Beautiful barn wedding venue is singled out for going above and beyond for desperate couples during lockdown

Sissons Barn in Peakirk has been recognised as going the ‘extra mile’ during a nationwide goodwill campaign which launched this week to celebrate wedding venues across the UK.

The oak framed barn set in a family-run 350 acre farm, is owned by Ben and Laura Harris and opened in April 2019. It caters for exclusive weddings of up to 180.

The venue has had to cope with 30 postponements during the pandemic, all while furloughing three members of staff and dealing with ongoing and increasing overheads including wasted bar stock and on-going maintenance costs.

Under lockdown the couple have taken the opportunity to invest more time and money into developing the gardens around the whole farm, creating more beautiful photo spots. More work is planned in to improve other aspects of the business as well, all to be completed and ready to welcome couples back as soon as they can.

Olivia Riddiford from Host Venue Consultancy founded the campaign to celebrate the best wedding locations during the lockdown period at a time when many couples are distressed and looking for reassurance due to plans having to be put on hold.

She says: “The wedding industry has been hard hit during Covid-19. Wedding venues especially have been faced with challenging times from furloughing staff, continuing to finance high overheads and most importantly dealing with their 2020 couples in a sensitive and thoughtful manner.

“So many venues have really showed such kindness at a time where couples have been forced to postpone their dream wedding. It was important to create a campaign to celebrate these venues, to get their story heard.

“Sissons Barn has gone above and beyond for their clients by postponing weddings from before the lockdown right through to mid October with some in November and December without question. No couple has had to pay postponement or admin fees for their date change and all couples have received a bouquet of flowers and a card to let them know they are thinking of them and we can’t wait to celebrate soon.

“They have hosted many virtual calls with couples to support, guide and reassure them through these testing times.”

Olivia said it is a worthy business to earn the Extra Mile Venue title.

Ben and Laura at Sissons Barn are over the moon at the recognition and said: “Our couples mean the world to us and we are so glad to have been able to support them during this unusual time. We are really looking forward to hosting weddings again soon (when we can) and continuing to offer the best customer service to our

couples and their guests”.