Beautiful venue, terrible coordination and communication
My husband and I had our wedding at Notting Hill in July 2026.
We privately shared this feedback with the venue (and did not ask for anything in return). We were hoping for a constructive conversation and just wanted to help prevent these issues in the future. However we were met with very defensive responses.
I’ll start with the positives, this is an absolutely stunning venue. The general staff here were very nice and attentive. A pro for us is that there are very few choices to make, the venue handles the bulk of your wedding needs. However, with this, the venue does force you to use their provided day-of wedding coordinator. You cannot use an outside coordinator, even if you just wanted to hire someone in addition to theirs.
With all that being said, our experience was a bit tarnished by failed coordination.
1. Sound Limit Policing
The venue has a 86 dB sound limit, which I do understand for safety reasons. We intentionally hired one of their highly recommended DJs, who they claim was very familiar with their setup. However, at the start of dancing, the coordinator stepped onto the dance floor mid-song, used a smartphone app to measure the sound directly at the speaker, forcing the DJ to turn the volume down, and then vanished. My husband wasted nearly 30 minutes of our wedding trying to find a solution for this. He tried to mediate, move speakers, and even suggesting using the venue’s built-in sound system for even distribution, the coordinator did not provide any compromise or assistance.
It’s important to understand that sound dissipates as it travels, so measuring at the speaker is inaccurate for overall measurement. This resulted in the music being very quiet on the dance floor, which completely killed the energy and ultimately our guests migrated outside. Ironically, in our conversation with the owner, they stated that they arrived later in the evening and they thought the music was "too low." They responded by repeating that they “don't micromanage sound,” completely invalidating our experience and refused to take accountability. The reception dancing was very important to us. It’s our favorite part of going to weddings.
2. Other Coordination Failures
Missing Coordinator: When the sound enforcement happened, and when our timeline started falling apart, the coordinator was difficult to locate. Crucial photo announcements were skipped, and the cake cutting was missed until our DJ finally brought it up.
Selective Weather Rules: The forecast called for rain, but it cleared into a beautiful, sunny day by our 3 PM start. The venue includes lawn games, but they were never put out. The owner placed blame on the "chance of rain." Conveniently, the same forecast didn't stop them from setting up our outdoor ceremony or the paid add-on fire pit (which would have been refunded if it rained).
"Heavy Lifting" Left to Us: The venue promises they will do all the heavy lifting. They enforce a hard stop at 10 PM with a strict exit no later than 11 PM. We were originally assured that staff would pack everything up for us to easily load into our vehicles. However, at 10 PM, no one was starting this process. Anxious to meet their strict deadline, we took matters into our own hands. The owner later claimed we cleaned up "too quickly" for the coordinator to help. At a minimum, the coordinator should have stepped in to reassure us they had it handled so we could say goodbye to our guests, though the expectation we had from our initial meeting was that we wouldn’t have to lift a finger.
Ultimately, if the sound policing hadn't ruined the dance floor, we likely would have overlooked the other missteps. We understand that every wedding has minor hiccups, but for the premium price Notting Hill charges, you expect a baseline of professionalism that simply wasn't there.
