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.

'Disney theme park on our doorstep'

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.

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Last year, "well-heeled" locals complained about traffic, "thumping music" and fireworks during weddings at Euridge Manor, a Cotswolds estate near Bath, said the Daily Mail.

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.

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."

Occasionally, a community will turn its ire not against the local wedding venue, but against the single resident who opposes it. In 2018, the musician and broadcaster Jools Holland's opposition to weddings at Cooling Castle Barn "united the village of Cooling against him", as many residents relied on the business for work, said the Daily Mail. Holland was also accused of hypocrisy, as he had had his own wedding reception at the venue back in 2005.

A royal Nimby?

Last month, King Charles "joined the chorus of nuptial Nimbys" when he reportedly bought a four-bedroom, £3 million home in Wiltshire to prevent it being turned into a wedding venue, said The Telegraph.

The Old Mill is next door to Ray Mill, the Queen's 17-acre countryside retreat. And, according to reports, Camilla was suffering "great anxiety" about one potential buyer's plans to turn it into a wedding venue with on-site holiday lets.

With "concerns growing over the potential risk to the Queen's safety", King Charles "intervened at the eleventh hour" to block the sale and buy the property with private funds, said the Daily Mail.