IN-HOUSE WEDDING RECORD BROKEN! PLUS, A LETTER FROM A BRIDE AND GROOM

*Breaking News* 27!!!

The in-house monthly wedding booking record has been broken!!!
Our wedding planning department confirm that January 2022 is now the most successful month ever in the entire history of Balbirnie House, for new bookings for future weddings. Throughout January we have taken new deposits for 27 future weddings.

(January is of course usually our busiest month for new enquiries, following festive season engagements. The previous January record of 25 new bookings stood for many years, but that previous record was broken with an absolutely unprecedented summer acceleration following the first pandemic lockdown, with 26 bookings in August 2020.)

As is the in-house tradition whenever new history has been made and the monthly record has been broken previously, I take our wedding planning team out for a celebratory meal at The Gilded Truffle. I very much look forward to this once again.

And talking of celebrations, for our hotel brigade, when being invited to attend Scotland's annual Scottish Hotel Awards and join up to 500 assembled industry colleagues, this has always been the most special night of the year. Deciding who is best representing what we do each year limited to a table of ten from what has been a maximum of 115 in the brigade, is always the most difficult decisions we have to make! 

Knowing each time when we have made the shortlist for Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year, well that's always been a celebration in itself. And as the awards are actually defined one by one on awards night, over the last few years (prior to pandemic) there has certainly been a moment of 'silent, electrically-charged atmosphere', when the judges are on the verge of reading out the winner for this standalone wedding category! The collective vibe in that moment, .... surely, Surely ... Balbirnie's brigade cannot do it once again???

14 times in 16 years. Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year. It's a remarkable statistic!

And because the Haute Grandeur global awards scheme are unable to find any hotel in any other country in the world, which has had anything like the recognition that Balbirnie House has had here in Scotland, that has then helped to pave the way for Scotland hospitality being recognised as never ever before on the global hospitality stage. Circumstances which have rendered us truly lost-for-words, simply at even being invited to represent Scotland.

In Haute Grandeur summary, within our 25,000 words of new 2022 wedding literature: 
2018 BEST DESTINATION WEDDING RETREAT, on a Global level. 
2019 BEST DESTINATION WEDDING HOTEL, on a Global level. 
2020 BEST FUNCTION VENUE, on a Global level. 
2020, BEST COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL, on a Global level. 
2021, BEST WEDDING HOTEL, on a Global level. 
 

In working practice, we are accustomed within the brigade to never actually really discussing accumulated awards, the only time the subject comes up, is when we have meetings with prospective new wedding and corporate clients. That said, I can also say that the scale of accumulated recognition with awards, is without doubt something which we seek to live up to every working day. It is a very direct responsibility to live up to in hospitality.

As I frequently say during my most special part of the working week, when meeting prospective new wedding clients who enquire as to how Balbirnie's brigade has achieved these remarkable results, 'It is truly amazing to be working alongside those of my colleagues who have delivered the results, however the past is the past, we can only ever be judged on how we deliver today, tomorrow and into the future; and then I usually add, 'Whenever we have a wedding taking place, there is no second chance, every single wee piece of our capability will always gear up on that unique day, to deliver our absolute best in hospitality, we are truly, absolutely committed to every single new day'. 

And of course, one of the loveliest aspects of working at Balbirnie, is that we never ever have two days the same. It's a total contrast to say, working in a large city centre restaurant. Every day here the circumstances can completely change, sometimes dramatically so. Therefore what we need to do is always conceive planning, infrastructure and teamwork that can combine and provide the requisite end hospitality.

Reflecting upon 3 decades of doing what we do, operationally there have certainly been a few challenging days over the years, as things can happen, and anything is possible! For example, a supplier could be late with a delivery due to mechanical breakdown, someone providing wedding services could have put a wrong date in their diary, or as we saw recently with Storm Arwen, if we hadn't sourced an electrical generator powerful enough to power the entire place, we would have been without electrics for five days. 

Taking us then to the core essences of what hospitality is about. Pre-planning, design efficiency, organisational excellence, teamwork truly is dreamwork, and don't even start me with risk assessments and the evolution of legislative compliance! The stated aims of course however, are always to get every single piece right, to the point whereby we can exceed client expectations. 

Nothing happens by accident. As a highly relevant example for weddings, whoever is assigned as wedding MC 'Master of Ceremony' (or more aptly LOL Microphone Controller!), has 8 pages of A4 checklist points. Because that is how we roll. That's how we need to roll, to get that single part correct.

Ongoing innovation, and a continual appraisal of that we do, they are ever constants at Balbirnie House. One different day at a time. And when we have a wedding taking place on any given day, you can actually feel it on the morning, walking in through the front door. It's a resonating vibe of energy that's signalling that something of massive significance is about to happen!

And it is always so truly wonderful, to hear feedback from our many clients, one such correspondence received from a few days ago from the newly married Kayleigh and Steven Meach. Our sincere gratitude for taking the time to let us know how well the special day went, and for highlighting individuals from within the brigade. It's always so lovely to know when we have delivered to these levels. 

Thank you to Kayleigh and Steven for giving us their permission to share this communication on today's blog. Wishing you both every happiness for the future.

And thank you to Victoria Photography for the beautiful selection of wedding photographs. We never cease to be amazed at the work and evolution of Scotland's professional wedding photographers.

Subject: Facebook review

Good evening Christine,
I hope you are well, I have put up a review this evening and want to make sure it
reaches you and David directly.

Please see below..
Balbirnie House Hotel
Where do I even begin? When I worked my first wedding in Balbirnie in June 2017, I was mesmerised by the place. We weren’t engaged yet and I came home literally dreaming about this place and just felt like it was... well something.

Fast forward almost a year, and Steven finally popped the question, and I said to him, come with me to see where I want to get married! In May 2018, we sat with Christine, who is now the Senior Wedding Coordinator at Balbirnie.

Steven also fell in love, and we booked our original date for Feb 2021. Steven and I visited multiple times on the run up to our wedding day, and Christine always seemed to have the staff ready for us with little touches like room upgrades, cocktail tasking, canapé tasting and much more. I loved that I felt the staff knew who we were throughout our stays, all whilst dealing with so many other couples.

I also have to mention that whilst working weddings, I got to be a little fly on the wall to see how they handled things with other brides, and I was always super impressed.
When the pandemic hit, we were very worried about everything. Our date was unfortunately changed to 22.01.22, meaning we would have to wait a total of 3 years and 10 months since booking.

Christine and the wedding team, working with the information given at the same time as it was received by us, made us feel looked after, and every avenue was explored to ensure our wedding, as it was booked, was moved with no obligation.

Balbirnie handled the pandemic with sheer excellence, reacting positively to the changes and marketing things from different perspectives. They just thrived, and it made us feel so secure and so proud to have booked this venue to watch it all unfold. It was a real effort to keep on top and push through, and we supported it in every way we could.

As a wedding supplier myself, I knew the pressure the wedding team were under and I want to say a massive thank you for when the world was not being kind to you. You guys still found it within yourselves to be kind to us and work so efficiently and professionally to ensure we were reassured.

Fast forward to the final run-up to our day. Christine kept us right with everything we needed and helped communicate all my visions on the event sheet to staff. 

There’s no wedding without a few little mishaps in the planning, but all were caught in time and rectified with kindness. Christine is so efficient and professional, and we have been very grateful to have had her see us through from our booking to our arrival at
the venue.

Christine handed us over to David our Master of Ceremonies on our arrival for our wedding weekend. I was a little nervous, but needn’t be...
David was truly incredible. Nothing was too much! He was so on the ball and was the piece that held the weekend together and why it ran so efficiently. Once again, my event sheet was a little long, shall we say, so he was a bit nervous, but once I explained it to him, he had it sorted to a T!

I’m a very organised person and a lack of control makes me nervous. David made me
feel at ease with how everything was being handled. Not a thing was out of
place, and he directed his team beautifully to turn our wedding around where
needed. The army of staff needed to achieve what we wanted that day was
incredible and I thank every single one of you for ensuring that it went
without a hitch.

David is a sheer credit to Balbirnie and has such professionalism whilst having great banter. He was our saviour last weekend. We will never forget your efforts for us, David. You are incredible at what you do, and we are very grateful that you were part of our day. You helped make it what it was. Just magical! 

Last but not least, I want to thank ALL the staff we have encountered at Balbirnie from May 2018 until now. The standard to which Balbirnie has trained their staff and how the staff conduct themselves is one of the main reasons we love it. Balbirnie is what it is because of you.

The hotel and its staff will forever hold a place in our hearts. It’s more than just a venue for us. It’s a second home. We will be back soon for fun, and I’ll be back soon for work. We hope to see some familiar faces on our visits.

We can fully see why you are number 1 and will share our experiences far and wide. 
Keep up that good work in making it so magical.

All our love
Mr. and Mrs. Meach
22.01.22

Yep, as I have been saying for years ...

'Today is Never a Dress Rehearsal for Tomorrow!'

All best wishes,

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House