Christmas at Goodwood

Laura and Dominic

10th March 2020

Laura and Dominic are Goodwood super fans. Looking back at their wedding on the 11th of October, it's hardly surprising they chose the magnificent Goodwood House as their wedding venue.

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"We were both completely blown away by Goodwood House when we visited. Goodwood House is a beautiful setting, full of beautiful artwork and antiques which we knew our families would love to see; yet despite all the grandeur and splendour it still felt warm and welcoming. Everything about Goodwood House struck the right balance and we knew we couldn’t find a better venue elsewhere."

We wanted to find a venue that we knew would look after us and our friends and family and we felt like we’d struck gold when we were shown round.
Laura & Dominic

"From the moment we started planning our wedding we knew we wanted to get married in West Sussex as we both have family ties to the area. We both spent lots of time in West Sussex when we were younger with Laura visiting her grandparents in Hayward’s Heath and Dominic spending many summer days at his family’s beach hut in Felpham; West Sussex just felt right to us both.

Goodwood was already a very special place to Dominic, him and his family are all GRRC Members and they have attended every Revival meeting since it started in 1998. He was bitten by the Revival bug on his first visit in 2002 and hasn’t missed a meeting since. However, our big controversy is that Laura is more of a Festival of Speed kind-of-girl, preferring the newer models and the latest hypercars. One thing we can agree on is that the Members’ Meeting is an awesome weekend and cannot be missed!

Goodwood was also the location of one of our first dates when we took a weekend away and stayed at a B&B in Lavant. By “sheer coincidence” Dominic discovered that there was a Supercar Sunday Breakfast Club meet at the circuit that weekend – what are the chances of that? We visit Goodwood regularly and will often combine a trip to the Chichester Festival Theatre with a bite to eat at the Bar & Grill or Farmer, Butcher, Chef. We both are huge foodies and love the Sussex, seasonal menus at both the restaurants."

So, in many ways it was very fitting for us to tie the knot at Goodwood too – we’re super fans!
Laura & Dominic

"We wanted our wedding theme to be a celebration of everything we love about autumn and Sussex. We took most of our inspiration from the season and, being October, we hoped that the Estate would be awash with autumnal colours and dramatic long shadows and soft light – we were not disappointed! It was beautiful. The oranges, pinks and blushes in our flowers were a perfect match with the yellows, golds and deep reds throughout Goodwood House and the leaves throughout the Estate. Even our pheasant feathers in our table arrangements were a match with our menu and our tweeds; for what is Goodwood without tweed?

We are both huge foodies so our menu was always going to be a big highlight and feature for our big day. Choosing our menu was so exciting and so difficult too. The choice across the autumn menu was incredible and really ticked the boxes for local, autumnal produce."

We could have happily chosen three or four full wedding breakfasts and had every canape going - it was a great problem to have to bring it down to our final choices.
Laura & Dominic

"Meeting Mike, the Head Chef, was a great pleasure and a reassurance that all our guest’s dietary requirements would be well catered for. We felt that nothing would be too much trouble, Mike and his team even made a special dessert for one of our guests with a dairy intolerance; it was that kind of attention to detail that assured us that we were in incredibly safe hands. Our guests are still talking about the food even now – almost three months later!

The team at Goodwood were fantastic from start to finish. Our wedding planner, Rhiannon, was brilliant every step of the way in getting us there, and again, nothing was too much trouble. The endless emails and countless questions were all responded to quickly, and when we got stuck on anything she was able to offer advice and recommendations to help us along. We cannot thank her and the team enough."

The main wedding party and many of our guests based themselves at The Goodwood Hotel for the weekend too, so the wedding felt like it lasted for days!
Laura & Dominic

"The Hotel team looked after us so well and helped everyone to relax and really get the most out of the weekend.

But there were some small touches that really made us feel special and cared for, such as: Rhiannon requesting a car to pick us up from the House after our menu tasting as the weather had turned awful and we’d be soaked; the House team lighting the fires to help keep everyone warm on a wet and blustery wedding day, and allowing Dominic and his family to park a some of their classic cars on the circle outside the House – Dominic’s Austin A35 (the main wedding car) in pride of place, of course!

The whole day was seamless and relaxed. It was a pleasure to be looked after by David, the Head Butler, throughout; and the whole team at the House made everyone feel so special."

"There are really too many highlights to choose from!" explained Dominic. "Excluding getting married to the love of my life, having a visit from His Grace The Duke of Richmond during our drinks reception was a huge honour; seeing my little grey Austin parked up outside Goodwood House was amazing; seeing the incredible view from the House balcony, performing with my two best men inside Goodwood House and seeing the smiles on everybody’s faces are all memories that I’ll cherish."

Laura added "for me it was just having all our friends and family, the people we care about the most, in one of our favourite places sharing our passion for Goodwood and Sussex… Plus the food was to die for!"