The Fleece Countryside Inn

5/5 They worked really hard to ensure my nephew's wedding went ahead today. They had a really lovely day. Great food and covid safe.

"We originally booked our wedding in January 2019 and had planned for 40 day guests and 80 evening guests. However, with the restrictions in place when we got married in October, we were only allowed 15 people in total (including the bride and groom). This obviously wasn't as planned and was upsetting at the time, but, we were adamant that we were going to get married, and in the end, we both thought the smaller wedding was perfect and we couldn't have wished for anything better. "The fewer guests made both the ceremony and the reception more intimate, and with only our family and close friends there, it certainly felt more personal for us both. Throughout the day and evening, all our guests were mingling, and it gave us more time to spend with everyone who attended, without the large number of guests pulling us from pillar to post. To fill out some of the time, we did a wedding quiz, which everyone got involved with and it really added to the day. "We initially thought that the lower number of guests would make the room feel too big, however, this wasn't the case. The Fleece laid everything out perfectly in both the day and the evening. The staff were so attentive to all our guests and made everyone feel safe and accommodated for. Alongside this, the food was exceptional. "I wouldn't worry about going ahead with a wedding in these current times and would recommend a smaller wedding to anyone." Jack and Lorna - 30.10.20

After having to rearrange our wedding twice due to COVID in 2020 we were lucky to get married in October. We want to thank Team Fleece for firstly being so accommodating and secondly for an absolutely brilliant day. COVID restrictions were in place which meant there was only 15 of us but everyone involved in our day made it super relaxed and enjoyable. Special mention too to Carrie-Anne, you truly are a star! The venue looked stunning for the ceremony and meal thanks to ‘your aisle style’ and The Fleece. Even though we were a smaller party than originally planned the venue was set out so it felt cosy. All of our guests enjoyed the day and the food was delicious, especially the sticky toffee pudding. Thanks again Team Fleece, we wouldn’t hesitate to book you for an event in the future xx

Firstly it has to be said that the Fleece team are just brilliant and have been very accommodating and helpful over the past few months - firstly with us having to postpone our first wedding date in May due to the lockdown to re-arranging to our new date of September 6th. We understand it is stressful and difficult with all the restrictions changing regularly but we are so happy we stuck to our date this year and wouldn't have changed it for the world. The day was seamless and we were looked after so well by all the staff, even with fewer guests (28 in total) and a few restrictions we had an amazing day. It felt even more special having only our closest family and friends present. We were naturally worried about a few aspects with the restrictions - our guests having to wear masks during the ceremony and not being allowed the usual evening entertainment at a wedding with a DJ/dance floor etc but this really didn't matter at all on the day. I think you can easily get wrapped up in worrying about the small details but you've got to view these restrictions in a light-hearted way if possible - after all choosing to get married during a pandemic there are of course going to be a few differences, but in our eyes this only added to it being extra memorable for everyone! They also didn't define the day at all and I think that's important to focus on. Our guests did not mind wearing facemasks, it is only for 20 minutes max during the ceremony and also wanted to mention how fantastic the Calderdale registrars were, they were so friendly and put us all at ease (yes it's a little strange they have to wear a visor but honestly you'll soon forget that strangeness when your stood opposite your other half saying your vows!) and then the rest of the day didn't feel too restrictive at all. We sat at the tables for the majority of the day/night and it was nice to be able to socialise this way. We felt we still had a bit of a party atmosphere at night with the dimmed lights and background music, and the table service was fantastic. We honestly enjoyed it even more being able to speak to everyone easier than if it was the usual packed dance floor of 100+ people. We still did the usual wedding traditions of cutting the cake and the confetti throw outside (we asked our guests to hand santise prior to this & had little individual bags to throw the confetti without touching it). We also put little bottles of hand sanitiser on each of the tables. We had sparklers outside at night time as a little extra activity, and we also played a couple of games from our tables to keep everyone entertained but this wasn't really necessary, as we were all just so happy to be able to catch-up all together finally after the past few months. We honestly wouldn't have changed how the day was for anything, and all our family and friends said it was the best wedding they've ever been to even with all the extra little 'covid' quirks, with many saying smaller weddings are the way to go!! 2020 has undoubtedly been a shocking year so far, but we are so pleased that we stuck to having our wedding day this year instead of postponing again, as it has really brought a lot of much needed positivity and happiness back into our lives and also lifted the spirits of all our family & friends too, and certainly are memories we will cherish forever. The Fleece goes above and beyond to make your wedding day special even under government restrictions, and you'll not regret one bit proceeding with your wedding this year. Go for it and big Congrats!

After planning our wedding for the past two years the 5th September 2020 was always going to be our day whatever the plan as the specific day meant so much to us. When we heard about lockdown in March we thought everything was going to be fine with 6 months to spare and the wedding would go ahead as planned. With getting regular updates from the fleece and following the news daily, we were able to keep in touch if any updates were made. When we found out the local lockdown started at the end of July we were gutted to find out that our hopes of a 30 person wedding reception was taken away once again. With one month to spare we had everything crossed that we would pull through out of lockdown! We then had our final meeting with Carrie-Anne two weeks before the wedding and there was still no change at the time but we came up with a Plan A (whole day) and a Plan B (ceremony only) so we knew that when our final deadline came round to letting the fleece know our decision (one week before the wedding) we knew what plan we would take so it was easier to organise and both options were covered. The Friday evening announcement came (24 hours before our deadline date) and thankfully we were allowed out of local lockdown and the reception could also take place! We had one week to sort our DIY table plan/seating arrangements etc out but looking back it was plenty of time as everything else was organised. It was just a quick email over to Carrie-Anne to say on with Plan A and finally we could get excited! We actually phoned close of play Friday eve to let Carrie-Anne know as we couldn’t believe our luck and needed to tell everyone! We always said during Covid wedding planning that we never thought the day would happen with plans always changing until the morning of the wedding just so no other announcements could happen. We didn’t want to get our hopes up just to be disappointed. We set up the day before at the fleece and it soon started to feel real! We thought 30 people would look lost in the function room as it is quite a large room, however we had a top table of us two and both sets of parents, and then 6 tables of either (3/4/5) people depending on their households and it didn’t look any different to how we imagined it! We honestly are so relieved the day happened, but looking back the day couldn’t have gone any better from the service to the planning and every guest said on the day how special and privileged they were to be there. It didn’t feel at all like what we had pictured a Covid wedding would have been like. Don’t get me wrong guests had to wear masks during the ceremony and that was a negative when that rule was announced but I didn’t notice anyone other than me and my husband so that honestly didn’t even bother me. We weren’t allowed a DJ but that didn’t bother us either as we weren’t dancers anyway but I think almost every guest said how nice it was not to have a DJ with loud music playing all night and not being able to speak/hear people properly. It was lovely to sit back and see our guests talking on their tables and actually bonding. Something we felt so lucky at how intimate it was and that we were able to have our nearest family and closest friends there and that everyone we love got on so well and said how nice it was to be a small wedding. The fleece made us all feel very safe on the day, from hand sanitizers on every table to excellent table service for drinks so you weren’t at the bar mingling. To make a little fun and less what we thought would be a dragged out evening (which it wasn’t as the day flew) we did a wedding trivia quiz, we handed out one quiz per table with their own pen and asked them to fill it out if they wanted to after the evening meal to pass time. Everything went quiet and suddenly it all got very competitive and it was actually lovely to see everyone participating! We read out the answers and that was that! Some people then left when they were ready from around 9.30pm onwards in dribs and drabs but the night went so quick it was midnight before we knew it and the day had finished! We can’t thank the fleece enough for letting us be their first Covid wedding, and although it was frustrating at times not knowing what the government plan was, we stuck at it and wouldn’t have changed a thing! We feel forever grateful that we could get married when we did and one piece of advice is never give up. The end goal of marrying your best friend hasn’t changed, it’s just the plan that had to be tweaked a little! And don’t forget you can have a massive party once it’s all over if you want one but the goal of marrying someone you love is still there and can still happen!

5/5 Stunning views, excellent food and a great albeit expensive wedding venue. Great staff.