Cliveden House Wedding DJ & Entertainment Hire

Mighty Fine Events has been a recommended wedding DJ and entertainment supplier at Cliveden House for over 10 years, and we’ve done more than a hundred weddings there. We know the house room by room, so there’s less to work out in the planning and less to watch on the night.

Cliveden sits on the Buckinghamshire bank of the Thames above Maidenhead. The house gives its own address as Taplow, Berkshire, which is how most couples know it. Built in 1666 and remade by the Astors, it’s now a five-star hotel inside 376 acres of National Trust parkland.

Weddings at Cliveden House

Cliveden holds weddings across a dozen different spaces, and the shape of your day depends on which ones you take. A summer wedding usually moves outdoors and through the main house. A winter wedding, or a smaller one, tends to stay in the panelled rooms on the ground floor. Exclusive use opens the estate to you and up to 120 guests.

We work in all of them. What follows is roughly how a Cliveden wedding runs, and where we fit into it.

Ceremony and drinks reception

In summer, ceremonies are usually held in the Cockerel Pavilion. We supply the live entertainment for it, most often a string quartet or a harpist, with a discreet PA for the celebrant and the readings. We also make the aisle runner to order.

The drinks reception then moves to the West Terrace. We set up a bar there and run background music through a PA that stays out of sight. Live musicians work well on the terrace in good weather.

In winter, and for smaller weddings, the Boudoir and the Tote take over for both the ceremony and the drinks. These were Lord and Lady Astor’s interconnecting sitting rooms, and the Boudoir looks out over the Parterre. They seat around 24, so the music gets scaled to the room.

The wedding breakfast

Most wedding breakfasts happen in the French Dining Room. William Waldorf Astor bought the gilded panelling from a chateau outside Paris in 1897 and had the room rebuilt around it at Cliveden. It seats up to 60 under a five-metre ceiling.

For larger weddings, and for exclusive use, dinner moves to the Cliveden Dining Room, which runs 18 metres by 7.

In either room we run the speeches on radio microphones and keep background music at a level that lets people talk across a table. Uplighting warms the room as the daylight goes. We’ve done cold sparks for the cake cutting here as well.

The party

The main party space is Waldo’s, in the house’s old servants’ quarters. It’s three interconnecting rooms – Waldo’s One, Waldo’s Two and the Screening Room – which together take around 130 standing.

We put full production into Waldo’s – PA and DJ equipment, staging, dance floor hire, active lighting, draping and uplighting. The bars can be built and lit to whatever colour scheme you’ve chosen.

For exclusive-use weddings the party usually moves to the Great Hall, 18 metres by 7 with a five-metre ceiling and room for a proper stage. The Churchill is the other option, and it opens into the cobbled Clocktower Courtyard, which takes fairy lights and uplighting well. We can light the outside of the house too, front or back.

Elsewhere on the estate

Spring Cottage sits on the bank of the Thames below the main house. It’s a good daytime space, and barbecues there work particularly well with a live act playing.

Our roster covers string quartets, harpists, saxophonists, singers across every genre, live bands from rock and roll through funk, Motown, soul and pop, gospel choirs and big bands. We also work with magicians, caricaturists, acrobats and hula hoopers when couples want something for guests between the moving parts.

If you’d rather choose the music yourself, our playlist builder lets you build the night track by track.

Booking a Cliveden House wedding DJ

Cliveden weddings are usually booked 12 to 18 months out, and the popular summer Saturdays go first. Get in touch if your date is closer than that, because we can often still help.

Every quote is put together around what you’re actually planning, so there’s no standard price list. Tell us the date and roughly how the day is shaped, and we’ll come back with something specific. You can also see what a wedding at Cliveden House can include.

Mark van den Berg, who runs Mighty Fine Events, has been DJing for over 40 years. He was voted one of DJ Magazine’s Top 25 DJs in the world and judges nationally for The Wedding Industry Awards.