Britain's wedding wars: 'nuptial Nimbys' up for the fight

Country weddings in idyllic settings are causing rising levels of angry complaints from locals about noise, disruption, traffic, parking and pollution.

Once "imbued with notions of flowers and smiles, romantic love and happy families", the wedding-reception trade is now "drawing short shrift" from those who live in "bucolic country spots", said The Telegraph.

The "returns are big" for the hotels and stately homes that host weddings: last year, UK couples paid an average of £23,250 to get spliced. And now more property owners are throwing open their doors to cash in on the celebrations. But a "chorus of nuptial Nimbys" are increasingly contacting local councils about the disruption they bring.

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'Disney theme park on our doorstep'

Jigsaw fashion tycoon John Robinson is currently "locked in a bitter planning battle" with Wiltshire Council over the use of Euridge Manor, his 450-acre Cotswolds estate, as a wedding venue said the Daily Mail. "Well-heeled" locals have been complaining about traffic, "thumping music" and fireworks.

Wedding season at the venue, which has hosted the nuptials of Poldark star Eleanor Tomlinson, was like "having a Disney theme park on our doorstep", one neighbour told The Telegraph, complaining that wedding guests regularly "swear" at locals in traffic jams along the narrow country lanes.

Another neighbour told the BBC that the manor used to be "idyllic" but the plan to convert it into a "money-making establishment" had come at "great cost to me, my family and numerous other residents".

'No more weddings - we've had enough'

Over in Oxnead in Norfolk, things got so bad that, in 2022, locals put up signs saying, "Brides and grooms not welcome" and "No more weddings – we've had enough". "Rowdy" wedding guests at Oxnead Hall had apparently been using villagers' gardens as toilets, said The Telegraph.

Accrington Stanley Football Club in Lancashire recently lost the right to host weddings and other functions after complaints from neighbours. And in Cumbria, Cumberland Council told the owners of Dalston Hall that wedding parties would need to be moved inside from this Spring, due to objections from neighbours about noise coming from marquees. One local resident did brand the complaints as "Nimbyism", though, saying, "In Dalston, if someone farts loudly, they will complain."

A royal Nimby?

King Charles is rumoured to have bought a £3 million house next door to his wife's 17-acre countryside retreat "after fears it would be sold and turned into a wedding venue", said the Salisbury Journal.

The Old Mill is next door to the Queen's Ray Mill House, bought after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles reportedly stepped in to buy the neighbouring property with his own funds.

The royals are clearly "far from being alone in their concerns over the raucous scenes that weddings can bring", said the Mail. It has prompted venues such as Oxnead Hall to impose "strict controls over noise" and to hire "security guards to keep guests from straying". Venue manager Francis Guildea told the paper that, as a rural venue, they "genuinely want to have a good relationship" with the locals. "Communication is the key."