Summer soirée at Slaley Hall ornamental gardens (AD)

A sunny Thursday evening was recently well spent for the summer soirée at Slaley Hall ornamental gardens.

Slaley Hall is nestled in 1,000 acres of beautiful Northumberland countryside and is a beautiful Edwardian mansion.

Avid readers will know that the hubby and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary with a mini spa break here just last month. You can catch up with that blog post here.

Anyway back to the soirée.

We were warmly welcomed on the terrace with a glass of prosecco and some delicious canapés as we listened to the really talented singer and started chatting with the other guests.


On the grass beneath us an intimate wedding was staged to give you a flavour of what this gorgeous hotel can offer for your special day.

I’ve attended a few weddings at Slaley and the service they offer is fantastic with gorgeous surroundings and lovely food too.

After a warm welcome from the hotel manager we walked along to the gorgeous and partially hidden ornamental gardens.

Upon arrival I made a beeline to the Durham Distillery table to sample some of their beautiful gins.

The lovely lady manning the stall gave me a full history of the company and revealed the exciting expansion plans they have this year.

They are moving into the heart of historic Durham and will be offering tours of the distillery and launching the first North East whisky – very exciting!

We only live half an hour from Durham so once the tours start I’ll definitely want to pop along.

While sipping on gin cocktails (which were delicious) we chatted and mingled with the other guests – it was great to meet other bloggers.

It was a lovely touch that they also provided mocktails for those not drinking (Steve was designated driver but said his drink was really refreshing).

Steve and I had a little explore of the ornamental gardens which really are stunning – just imagine having your wedding photographs taken in this hidden oasis – beautiful.

It almost made me want to get married all over again!

Then we heard from luxury menswear brand Duke Ata and Steve almost drooled over the bespoke suit jackets – very much his style.

It’s fantastic that such a high-end brand has a home in my native Newcastle, Jesmond to be exact.

By becoming a part of the exclusive Duke Ata Club, members get to experience the height of luxury  – from personal appointments with the name designer, Duke Ata himself, to access to their one-off ready–to–wear online collections and invitations to the events and parties that they curate globally.

As part of your appointment you can also be collected and dropped off in style too – very fancy.

Before we knew it several hours had whizzed by and it was well after 9pm. We said our thank you’s and goodbyes, picked up a goody bag and headed to the car.

I regretted my decision to wear heels by this point!

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My overall thoughts of the summer soirée

Steve and I had a wonderful evening and are very grateful for our invite. This was my second bloggers event and I really enjoyed it.

It was great to experience the ornamental gardens at Slaley Hall on such a sunny warm evening.

The tasty gin cocktails were fab and hearing from designer Duke was so interesting.
In our goody bag was a dark green pocket square from Duka Ata.

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Where is Slaley Hall?

Slaley Hall,
Hexham
NE47 0BX

BY CAR

Slaley Hall is easy to find from the A1. From the South, take the A68 link road and follow the signs to the Hall. From the North, take the A69 toward Corbridge. Then follow the A68 south and look for the signs.

BY RAIL

Slaley Hall is 7 miles from Hexham Station and 30 miles from Newcastle mainline Station.

BY AIR

Newcastle Airport is 28 miles away 35 minutes by taxi.

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Other North East related posts

Read all about my first blogging event which includes top tips for photographers thanks to Viking Masterclass

See what fun we had at FriendsFest the ultimate Friends festival

Here’s 10 reasons to visit Newcastle (and Gateshead)

If you’re planning a city break then check out why you should visit Newcastle in my proud Geordie moment as Newcastle named number 1 place to visit in 2018

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