Choose Chawton House for a wedding as individual as your relationship.

Couples treasure our distinctive historic backgrounds, our literary heritage, and the flexibility to create their unique vision. We DON’T force people into fixed packages and we don’t have a full-time wedding coordinator. We DO let you assemble your own team of suppliers, stage your chosen space as you wish (observing some basic guidelines for preserving the heritage environment), and make you the only wedding at Chawton for at least a week on either side of your big day.

We want you to feel a part of the Chawton family. On your special day, our house is your house.

Chawton is licensed to both to host your ceremony, and to serve drinks at your reception. If you want a church wedding, couples often work with St. Nicholas Church (Church of England), which is nestled within our estate and a short walk from our front door. We host wedding parties from a maximum of 100 down to intimate gatherings of family and friends around a single table. Locations across our estate offer a variety of moods and styles, from an informal rural vibe in our Dyers Barn to a private “elopement” to a grand, formal affair moving between the historic rooms of the house. We have a 3-bedroom apartment in the North Wing of the manor house that can be combined with wedding bookings.

If your wedding takes place when Chawton is open to the public, there will be tourists on site but our staff will route them around the areas you have booked. If your wedding is out of opening hours, you’ll have exclusive access. Dyers Barn is separate from the house, with its own parking, so offers the most exclusive access.

Our gardens include formal terraces, a Victorian walled garden and parkland designed in the Romantic style; a gorgeous range of choice for your wedding photographs.

DYERS’ BARN

Capacity: Ceremony; 50-60 max; Dining 60 max; Standing/Cocktails; 100 max

Hire Cost: Low Season from £2,197; High Season from £2,926

The most private of our wedding spaces, this rustic 18 century timber-framed barn is located across a valley from the house and at the end of a lane, ensuring your party splendid isolation. The setting is sublime: crowds can spill out the barn doors onto lush lawns while views out the shutters take in a pastoral valley, the ancient church and Chawton House on its hill. There is parking for 50-60 cars immediately outside.

The barn is a ”dry hire” venue; a blank canvas for you to create your own personalised experience and celebrate in your own style. We provide trestle tables, wooden chairs for 50 guests, overhead interior lights and a portable power station to power them. You’ll have exclusive access for one day before and after your wedding for set-up and break down.

THE GREAT HALL

Capacity: Ceremony 70 max; Dining 60 max; Standing/Cocktails; 60 maxHire

Cost: Low Season from £2,196; High Season from £2,926

Our grandest venue, the heart of the Elizabethan house has been hosting celebrations since 1598. Your party will be surrounded by Jacobean panelling, leaded windows, a grand fireplace with links to the Spanish Armada, and a host of ancestral portraits. Couples often combine a seated meal in the great hall with a ceremony or reception in one of our other rooms.

This is our most popular choice for formal meals. Couples typically set up the room with round tables for six guests each. We can provide both round or trestle tables, and seating for up to 60 max.

THE OAK ROOM

Capacity: Ceremony 22 max; Dining 12; Standing/Cocktails 25

Hire Cost: Low Season from £1,100; High Season from £1,460

Possibly the most beautiful room in the house, the Oak Room is entirely covered un warm panelling, boasts a fireplace designed by the famous architect Edwin Lutyens, and there are big, leaded windows on two sides looking over Chawton’s lawns and gardens. It’s hard to imagine a more romantic setting: family legend says that Jane Austen liked to read in the alcove over the porch.

This is a popular choice both for small ceremonies, and receptions when couples want all of their guests gathered around a single table.

THE COURTYARD

Capacity: Ceremony 75; Dining 60 max; Standing/Cocktails 100 max

Hire Cost: Low Season from £2,120; High Season from £2.920

Surrounded by a fantasy of ancient brick walls, leaded windows, gables, and decorative chimney stacks, our courtyard provides a sheltered outdoor space with easy access to both the gardens and the kitchens.

Couples have used this space both as a main reception venue, and for cocktails in between ceremony and the meal.

Other Options

•Our Billiards Room offers seating for up to 12-14 around the table, plus a long Victorian-era bench to seat others. It has, sweeping views of the front of the house, its own small kitchen and dedicated toilets.
•The Elopement Room is an atmospheric panelled writing room with fireplace than can accommodate a ceremony just for the couple and witnesses.
•The smoking room is a highly atmospheric, Tudor-era space perfect for couples whose tastes lean towards the Gothic.
•We will consider marquees in the garden, but for no more than 100 guests.
•Couples often choose to combine venues … for example, a wedding and meal in the Great Hall with a cocktail reception in the Courtyard while we change the seating plan … to create their specific vision for the day. We calculate the price for each possibility separately, based on the use of the rooms, set-up time, and disruption to visitors when the house is open.

Further Details

•All Chawton Weddings come with an Event Manager and Event Assistant onsite for the duration of your wedding.
•Prices include photo opportunities in the house and throughout the gardens.
•We provide tables and chairs for all our locations and can sources glassware, table linens, crockery and cutlery for a modest fee. We are also happy  to work with providers the couple specifies, or we can recommend local suppliers.
•Chawton’s Old Kitchen Tea Room can provide traditional English fare, afternoon teas and cakes. Availability depends on house opening times.
•When the house is open to the public, tourists will be present. Our team will direct them around wedding activities.