Aidan and Helen Ruff, a couple from Northumberland have started a project which they hope will attract wedding parties from the South of the country to the North East after they transformed their home into an exclusive wedding venue.

Ellingham Hall, which is situated near Alnwick, a relatively small market town in Northumberland is being promoted to wedding parties as a more economical option than other venues available in the South of England.

Aidan claims it may even lower the need for homeowner loans, saying the following:-

“We were getting one or two weddings from the South, often people who had historical links with the area, and we realised from the comments that people were stunned how cheap it was. We thought ‘let’s try to capitalise on that’.

It costs a third of what it does in London. People are looking at the credit crunch and they can’t get loans to pay for their weddings.

Last year of the 50 or 60 weddings in the year, there were two or three from the South. This year, we are up to a dozen or so in the last three weeks. Clearly the whole strategy is starting to work.”

The Ruffs are hoping to double the turnover of their business to around £1m by the end of 2009.

The venue, a former school which had been badly damaged by local vandals was purchased by Mr & Mrs Ruff in 1995, and the couple lived there after re-developing the building.

The pair say the hall, which in addition being promoted as a wedding venue is being marketed to other businesses as a venue for conferences, has provided a welcome boost to the local economy.

Tags: ellingham hall, wedding venue

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