price will be calculated by subtracting the difference at the extra day guest rate. The total will then be deducted off the package price. This includes children. Only when there are more than 50 day guests are prices separated into children and adults. Any questions please speak with your Wedding Coordinator. If the numbers increase your Wedding Coordinator needs to be made aware at least 7 days prior to your wedding.

5. Cancellations & Postponements

If you want to cancel a confirmed booking, you must do so in writing; all deposits and final balances paid are non-refundable.

Cancellation less than nine/six months before the wedding

In addition to the above, if you cancel your wedding less than nine (9) months before the scheduled wedding date, you agree to pay Astley Bank Hotel a minimum total sum of £4,000 (inclusive of any deposits already paid).  If you cancel your wedding less than six (6) months before the scheduled wedding date, you agree to pay Astley Bank Hotel a minimum total sum of £4,500 (inclusive of any deposits already paid). This will apply to all Wedding Packages, except Bespoke Twilight (£6,000), Essentials Package (£7,500), and Crystal Package (£11,000). This charge reflects the significant loss suffered by the Hotel, as it is unlikely that the cancelled wedding date can be resold within such a short period.

Postponement less than six months before the wedding

If you request to postpone the wedding less than six (6) months before the scheduled wedding date, you agree to pay Astley Bank Hotel a £1,500 postponement fee. If your wedding date is postponed, any revised date will be subject to the wedding package prices applicable at the time of the new wedding date. This means that weddings moved to a later year will be charged at the package rates in effect for that year, rather than the rates originally agreed at the time of booking. All postponements remain subject to venue availability.

6. Cancellation by Us

We reserve the right to cancel your booking without liability to you and without any obligation to refund your deposit if:
• You do not pay the balance of your wedding package price by the date due for such payment
• We have reasonable grounds to believe that you may not pay us the balance of your wedding package price by the due date and we have requested you to explain the position and you have not done so satisfactorily
• We discover, before you have paid the balance of your wedding package price, that you have deliberately concealed information, or deliberately given us incorrect information, about your intended wedding in circumstances where (if you had not done so) it would have been reasonably foreseeable that we would not have accepted your booking
• We have reasonable grounds to believe that your behaviour or that of your guests at the wedding is likely to result in damage to the Venue or to our property and/or injury to people.

7. Events Out of Our Control

We shall not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance, of any of our obligations under our contract with you that is caused by events outside of our reasonable control (such as serious damage to the Venue, serious adverse weather conditions, a pandemic or epidemic, or interruption or failure of utility services such as electric power, gas or water). In these circumstances, we shall use every effort to notify you as soon as is reasonably practical. If, as a result of such events, we believe we have no alternative but to cancel your booking, you must have suitable wedding insurance to cover you for these eventualities.

8. COVID 19 or other pandemics/epidemics

Any weddings affected by COVID 19 (and/or other pandemics/epidemics) that cannot then be taken due to a government decreed lockdown will be able to request a date change within 12 months of the booking date. If the venue is unable to open due to lockdown measures you may move to a new date and original quotations will be honoured. If government restrictions apply but events can still proceed with limitations, invoices will be revised.

9. Changes to the Venue and/or Your Wedding Package

We reserve the right to make changes to the interior and/or exterior of the venue between the time we accept your booking and the date of your wedding. For example, we may make changes to the décor and colour schemes of function rooms, and we cannot guarantee that the venue and its surrounds will be free from additional structures (such as scaffolding).

We will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that no components of your wedding have to be altered. However, as a wedding plan is normally put together a long time before your scheduled date, we reserve the right to make changes to certain components if this is necessary to comply with safety requirements or other changes in law or relevant codes of practice, or to make other minor changes which we reasonably believe will not be to the detriment of your overall wedding experience. We will notify you of any significant changes, but unless the change is one which is likely to fundamentally change the nature of your wedding experience, we will not offer a refund, costs, or compensation.

10. Guest Behaviour

At all times, the conduct of your guests is your responsibility. Any accounts outstanding from the guests attending your wedding, however caused, remain your responsibility and you hereby agree to pay for such accounts. A refundable bond of £300 will be added to your final invoice as a guarantee that your guests will adhere to this. You will need to contact the hotel in order to claim your refundable bond of £300 within 6 months of your wedding; failure to do so will mean that the hotel is within its rights to retain this bond. Only food and beverages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) purchased from the Hotel may be consumed on the premises, and if guests are caught consuming food or beverages not purchased from the hotel, they will be asked to leave the premises. Our bar will close at midnight for 30-45 minutes for restocking, and after that it will reopen for Hotel residents only, until 1.30am and the lounge will close at 2am. In the event of guests abusing our staff and causing damage to the property, the bar will not open after the restocking process. Any guests deemed by the Hotel not to be upholding the aforementioned conditions, or a good level of behaviour, may be removed from the Hotel and its premises. The Hotel is under no obligation to pay compensation or a refund for any guests in the event of inappropriate behaviour.

11. Accommodation

Check-in for bedrooms is from 3pm and check-out is at 11am. All bedrooms are strictly NO SMOKING any breach of this will incur a cleaning charge of £75.00. A smoking shelter is provided in the hotel grounds. Subletting or re-letting of the rooms provided as well as use thereof for other purposes than accommodation is strictly prohibited. Monies will be retained from your refundable bond for any rooms that are reserved or booked by you and not occupied or if the guest no shows and no card details are attached to the booking.

11A. Blocking Rooms

Any bedrooms you have chosen to block must be fully allocated and reserved. Unreserved rooms not released at least 10 days prior to the wedding will be charged at the full room rate.

11B. Outside Guests

If the hotel is not booked exclusively for your wedding, there may be outside guests staying onsite during your event. We will allocate their rooms as far as possible from the main function areas, and if they are dining with us, they will do so in a private dining space. Outside guests will not have access to the lounge or bar during your wedding celebration.

Please be aware that, on occasion, we may also have outside brides staying at the hotel — for example, staying the night before their wedding at another venue, or returning to us after their wedding elsewhere. While we do our best to identify these bookings in advance, we are not always informed. As a hotel open to the public, we cannot decline bookings from other brides simply because a wedding is taking place, particularly when we have rooms available. We do, however, take every reasonable measure to ensure your wedding experience remains private and uninterrupted.

12. Exclusive Use Weddings

Exclusive use of the hotel is available (excluding use of the Conference Centre, the Huntington Room, and evening access to the Bridal Dressing Room), for an extra £500 on top of your chosen package, as well as a guaranteed minimum spend, which will be disclosed by your Wedding Coordinator. This price is to be made up of your chosen package cost and does not include accommodation costs. For exclusive use, you must guarantee that all rooms will be occupied by Wedding Guests. If you cannot fill all 37 bedrooms you will be expected to pay for the entire room rate. Any accounts left unpaid by guests are payable by the wedding couple on departure. If you require exclusive use of the hotel, please speak to your Wedding Coordinator, exclusivity is subject to availability. With full exclusivity you also receive sole use of all communal areas, the Astley Bank Bar and Lounge, as well as the Alderman and Shorrock Rooms. Please note that exclusive use does not apply to any conference areas, the Huntington Room, and evening access to the Bridal Dressing Room. Please read our Exclusive Use Procedures for further information. Please let us know if you would like exclusive use at the time of confirming your booking and paying your deposit (see page 2 for deposit payments).

13. Evacuation

In the event of a fire alarm, please vacate the venue immediately and gather at the fire assembly area. Leave all belongings behind and do not re-enter the building until you are told by a Fire Marshall to do so. We will not be liable for any disruptions to the wedding caused by a fire alarm.

14. Hotel’s Liability

The hotel does not accept responsibility for loss of or damage to any items of value (including but not limited to cash, jewellery and electronic items such as laptops, cameras and phones) unless deposited with the reception desk for safe keeping. The hotel is entitled to rely on the limitations of liability for lost or damaged property contained in the Hotel Proprietors’ Act 1956, a copy of which will be displayed in reception. Where applicable, the hotel’s maximum liability for lost or damaged property is limited to £50 per item and £100 per guest.

15. Communication

All written communications by you to us must be sent by post to Astley Bank Hotel, Bolton Road, Darwen, BB3 2QB or to weddings@astleybank.co.uk. We may send written communications to you at either the email or postal address set out in our quotation.

COMPANY DETAILS

Astley Bank Hotel Ltd.

Bolton Road, Darwen, BB3 2QB

Tel: 01254 777700