Updated August 2021 at which time all links were current. Please let me know if any of the links do not work!
WHO (WITH LINKS) | PHONE | NOTES | |
01823 282251 | Somerset County Registrars have an excellent website to help you book the registrar. They get booked up a long way ahead so it is good to get onto this nice and early. | ||
We have not actually used this service yet but they contacted us and the website looks really useful and they are a nice bunch of people. If you use them will you give us some feedback so that I can update this listing? Thanks | |||
07760 183477 | Local (Bath based) celebrant | ||
Local intitative to reduce the waste that parties can generate! | |||
MARQUEES, TABLES, LIGHTS, PA etc. | |||
07825 828671 - 07790 270742 | Bristol based company with beautiful tents available. We had hoped to have two lots of 3 consecutive weddings in 2020 with the tent left here and a discounted rate as a result… They helped with one 2021 wedding and were absolutely lovely, we look forward to their return in more normal times! | ||
07766 883037 | These guys are based in Frome. They have the same tables as we do so if you need more than the 20 benches we have then this is the place to go. | ||
01249 716119 | Great local company with a pretty two-pointed tent that fits well outside the gallery door. They also hire out a huge variety of furniture and decorations. | ||
01373 836999 | Very good, local and know the site so can often quote without site visit | ||
01749 890909 | Based at Pilton, they have put up a marquee for one wedding and it was lovely. | ||
FOOD PROVIDERS | |||
01373 596102 | The Fat Radish in Frome (now inside the Black Swan) is run by Ellen Porteous. Ellen has a personal licence and a great team who are efficient at switching the gallery round from ceremony setup to mealtime. The food they create is wonderful! They are a very good solution to food and alcohol. They have catered etc for several weddings at the Silk Mill and all the feedback has always been excellent. | ||
They say: “Ember and Vine is the marriage between owners Sean and Mary's two loves, smoked foods and wine.” They live in Frome and have not yet catered here but they sound absolutely yummy! | |||
01458 273 674 Mob 07774 590 442 | Recently catered for a wedding and generally agreed to be very good indeed! | ||
07507 770158 | verosegura83@hotmail.com | Vero has was in charge of the food side of the Tapas (under the excellent guidance of Josh Brudenell) for the most recent (2019) Frome Festival Cantina, and brillant it was too. She has catered for several other events at the Silk Mill and her food is always wonderful and excellent value. | |
07782 369896 | Will do bar as well as food, know the Silk Mill well and produce excellent delicious food. Very lovely helpful team. | ||
07515 893294 | These guys have been here several times and they are a wonderful way to have a snack at tea time to stave off the pangs before the big feast… kid friendly alternative to canapés! | ||
Sarah Urquhart, Incredible Edibles | 01963 33395 | “Catering for all occasions”, particularly keen on making canapés etc. | |
01373 452593 | Local company with a very good reputation who have provided excellent food for parties at the Silk Mill. | ||
Makes lovely canapés and is the in-house caterer at Drawing Projects in Trowbridge | |||
Patrick Twigger | 07812 365430 or 01373 836122 | Patrick offers cutlery and crockery for events which he takes away unwashed. He has also provided bar licence cover with and without bar at the Silk Mill. He lives locally. | |
DRINKS | |||
07940 732012 | Properly selected French (& other) wines in 10 litre, 5 litre & 3 litre boxes… cuts down on waste. Will do sale or return for unopened boxes and happy to come and offer tastings. We get all our wine from Rich for Silk Mill events, he is great! | ||
01934 744193 | Cheddar Ales can supply delicious bag in box ale, Rich's Cider (different Rich from wine above!) and bottled beers. They are in Cheddar but can deliver to Frome. We highly reccommend their products! | ||
01373 467766 | Local microbrewery | ||
0117 9474797 | These guys do beers on tap and in casks as well as ciders | ||
07594 926565 | Very local, great selection of ciders you can try just outside Frome | ||
01963 441233 | Lovely Somerset farm cider brewed from ancient orchards | ||
BARS, LICENCING & EVENT MANAGEMENT PLEASE NOTE: It is fine to bring your own alcohol (and/or ask your guests to BYOB) but do not then ask a bar to provide a paying service as they then may not sell enough to make it worth their while. If you are bringing your own then you will need to pay someone to oversee the alcohol consumption. The Silk Mill does not charge any extra corkage. You can have one arrangement for the lunch time then have a pay bar for the evening so long as the bar know what you are doing. | |||
Patrick Twigger | 07812 365430 or 01373 836122 | Patrick has provided bar licence cover with and without bar at the Silk Mill. He also has a business providing cutlery and crockery for events which he takes away unwashed. | |
07595 974680 | Full bar service or they can just provide staff at whatever level you need. | ||
07753 117323 | Wonderful bar assembled around growing trees and hung with plants run by the lovely Tim Goodman. | ||
07580 673753 | Full bar service from an airstream van! | ||
07786 240505 | Travelling Gin bar in a horse box! They say: “We create our own small batch, limited edition Scout & Sage Gins with different Master Distillers. Our mission is to distil a gin in every region of Britain!” We have not tried them yet but they sound interesting! | ||
ACCOMMODATION NOTE: We do not recommend The Lighthouse at Tytherington, Google it if you want to know why!! | |||
01373 300646 | Lotte and Gareth run this excellent bistro a short walk from the Silk Mill at the top of Catherine Hill/Street. They also have excellent accommodation. One wedding recently booked all 6 of their luxury ensuite rooms. Gareth is a very talented carpenter and has done a lot at the Silk Mill itself. | ||
01225 834644 | An interesting project… this beautiful luxury hotel (with spa and pools inclusive for hotel guests) is also a charitable apprenticeship project where multiple skills are being acquired. They have 40 rooms and say “Receive a 15% discount on any group booking of 5 rooms or more when you quote “Silk Mill”. And we’ll treat the bride and groom to a bottle of bubbly.” We visited but have not yet had anyone stay there. Feedback welcomed! They are talking of a minibus service that could be used by wedding parties as they are a few miles north of Frome. (dog friendly!) | ||
Stonnwall Manor Culverhill Frome Somerset BA11 5AA | Big Cottages: 0845 257 1510 | This is a wonderful huge Elizabethan Manor house right in the town and can sleep at least 28! We had a wedding party stay there who were very happy with it. I went to see it the other day and it is quite a place, a bit heavy on the dark wood furniture but a really good size and well within walking distance of the Mill. I took lots of photos which you can see here. There are more pictures if you follow the link in the first column. | |
Trish Bowles: 07880359313 01225 722246 | They say: “The Old Granary is situated in the countryside, just 5 miles from Bath and within a mile from Hartley Farm Shop & Café, the village pub and shop. A beautiful, award-winning converted barn that sleeps up to 12 people. Indoor heated pool and games room available at Church Farm, ¾ mile down the lane.” They are listed on the Church Farm Cottages website where there are other options available. | ||
01373 456111 | Nearest and very nicely appointed hotel and restaurant. (dog friendly!) | ||
01373 462584 | 28 rooms varying from singles at around £60 to premium ensuite and family rooms up to £140 in high season. Very centrally located in town (so some rooms on the front might not be all that quiet) and will do discounts for bulk booking for weddings. Speak to Dawn. I have not looked at all of it but the rooms I have seen are nicely done, fairly traditional. | ||
Here is a website with local B&Bs on it, I cannot vouch for all of them but would welcome feedback! | |||
07906 242296 | A really beautiful cottage with 2 bedrooms in Bruton, no detail has been left unperfected in this lovingly created space. | ||
Bruton has several other airbnb places that the Jackdaw Cottage people recommend so if you were to go for Bruton as your main accommodation spot there would be plenty of good choice… including: | |||
01749 812707 | Totally amazing tree house (between Bruton and Frome) that we have been lucky enough to stay in ourselves. Sleeps 2 and has all mod cons you could wish for including hot tub on the terrace! 2 night minimum stay and not cheap but a real treat. | ||
DJs & SOUND SYSTEM HIRE | |||
Spam Bhok | 078288 31441 | Highly recommended local DJ | |
07929 623764 | Luke can organise any lighting, staging or sound that you need. He really understands the unusual acoustics in the Gallery. Luke is a drummer himself in more than one band an also curates a busking stage at the Independent Market (1st Sunday of every month except Jan/Feb) and knows lots of excellent local musicians. | ||
07963416034 | Doug has managed the sound for many events at the Silk Mill and understands the space well. | ||
LIVE MUSIC NOTE: Live music needs to finish at 11pm, recorded music can go on unitl midnight but must not be audible beyond the courtyard lamp-post. | |||
Really good local band | |||
07714 991047 | The Hammervilles recorded their promo video at the Silk Mill and one of the band is getting married here! | ||
Another really dancy band, local! | |||
7763654803 | Excellent local band with other music contacts | ||
SECURITY AND DOOR MONITORING NOTE: If you are having more than 75 people our premises license requires that you have a couple of people to monitor numbers. If you hire a fully fledged security guard then it must be done through a registered front line firm. If you just need to count numbers then you do not need a qualified person. Please let Kate know who you are using asap. We know it is a pain but you need a guard per 75 people so if you have 150 people in the evening you will need two security people. | |||
CSS Security | 07415 867007/ 0800 002 9855 | Lester Silk/Carley Watts at CSS Security. Our go-to security people. | |
FANCIES, GIFTS & STATIONERY | |||
01749 860679 | Lovely local bookbinder who makes memorial presentation books to order. | ||
01373 462466 | Lovely shop in the centre of Frome. They will print your invitations or whatever your paper needs are! | ||
This is one among the very many gorgeous shops in Frome that has a wealth of gifts, decorations and much much more. | |||
01884 840 222 | Really excellent chocolate, packaged interestingly. | ||
Lovely list of words about love! | |||
JEWELLERY | |||
07974 421574 | Clare has a studio at the Silk Mill and she makes beautiful jewellery and delectable bridal accessories | ||
07717 723134 | Jeweller who has a studio at the Silk Mill. You can do a workshop there and make your rings together with him. | ||
01373 472505 | Very near the Silk Mill, excellent jeweller. Also good at mending/adapting jewellery. | ||
01373 454145 | On the wonderful Catherine Hill, lovely things. | ||
MAKE-UP & HAIR | |||
7824829634 | Lisa who does make-up had her wedding at the Silk Mill on Halloween 2015; you may have seen pictures! | ||
PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS | |||
Local photographer who specialises in family images. Locally based excellent photographer, she talks about weddings and elopements on her website which I love! | |||
07816 409984 | Local photographer | ||
07703 843100 | Ciara has photographed a couple of events (incl weddings) at the Silk Mill and she is excellent. Her style is quirky and interesting. She has the shop Poot on Catherine Hill in Frome and has always been a really good friend to the Silk Mill since we started the project. | ||
(07780) 611671 | Local photographer. | ||
Brilliant local artist who will come and paint/sketch at any and all stages as you wish. | |||
07917 797549 | We have not actually used Alice’s services yet but they contacted us and the website looks good. If you engage them will you give us some feedback so that I can update this listing? Thanks | ||
07377 600068 | Australian photographer who has just moved to Frome with his family. | ||
DECORATIONS & FLOWERS | |||
01373 473788 | Lovely Catherine Hill flower and shop | ||
01749 850991 | Moved to the area not long before lockdowns, these guys have the most beautiful collection of bunting and flags. They will put it up for you or just send it to you for you to do your own thing in the usual Silk Mill way! | ||
Jigantics (huge artificial flowers) | 07984 679421 | Fabulous gigantic flowers often seen at festivals (they are based in Frome). | |
01373 454147 07976 369360 | Wonderful enormous chandelier selection. Local company that hires to film sets and events. They did a photoshoot of their wares at the Silk Mill in Sept ‘19 | ||
07974 836270 | Local, partner to More Wine, chandeliers of flowers and fabrics; work very well on our 7 beams. | ||
TAXIS | |||
01373 464444 | |||
01373 470110 | |||
ABC taxis of Frome - | 01373 452211 | ||
Bruton and Mendip Taxi | 07984 465864 |
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Swift Taxi - Shepton Mallet - | 01749 340820 | ||
Regal Taxi - Shepton Mallet - | 01749 347750 | ||