We love a good cake here at Cooling Castle Barn. But while we eat it with gusto, we leave the baking and creative side to the experts.

With decades in the wedding industry, we know what makes the perfect wedding. And a show-stopping cake is definitely up there! It’s why only a select few businesses make it onto our recommended suppliers’ list.

Here we asked three cake suppliers from our fab list to pick out their favourite creation.

Sue Pridie, from All Shapes & Slices Cake Co picked this buttercream iced cake as her favourite. It had a red velvet tier, a vanilla sponge tier and two dummy tiers to reduce servings. It served 50 slices, but would have served 130 slices had all tiers been edible.

She said: “I love this cake because four-tier wedding cakes are my favourite size for making a real impact at a venue. I created this cake in May 2021 when weddings were still under government restrictions, but my couple Alannah and Matt didn’t want to reduce the cake size that they had their hearts set on.

“It was the first multi-tiered cake that I had made in such a long time and the flowers that Floral Explosion provided were absolutely perfect for creating the delicate floral cascade on this design.”

Photograph by Rebecca Carpenter Photography

Chelsea Prior from Chelsea Buns Cake Design picked this stunning cake made up of rich chocolate, white chocolate and passion fruit and lemon tiers.

She said: “As a specialist in handcrafted sugar flowers, this cake is one of my all-time favourites. The beautiful, botanically correct sugar flowers are the focal point of this design and had people guessing if they were in fact real! The flowers alone were about two days’ work, as every individual petal is rolled, cut and shaped by hand. 

“I can recreate any flowers in sugar, meaning that my couples can have everlasting flowers as a memento from their wedding day. Creating beautiful wedding cakes with amazing sugar flowers is my favourite thing to do.”

Jeyda Ali from Jey’s Heavenly Events picked out this display which includes a four-tier main cake, three single tiers, 40 brownies, 48 cupcakes, 40 mini cakes and 40 personalised cookies. It took her two days to bake and design and an hour and a half to set-up!

She said: “This is my favourite set-up as its unique to Jey's Heavenly Events and brings the ‘wow factor’ into a couple’s big day. I love extravagant displays and this is definitely one! They can be altered to fit any theme!” 

Trying to get your dress on in a cramped bedroom; clothes and make-up scattered all over the place; worrying about getting to the wedding on time. Stop! At Cooling Castle Barn, we make sure the most special day of your life gets off to the perfect start. 

Our stunning Mote House bridal suite gives you your own beautiful space to get ready on your wedding day. 

Have your breakfast in peace and some ‘bubbles’ in our serene surroundings. Get ready, pampered and photographed in style!

Everything has been thought of to make sure your day begins in the best possible way.

From 8am, you can bring along your hairdresser and make-up artist to help you get ready in the large dressing room. If you don’t fancy that, take your closest family and friends for a spot of breakfast or some bubbles.

If the weather is nice you can sit on the balcony and enjoy views over the countryside.  The master bedroom comes with a beautiful free-standing bath if you want a relaxing soak, first. 

For the end of the evening, there’s even a separate living room area if you want to put your feet up at the end of the night - you can always invite a few close friends or family members back for a nightcap or a coffee and chat.

The master bedroom has a lovely comfy sleigh bed and a deep cast iron double-ended, free-standing bath should you want to relax before bed. Everything you need to round off the night in the most romantic way possible.

Take a look at some of our latest photos of the dressing room area and click here for more details 

How cool is this? We don’t often blow our own trumpet, but Cooling Castle Barn was featured in an Elle Magazine article - which put us in the Top 32 wedding venues in the UK!

They said: “Choosing a wedding venue for your big day can be one of the most stressful yet crucial decisions of your ‘wedmin’.

“From barn conversions, Grade II-listed properties, farmhouses and hotels, the UK has thousands of wedding venues to pick from, making finalising your list of possible destinations for your nuptials all the more challenging.

“Additionally, some wedding venues come with wedding planners, dry hire fees, accommodation, weekend packages, linen hire (yes, that’s a thing) and menu tasting, which makes choosing your wedding flowers, wedding photographer and wedding dress a piece of cake in the grand scheme of things.

“That’s why we’ve compiled an in-depth list of the most stylish wedding venues in the UK, no matter the religion, culture, style or party size you wish to cater for.”

Lovely to be appreciated - we were placed 28th!

Read the full article here

Halloween: a time for pumpkins, Trick or Treat and scary costumes. Oh….and weddings! 

As these amazing photos show, Kiera and Gokhan Karakas used the spooky celebration to get really creative for a stunning wedding at Cooling Castle Barn, two years ago.

The couple married in Gokhan’s home country of Turkey, but wanted a Kent wedding for Kiera’s friends and family, too.

And with a Halloween date the only option left, it couldn’t have worked out any better.

Kiera explained: “Halloween has always been my favourite day of the year. They don’t celebrate it in Turkey and it was something I missed after moving there. We got engaged in February 2019 and in Tukey it is usual to get married quite quickly after the engagement. 

“We wanted a wedding in the UK too and when we looked at the dates Cooling Castle Barn had, the only one left was 30th October. It was fate!”

The couple opted for a Halloween theme, with black and orange rather than traditional white.

She continued: “My favourite colour is black and so is my husband’s and it worked really well for us. 

“We are photographers and are at weddings all the time and so we didn’t really want the whole white wedding, so we said let’s go for a black – a Halloween wedding for our guests.

“Danny our florist incorporated pumpkins in candelabras onto our table. We decorated the ceremony hall ourselves. We got all the pumpkins and decorations and my mum and I did it all in the morning. Women’s hair and make-up and decorating the ceremony room – the morning was a little stressful!

“My veil had black lace at the back and my dress had a black corset lace at the back and I hand-made my own shoes as I couldn’t find any black wedding shoes. 

“I desperately wanted a black dress but my mum said ‘no way!’ so I compromised! But I tried to get black and dark items into my outfit!”

Things didn’t end there, with other areas of the wedding fitting into the theme, too.

Kiera said: “Our wedding cake was black which was really different and Danny decorated it with flowers to match our table decorations and we had a Turkish buffet in the evening and a chocolate fountain. We also had a sweet cart in the evening with the sort of sweets you’d give out for Trick or Treat, decorated in orange and black.

“Being photographers ourselves, we knew what we wanted for our pictures so we did a lot of searching for the right person. We found Noemi from Thyme Lane Photography, who specialises in darker autumn colours and alternative shots and the smoke was her idea. We went with orange and black smoke bombs as she suggested they would look good against the orange autumn leaves and fit in with the theme.”

And for an autumn, winter or Halloween wedding, Kiera believes Cooling should be your first port of call. And she has some advice for any brides thinking about doing something similar. 

She added: “If you’re going for a Halloween or winter wedding, I would definitely recommend it. If you can find a local pumpkin farm like I did, you can get a good deal to get the pumpkins in by bulk. At the end of the night, we let all our guests take a pumpkin home so next day they all had one for Halloween!

“If you want something autumnal, or Halloween-y, dark, or winter-themed, just go hard with it. Don’t be nervous, people will always remember it. 

“The venue is perfect for these types of weddings. The barn is so beautiful. There’s so much you can do with it. But also the staff were so helpful and lovely all day. I organised a Turkish band to surprise my husband with and everyone was so helpful in keeping it a secret. I’d definitely recommend it as a venue, for the people and the look you can create – it was perfect!”

For more information on a winter, autumn, Halloween or alternative-style wedding, please get in touch today!

Photos courtesy of Noemi at thyme lane photography

There’s nothing quite like a romantic story to warm the heart – and Storme-Chantelle Maltby-Wady’s marriage to Andrew has all the right ingredients.

Growing up within walking distance of Cooling Castle Barn, Storme-Chantelle always dreamed of celebrating her marriage at the venue.

In August – after four changes of date – she finally got her wish. The ceremony took place at the nearby St Helen’s Church, before the celebrations continued at the barn.

Storme-Chantelle told us: “I am originally from Cliffe, just down the road – I’ve lived there my whole life. I’ve always wanted my wedding day at Cooling since I was a little girl! There wasn’t anywhere else I would have got married. 

“I’d been to a few weddings there, but that doesn’t mean you are going to do the same thing.

“Andrew surprised me with a viewing at the Barn, I’d never gone for a proper look around and it just made us both really want to get married there.”

With four postponements it was a difficult build up to the special day – although their final date couldn’t have been more perfect.

She continued: “We had to move the wedding four times in the end, first through pregnancy and then Covid. The team at Cooling were amazing about it, although it was hard.

“But it made us appreciate it more – it gave me a different outlook on what it meant. We had to wait, but in the end, I just really wanted to get married.

“At one stage it didn’t look as though we would get married this year, but when they came back with a date, we ended up getting married on our actual anniversary. Cute!”

The couple had an amazing day with some words of advice for anyone thinking of opting for the Barn for their big day. 

Storme-Chantelle added: “We were so happy with how the day went. The food is amazing and the staff were brilliant and helped make it even more special. Nothing was too much trouble – not all venues would have such supportive staff. It was all I ever wanted.

 “Getting ready in the morning in such an amazing space was a dream. It starts your day off amazingly. It’s picture-perfect too. I was so excited about getting ready there and had my mum and four bridesmaids with me.

“But the whole venue and location is stunning. You know the photos will be perfect and give you lasting memories of your day. 

“If you’re thinking of getting married at Cooling Castle Barn, my advice is don’t worry about what day of the week you get married – I think too many people get worked up about having a Saturday, but Cooling is amazing on whatever day you get married. It doesn’t matter. We had several days booked in and we never thought we would get married on a Monday, but it was a brilliant day. It’s perfect whatever day you go for.”

With thanks to Hollie Carlin for use of the photos.