Yes, we are licensed for legal marriage ceremonies in both the woods and undercover on the shelter.
Upon receipt of your deposit, we will inform Kent County Council of your intention to marry at The Dreys and then you will complete all the legal paperwork and pay the associated fees directly to them.
You can expect to pay the following fees to KCC:
Booking Fee £75
Legal preliminaries £35 each / £47 each (non EU nationals)
Approved premises ceremony fee £520 Monday - Friday / £710 on Saturdays.
These fees must be paid directly by the couple to Kent county council who provide the service. https://www.akentishceremony.com/weddings/fees-and...
Notice of marriage or civil partnership must be given in a Register Office (separate notice must be given by both parties) you can find more here https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/gi...
There are local churches that you can use if you wish to get married in the church. You can Still use The Dreys for everything else.
From Mid-May to late September, we can accommodate up to 150 guests for ceremonies and seated dinners and up to 250 guests for the evening reception.
During April, early May and October we advise you limit your guest numbers to 80 for ceremonies and seated dinners & 100 in the evening.
This is to ensure you can all be comfortably accommodated in our heated marquees should the temperatures mean you need to bring the celebrations indoors.
Dogs are more than welcome to be part of your special celebration.
This strictly applies only to the hirer / couple's dogs only and up to a maximum of 2 dogs. Should you wish your fur babies to join you, we kindly ask that you comply with the following regulations.
Only the dogs of the hirer / couple are permitted on to site.
Dogs must have a nominated carer to look after them and always remain on a lead.
Dog waste must be collected and disposed of as it happens.
Dogs must NOT be left alone anywhere on site, this includes in guests own vehicles, guests own tents, any of the venue's spaces or accommodation.
Dogs may NOT be tied up anywhere on site.
Dogs are not permitted to join you in the dining marquee for your wedding breakfast.
Dogs must leave site before dark.
Dogs are not permitted to stay overnight in our accommodation.
We have concealed heating in both the Botantical Bar and the Dining Marquee.
We’ve also got an outdoor fire pit to keep you and your guests warm during the evening. There is a small fee to use the fire pit which includes logs that will keep the fire burning all night, comfy cushions and cosy blankets, you can even have s’mores if you like.
We’ve got diesel power generators and emergency back-up lighting. So, if there’s any issue from the National Grid we'll have it all sorted ASAP and the party won’t stop!
All fuel costs are included in the hire fee, there are no additional fees to pay for this.
All ceremonies take place from 2.30pm onwards and you are welcome to invite your guests to arrive from 2pm.
We can arrange pre paid welcome drinks for your guests at 2.00pm with prior notice and will arrange this with you at your final run through.
Party One and Party Two with the bridal parties are welcome to arrive from 1.30pm to use either the Woodcutters Cabin for final prep or to have a drink to calm the nerves in the Botantical Bar.
Please note The bar is not open for your guests until 2.00pm.
The Dreys has held a premises licence since 2014 and runs a professional in-house bar service.
Our Botanical Bar holds a limited stock of all the favourite tipples and is perfect for pre ceremony drinks and after dinner cocktails which can be pre ordered via our drink's packages.
The main bar on the shelter opens after the wedding breakfast and can accommodate both a pay bar or a cash bar facility.
There are card facilities at both bars.
No, all drinks and alcohol must be purchased from the venue. We have designed a variety of packages to suit all budgets and we work with a great supplier who can usually source anything we do not already stock.
We can apply for a number of late licenses per year which would see the event finish at 1.00am but as standard the finish times are as follows:
10.30pm / 11.00pm Sunday to Thursday (inc. bank holidays)
11.30pm / 12.00am Friday & Saturdays
You can apply and pay for an extension to the bar license and we ask you to do so at the time of booking please as we cannot guarantee an extension if not booked well in advance of the wedding day. The Fee for an extension is £250 per hour plus administration costs.
Your event finish time will be confirmed with your contract when you confirm your booking.
Live / amplified music must end in line with the finish times as listed above regardless of the bar license being extended. DJ's are permitted to continue playing ambient music until the end of your agreed extension, subject to them not exceeding conversational levels and we reserve the right to ask them to turn their sound down or off if these restrictions are broken.
Yes, absolutely and you can have breakfast the next day too.
We have:
Woodcutters cabin - 1 available.
Hidden amongst the Woodland for privacy The Woodcutters Cabin offers couples total privacy at the end of the special day. Private en suite shower and toilet, double bed with bedding, solar lighting, drinking water, a huge outdoor deck area with a private fire pit and includes cooked breakfast for two people the morning after.
Shepherds Huts - 2 available
Includes Double bed, bedding, solar lighting, mini torches, water and with cooked breakfast for two people.
Sleeps up to two adults in a standard size double divan bed with space for two travel cots or 2 small camp beds for little children.
Bell tents - 12 available
Includes Double bed, bedding, solar lighting, mini torches, water with cooked breakfast for two people.
Sleeps up to two adults in a standard size double divan bed with space for two travel cots or camp beds for children & teenagers.
Fees apply for additional beds and travel cots
Includes Camp bed, bedding & breakfast
Child 6-16 yrs £30
Infant 0-5 yrs £17.50
Travel cot & bedding £15, breakfast not included
There is space for 10 additional tents to pitch in our overflow field. Your guests are welcome to pitch their own or we can provide you with details of companies that can provide them for you. Fees for extra camping pitches are as follows:
Per Tent pitch (up to 6 guest) £35 for pitch and 2 adults inc breakfast.
Small Motorhomes (must not exceed the size of a long wheel based / high top van) £35 for pitch and 2 adults inc breakfast.
Extra Breakfasts
Adults £12.50 each
Kids over 6yrs old £10 each
Where indicated accomodation is automatically included in your hire fee.
When you confirm your wedding booking at The Dreys we will provide you with a link to your accomodation portal so that you can organise your overnight guests. You can choose who will stay in each tent / hut by adding their details to the portal and then we will then use this information to greet your glamping guests when they arrive.
You can advise us which of your guests may require additional beds or cot beds in here and the final payment for the additional items will be added to your final invoice. You will also pre order breakfast for your guests in here and should you wish to invite non glamping guests back to join you for breakfast you will be able to pre order and pre pay for this too.
Accommodation is not included in April, between the 1-18th May or in October.
Accommodation is also not included for Twighlight Weddings that can only be held on Thursdays and Sundays from 1th May until the 30th September.
Yes we can provide a vegan breakfast but it must be pre ordered prior to your stay.
We’ve got a few options with music! You’re welcome to plug and play, this means you bring your own device with a playlist (we have a lighting and sound system throughout all our main spaces). You are also able to have a DJ, band or of course a mix of all.
The Dreys has been beautifully styled already however, our Wedding Dolls can look after this for you, if you like. They can put you in touch with fabulous local florists or they can set up the items you provide and drop off the day before. Please note the team at The Dreys do not have insurance for ladder work and are not able to hang butting or lanterns. You will need to hire a company to take responsibility for doing this on the morning of the wedding. All decor items will need to be removed the day after the wedding, before 10.00am.
The wedding feast is often seen as one of the key elements of the occasion. At The Dreys we are passionate about delivering all of our events to an extremely high standard, so we take care of all of the food and drink in house with our excellent partners Steve Clark and Simon Mcnamara the founding directors of Invicta Food Design. The chefs freshly prepare and serve all the food on site. All couples are encouraged to come to one of our taster sessions where you can taste the food and see the venue.
There is a required minimum spend on food of £2500 and £2000 on drinks.
We've included wedding planning and on the day coordination for all our couples from the award winning Wedding Dolls. The Dolls provide all our couples with extensive planning support for the entire planning journey and every couple will be given access to their own exclusive planning portal. The Dolls will do a full and final run through with you approx 6 weeks before your wedding day and then they will be there on the day the Dolls to make sure everything runs like a dream.
With over 100 Dreys weddings already under their belts you couldn't possibly find a team more qualified to bring your vision to reality.
You can make changes to guest numbers or food and drinks choices up until 6 weeks before your wedding. . Only the Venue fee remains fixed.
Our onsite carpark holds up to 60 cars and the taxi point is also located in the main carpark area. Please be mindful it's in the woods so there are some lumps and bumps and we encourage you to drive slowly as you approach the venue.
The car park attendant will be in the car park area 40 minutes prior to the ceremony start time to welcome your guests arrival.
Gates will be locked 1 hour after the bar closes; the bar team will make all guests aware before departing. The gates will not be re-opened until 6.00am the next day, when our cleaning team arrive. There is no charge to leave cars overnight and it is encouraged to do so as we have a zero tolerance policy on drink driving. We ask that all vehicles are removed from the car park by 11am the day after the wedding please.
We have disabled toilet facilities and easy access to all areas of the site including the woodland ceremony area.
It's worth knowing we have some different level decked areas, however we are pleased to say they are all easily accessed by small ramps and The Wedding Dolls will be on hand to help all day.
We can offer a limited number of car park spaces close to the our main venue or it is possible to arrange valet parking from our drop off point - please try to let The Dolls know in advance so that they can provide full support where needed.
We only allow displays from our tried and trusted supplier https://www.fireworkscrazy.co.uk/wedding-firework-...
We don't mind smoke bombs, if you're careful and your photographer takes responsibility for making sure they are fully extinguished in water and disposed of properly.
We also don't mind sparklers if you are looking to create a sparkly photo but again your photographer must take responsibility for ensuring these are disposed of properly.
We're sorry we don't allow balloon or lantern releases as they're harmful to the environment.
We provide all guests with real petal confetti for the Ceremony or Blessing as we like to ensure it is 100% biudegradable. Our confetti package ensures that all guests are handed a good amount of confetti to make an awesome photo as you walk through the tunnel after the ceremony.
If you would like to provide additional we do ask that it is 100% biodegradable or genuine dried flower petals. We can discuss locations and work with Photographers to capture the perfect picture. Unfortunately confetti cannons cannot be used.
The Dreys is a rustic, off-the-grid venue nestled in the heart of the Kentish countryside and do not have public wifi access. The Dreys offer a bluetooth connection for music devices, so all music must be downloaded prior to your arrival.
We provide a full PA system throughout the venue featuring 2 speakers next to the bar, 2 at the back of the dance floor, 4 surrounding the edge of the main dining marquee and 2 in the Botanical Bar. All the speakers are fully synched and fed from a soundboard with connections available at the front of the dance floor and behind the bar to allow any band or DJ to simply plug or play or for you to leave a playlist on with the device kept behind the bar.
The system also features 2 cordless radio Microphones for any speeches in the main marquee or in The Field Shelter.
There is power in the woodland ceremony area and we provide a Bluetooth speaker for pre recorded ceremony music.
We do not provide microphones in the woodlands but can recommend a supplier for you to hire them from should you wish.
You can have live musicians at either ceremony area.
The venue does not stipulate decibel limits as depending on the number of guests, wind direction, air pressure, weather and other local noises the noise emissions from far away will change greatly.
The venue owners will always have the final say on sound limits, they live on site and are experienced at ensuring a balance is met between keeping our neighbours and clients happy. In 10 years of holding a premise licence the venue has received no complaints from neighbours about noise level emissions. Similarly we never had a client complain that it wasn’t loud enough either.
We would love for you to have any type of ceremony you like.
A Blessing or Humanist Wedding is different from a legal civil ceremony and we encourage you to decide on the ceremony that suits you best.
A blessing or humanist wedding is entirely personalised & focused on you, your love, and your story. Many couples choose to enlist the services of a professional celebrant who will spend time getting to know you both, together and individually.
This means that, on the day, they can tell the story of your relationship in an authentic and meaningful way. Usually this involves meeting and sharing before the wedding. They will ask you questions and together you will shape your story which they will then turn into a bespoke script for your wedding ceremony.
A blessing or humanist wedding can be a small, intimate, traditional affair or a huge, elaborate, fun-filled celebration. The choice is yours! Asking a family member or friend is also an option that many couples choose.
Sarah from The Wedding Dolls loves weddings so much she is also a certified celebrant so check out her website for more info www.sarahhollidaycelebrant.co.uk
Everything you need for your wedding is available at The Dreys and is included in the hire fee, our confetti package is an additional cost and is chargable at £6.50 on a per guest basis, once you have your finalised your guest numbers and then added to your final invoice.
The confetti package includes:
Real dried petal confetti for every guest
Unlimited tea and coffee available on a help yourself basis all day
Unlimited refreshing fruit infused water available on a help yourself basis all day
The fire pit is an optional extra and a wonderful addition to your evening celebrations. For £250 we can build the fire and provide you with enough wood to keep it burning all night. We will lay out comfy cushions and cosy blankets for your guests. Should you wish to continue the celebrations after the music has finished you are welcome to have a low key after party around the fire with your guests that are glamping. We can provide you with a fire pit hamper containing drinks and nibbles, just ask The Dolls for more info on this.
Amplified music is not permitted around the fire pit after your live music has finished, but you are welcome to bring your own accoustic guitar.
The fee for the fire pit is added to your final invoice.