There is a particular pleasure in the arrival at Micklefield Hall, where the drive slips off the lane at Sarratt and opens into 350 acres of Hertfordshire that feel a great deal further from London than they actually are. The estate is privately owned and family run, and has been welcoming weddings since 1999 — which shows in the best possible way. This is a place looked after by people who live on it, not a venue operated at arm’s length.
The Great Barn is the heart of the thing. Its oak frame goes back to the 15th century, and a thorough restoration in 2014 gave it a heated solid oak floor, air conditioning and lighting you can genuinely play with, without laying a finger on the character of the timbers overhead. It holds up to 200, with its own bar just beyond a glass partition and a patio that catches the last of the evening. Around it sits an unusually generous spread of other spaces: the Orangery, all crittall windows and a real fire on a stone floor, looking out across the French courtyard and its fountain; the Garden Room, which does grand fireplace by day and cushions-and-blankets chill-out room by night; and the Temple, a little sculpted structure beneath a 450-year-old oak with a pond in front of it, where guests sit on the banks to watch you marry.
Civil ceremonies are licensed in several of those spots as well as on the lawns and in the secret rose garden, so the weather need not dictate very much at all. Food comes through a long-standing partnership with Kalm Kitchen, with approved caterers on hand for kosher and Asian menus, and there is a proper dressing room with its own en suite for the slow part of the morning. Accommodation on site is deliberately modest — a handful of guests rather than the whole party, including a rather lovely shepherd’s hut — but Rickmansworth and the M25 are only minutes away, so nobody is stranded.
Where the band plays
The Great Barn is built for this. There is a stage at one end with a viewing platform above it, a dancefloor in front, and a bar close enough that nobody has to choose between a drink and the music. All that oak gives the room warmth rather than ring, so brass and a big vocal keep their edges instead of turning to soup the way they can in a tall stone hall. With 200 guests in and the patio doors open, it is a space that happily carries a band with some size to it.
How the evening tends to run
Drinks drift between the Orangery and the courtyard, dinner settles into the barn, and the dancing runs on from there; the bar is licensed until 11.30pm, so the band’s last set lands while the room is still full rather than after people have started looking for their coats. Load-in is easy, with three entrances into the barn and parking close by, and because the estate is yours alone for the day a soundcheck can happen without an audience. It is worth confirming the exact music finish when you book, since that can sit a little earlier than the licence itself.
Bands available in Hertfordshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Hertfordshire.
- Hertfordshire Wedding Bands
- Hertfordshire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Hertfordshire
- Wedding DJs in Hertfordshire
- Corporate Entertainment in Hertfordshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.