Shimpling Park is one of the most straightforward venues in Suffolk to cater well, and the reason is that the farm has decided not to make it complicated.

What the venue does not charge for

No approved caterers list. No extra costs on food suppliers. No corkage on drink.

That is unusually generous and it is worth understanding what it means for your budget: at a venue that charges a caterer to attend and takes corkage on every bottle, the same wedding costs meaningfully more without a single thing on the plate changing.

Their own wording is that you choose what suits your taste and your budget, and that there are no extra costs from them. Take it at face value — it is a real saving.

The farm

A working organic farm near Bury St Edmunds, with barns and a festooned courtyard. The venue provides kitchen space for caterers, which puts it somewhere between a barn with a fixed kitchen and a field — usually the easiest of both.

The courtyard is set up for food trucks, pizza ovens, ice cream vans and bar trailers, which opens up a looser second half of the day than most barns manage.

How we would cater it

The kitchen space handles the wedding breakfast. A full three-course meal is comfortable here, and so is a sharing table, which suits a farm rather better than silver service does.

Where we would bring the field kitchen anyway is if the numbers are high or the timings are tight — extra capacity removes the risk entirely and costs less than getting it wrong. See what we bring to a field.

The farm on the plate

It would be a waste to cater an organic farm in Suffolk with food from anywhere else. Red Poll beef, glazed Suffolk ham, a ploughman’s with Shipcord and a hand-raised pork pie, and game through the autumn.

See all six wedding menus, including a full vegan menu.

Next

Shimpling is about half an hour from our kitchen at Mickfield. See what is included and how booking works.

We have written up the other venues we know well in the same way: Henham Park, The Tudor Barn Belstead, Boxted Hall, Woolverstone Hall and Haughley Park Barn. The rest of the county is on wedding catering in Suffolk.