As we are approaching the end of another incredible year here at Micklefield Hall, we wanted to take the opportunity to look back over some of the exciting things that we have been up to.
The Orangery
Firstly, this feels like a lifetime ago but in April this year we launched our brand new Orangery! After a bleak Winter of building works, we opened the Orangery for visitors for the first time at our Annual Open Day. Since then, we have celebrated many occasions in there, from rainy wedding drinks receptions to corporate networking events and film crews. The feedback that we have received has been outstanding, with couples no longer fearing the rain so much on their special day as they know plan B is just as stunning as plan A.
We have also seen Winter weddings increase in popularity, with the use of the Orangery. We are excited to see how our couples and corporate clients transform the space. Take a look at the Orangery and some of the exciting events we have held here this year…
Shepherd’s Hut & Glamping
The newness doesn’t stop there. We have been listening, and we have heard the feedback surrounding more accommodation! With an increase in couples wanting more of their guests to be able to stay on site, we have introduced a couple of new and exciting options.
Firstly, our Shepherd’s Hut, located next to the breakfast room and looking out over rolling hills which are often occupied by Ruby Red Devon Cows. This is our new Honeymoon Suite, offering a totally private escape for the night of your wedding, yet still allowing you to join for breakfast the next morning with your nearest and dearest. The addition of the Shepherd’s Hut means we can now accommodate 14 guests in our permanent accommodation.
We wanted to open up the options even more for our couples, and started looking into alternative accommodation. Anna and Jamie’s eldest Son Max recently introduced glamping. This offers informal, yet luxurious, overnight accommodation for our guests. More information on Glamping at Micklefield Hall can be found HERE…
Weddings
2025 has brought us nothing but more amazing couples who chose to share their special day with us here at Micklefield Hall. With the weddings officially starting in Spring they are continuing on into the festive season.
We have loved hosting Civil Ceremonies, Mandaps, Chuppahs, Blessings and Celebrant led ceremonies all over Micklefield Hall. This includes the Great Barn; Main Lawns; Orangery; Rose Garden; Fireplace and Temple. In August, our Event’s Team tackled 15 weddings and events in 16 days, which they did amazingly, receiving outstanding feedback from all events.
We could not have delivered our weddings to the highest of standard if it wasn’t for our wonderful suppliers. This is the perfect opportunity to give them the shout out and thanks that they deserve. We are blessed to work with hundreds of talented and dedicated suppliers, we could write a whole blog on them alone. So, we wanted to share a few and thank them for going above and beyond all the time and being a joy to work with.
Kalm Kitchen, Ragasaan, Sarah Legge Photography, Cosmic Events, Andrew Fleming Florist, Saffron Events Catering, Hertfordshire Registrars, The Flower Shack UK.
Corporate Events
In the last couple of years we have seen a huge increase in interest in different corporate events, with companies looking to ‘escape to the country’ not only at Christmas for their big Christmas Parties but also during the Summer months, to celebrate their teams and the work that they do.
2025 saw various networking events, conferences and strategy days, from small start-ups to bigger corporate companies. In addition to a number of summer company away days, which saw companies take full advantage of the grounds whilst doing crazy team building activities like duck herding, clay pigeon shooting, archery and off roading.
The feedback we have received from our corporate clients has been nothing short of perfection with many of our 2025 clients choosing to return again for even more fun in 2026 – we cannot wait!
Onto 2026 and beyond
The New Year approaching doesn’t just bring a wonderful bundle of new couples ready for their wedding year, it also brings some quite big (but exciting!) changes here. Anna and Jamie, who have lived at Micklefield Hall for nearly 30 years and have been running weddings for more than 27 of those years are finally ‘retiring’. The word retiring is sat within inverted commas due to the fact that they are still going to be living on site (next to the temple!) and are still insistent on keeping their desks in the office, meaning we will be most certainly seeing them almost every day!
Tom, one of Anna and Jamie’s sons, is going to be taking the reins from them. You may have already met Tom at your show rounds, our open days or even your weddings as Event Manager.
In October we celebrated this milestone along with many others that the Rankin family have achieved since living here at Micklefield Hall. This includes, over 41 years of marriage for Anna and Jamie, more than 26 years of weddings, more than 11 years of weddings in the barn AND Jamie’s 70th birthday.
We are incredibly excited for this new era of Micklefield Hall and that the one thing that shines through each and every event that we do here is still very much going to remain the same, family is at the heart of it all.
Thank you to you all for your support during 2025 and we look forward to having you with us as we start a New Year.
