Journal
View allA Look Inside Our Millbridge Court Dinner Date Night
There’s something very special about our Dinner Date Nights at Millbridge Court.
They’re an evening full of excitement and inspiration, and we love to see everything coming together to help our couples discover the ideas that match their dream day. Our recent Dinner Date Night at Millbridge Court brought together delicious food, fantastic suppliers, and a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere where couples could ask questions, make choices, and start shaping their big day. To get a deeper insight into the evening, we sat down with our amazing event planner Ashley, who planned and led the tasting event, and asked her about the experience and the talented people who brought it all together.
So first things first, what’s the whole purpose of the Dinner Date Night?
It is a special evening for couples to attend and sample our most popular menu items, as well as a few new stations and cocktails. It’s also an opportunity to sample Millbridge Court’s drinks packages as the dishes are paired with a wine from both their Dockenfield and Shortfield Packages. Whilst this is the purpose of the evening, it’s also just an opportunity to come back and experience the space with more guests and atmosphere, meet couples getting married at a similar time, share thoughts and ideas, meet the wider team, who they may not have met yet, and just generally have a lovely evening. For most, it’s the last time that they’ll be back before their big days!
Talk us through what actually happens on the night, and what kind of experience were you hoping to create for the guests?
Couples arrive to a reception where they can enjoy some welcome drinks, taste a selection of canapes and look at upgrade options that they may be considering for their tablescapes. During this time, we like to mingle with couples as much as possible and offer an ear for any questions they might have before they are called to take their seats for dinner. We then showcase a range of starters, mains and desserts from the menu that they will ultimately be selecting their wedding meals from, and the aim is really to showcase our dishes that have been carefully prepared by our chefs, offer them food for thought and also the confidence to possibly choose something that they might not have had the opportunity to try on the night. Really, we’re hoping for couples to leave feeling 100% confident in the fact they will have an amazing wedding day, and the food served will be delicious regardless of what they choose.
The styling looked gorgeous, what was the theme you were going for?
We partnered with Options Great Hire to showcase their Serpentine Endless dining tables, which are growing more and more popular. This was ultimately the drive behind the mood board and, selfishly, I love a structural hydrangea, so that played a big part in the mood board, pulling in the little pops of pale pink that one can find in green hydrangeas. I wanted to keep things quite neutral and soft with a modern elegance to it. When I shared the mood board with the ever-talented florist Steph Lovell, she described it as a strawberry matcha pallet, which I think perfectly summarises the gorgeous florals of the evening. The stationary by the lovely Charlotte (Signed by Charlotte) really just pulled it all together. I was thrilled to bits with how it all looked and have no doubt that each couple attending loved it to!
And how about the food? How did you go about choosing the menu for the evening?
The items we chose to showcase on the night were selected from the Spring|Summer Menu which is ultimately what the clients attending will be choosing from. We like to offer a variety of canapés ranging from vegan to meat options, to give them enough to choose from, as couples will need to whittle it down to 6 canapés for their menu. We then showcase our most popular starters, mains and desserts. Chicken is always one of the main course options, because most of our couples tend to choose it for their big day, but we also give them a few more options to try including vegetarian options, because it’s important their vegetarian guests are happy too. I then propose the menu to our Executive Chef Andrea, who will make the necessary tweaks to ensure the menu is perfect for our couples.
How many dishes do guests actually get to try on the night?
They try 10 canapes, 4 starters, 4 mains and 2 desserts, plus a sharing dessert. For this specific Dinner Date Night, we launched our brand new Tiramisu Trolley which we are thrilled about. It’s very ‘of the moment’ and who doesn’t love a ‘Just Married’ Tiramisu? All dishes are presented as they would be for the wedding day, and we’ve had such great feedback from everyone who attended.
Was there a standout favourite-a dish or canapé everyone kept talking about?
As canapés go, everyone always raves about our sticky pork belly skewers with lightly pickled cucumber and crispy onions – it does melt in the mouth! It’s also got to be the Tiramisu Trolley! We are so excited to be offering this as a dessert upgrade or stand-alone addition to the day.
You had such a great team involved, who were the suppliers on the night, and what made you choose them?
We used some fantastic suppliers for the Dinner Date Night. We had full confidence that they would absolutely nail the brief, and they did! All suppliers are partners of Millbridge Court and on their recommended list, and for good reason, so we work with the Millbridge Court team to get suppliers on board for these evenings. Everyone is always an absolute joy to work with and I cannot thank them enough for everything they put into making a great success of both evenings. We do also truly hope that every supplier who contributes to these evenings can get a few bookings off the back of them. The full list of suppliers was:
Sarah Legge charmed guests and produced a collection of beautiful, standout photos
Chris from Just Chris Bennett Films captured the night perfectly
Options Great Hire showcased their fabulous furniture, tableware and linen
Steph Lovell provided the stunning florals
Farnham Sound and Light lit up the venue with their stunning installations and kept the guests entertained with their photo pod
Signed by Charlotte showcased her stunning calligraphy skills for the place names and signage
The incredible music was provided by Celestial Strings and Tristan Mackay
