The Whitworth

For any brides out there - I just wanted to pre-warn of the pure stress I have endured for the past 6 months after booking my wedding with the Whitworth back in February and having it cancelled. My trust in vendors was completely broken and it has taken til now for me to start enjoying the wedding planning process again.

1. No show appointment - after booking our wedding and paying our deposit with the Whitworth, we organised an initial F2f appointment with the events manager, we drove over an hour to this appointment on the day only to arrive to no staff being present. The Whitworth offered us an apology only for this over 2 months later. 2. Not answering phones - after this no show, it took us weeks to speak to a Whitworth staff member about what had happened because phone calls are often left unanswered and email response times often took them weeks. 3. Loss of previously agreed contracts and wedding agreements - The Whitworth staff asked us to resend the agreed plan of our wedding because they themselves had lost this information. 4. Redacting previous agreements - after waiting anxiously for months to be updated for our wedding plans the Whitworth organised a meeting with us (they attended this one), where we were told by new staff that some changes needed to be made to the previously contractually agreed wedding, including the capacity (dropping us from 150 guests to 110), despite us having already sent save the dates to our guest list. 5. False reassurance - during the above meeting we were reassured and told that the Whitworth were still very keen to host our wedding and that their changes are only minor details, we were told ‘not to worry’ multiple times in this meeting. We sent an email that evening to the Whitworth asking about the possibility of the maximum capacity being 120 guests rather than 110. 5 days later the Whitworth sent us an email saying they are no longer going to host our wedding. 6. They have done this before - when we called the nearby accommodation to cancel our booking, the accommodation said they weren’t surprised with the Whitworth’s actions and that we weren’t the first to have our wedding cancelled like this. The entirety of this process lasted 5 months. We were offered no compensation for vendors that we had paid deposits to for our wedding. After cancelling our wedding it took the Whitworth over 15 calls and 2 weeks in time to receive our deposit back.

Whitworth Locke is now our go-to venue for just about anything and was a fantastic place to host our wedding. Its such a beautiful space that both of us instantly felt was the right place for us. The hotel is such an impressive and unique building but it still feels fun and relaxed. We loved the urban nearly industrial feel of the red brick and metal atrium paired with the fun colours and leafy vibe throughout - it's an instagrammers dream but somehow managed to avoid feeling pretentious or like it was trying too hard.. The rooms are all very comfortable, well stocked and have the same cool vibes that the rest of the venue has. The staff were amazing, from Tom at the front desk to Denis the handyman. Vicky and then Hayley the Event Managers and Thomas the Deputy Hotel Manager were lovely people to work with and inspired a lot of confidence that our day would run well. Their organisation was perfect which is especially impressive given we were planning while navigating covid restrictions and the guidelines changing only 3 weeks before the wedding day! I work for the NHS so I was worried about the safety of my guests but every step was taken to ensure the event was as safe as possible and on the day no ask was too much for them. We don't live far away and will absolutely be taking every opportunity to return and keep in touch with this great team and wonderful venue.- Deborah W.

hank you so much for all your help and support to create THE BEST DAY EVER! You went above and beyond to make everything run so smoothly. We are all very grateful!

Our day was absolutely magical. After a whole lot of stress and having to postpone our day thanks to Covid, Melissa and the team were incredible. The wedding breakfast was delicious, everything we needed was sorted for us and our day was just perfect. The weather even held out so that we could get loads of photos in the grounds as well as the beautiful building. We loved every minute of it. Thank you so much to Melissa for making it happen!

Wanted to write you a postcard to thank you for everything you did for us on our special day. All the guidance and care was appreciated and made it super flawless. We are on our honeymoon on the isle of Arran after climbing Ben Nevis on the Monday after the wedding.

Thank you so much for everything you did, not only on our wedding day but in the run up to it as well. The rooms, the food, organisation and everything was perfect! Thank you!

Thank you for helping to make Emily and Jacks' day so special. All your hard work was much appreciated. All the best for your future events.

We wanted to say a special 'Thank you' to you for making our Silver Wedding Party special: it was all that we wanted it to be. The food was great and your team were extremely helpful- quite a few guests said so too! Everything was perfect and The Whitworth is a super venue!