For most of us, weddings mark a joyous occasion; a lavish day for friends and families to watch their loved ones declare their undying love for each other.

But those enchanted days, filled with romance, flowers and well-heeled guests, are being increasingly looked down upon by furious NIMBYs who say they are sick and tired of their countryside paradises being spoiled.

From anger over loud, expletive-laden Best Man speeches to guests allegedly urinating in residents’ gardens, locals living in the shadow of popular wedding venues have reached breaking point in recent years.

Earlier this month, MailOnline revealed how King Charles has joined the army of nuptial NIMBYs after buying a £3million house next to Camilla’s Wiltshire country retreat amid fears it could become a rowdy wedding venue.

Royal sources told the Mail that a proposal to sell The Old Mill next door and turn it into a wedding venue caused the Queen ‘great anxiety’, leading Charles to intervene at the eleventh hour to block the sale and buy the property with private funds.

A source familiar with the plans said: ‘Think of it – dozens of wedding guests carousing every weekend just the other side of her fence.’

The King and Queen are far from being alone in their concerns over the raucous scenes that weddings can bring – even when they are being hosted at opulent stately homes.

MailOnline has spoken to residents on the frontlines of the war between locals and wedding venues to find out just how bad it’s become.

It comes amid a booming wedding trade, with couples in the UK forking out an average £23,250 for their special days in 2024.

But at the same time, councils are seeing increased levels of complaints over noise, traffic, parking and pollution. 

A clothing tycoon who rents out his country estate for lavish society weddings is among those locked in a bitter feud with locals.

Jigsaw founder John Robinson charges his well-heeled clientele £30,000 to host wedding receptions at his £12m Georgian manor, set in 450 acres of land in Euridge, Wiltshire.

Locals say Euridge Manor hosts two huge weddings each week – even though his application to hold the events has been at the centre of controversy. 

It retrospectively applied for planning permission to hold events in 2021, which the council denied. An enforcement notice was then served in August 2022, prompting an appeal by Euridge Manor.

A second planning application was then made in September 2022 that also included plans for a new access road. It went over the statutory period for determination, leaving it undecided. 

That has now also been appealed alongside the enforcement notice.

Euridge Manor say the matter has been the subject of a 10 day inquiry and a decision from an independent planning officer is likely within a couple of months.

His fed-up neighbours, many of whom expressed their objections to his lucrative wedding business, are on tenterhooks as they too await the outcome of his barrister-led appeal.

They have complained about the noise and obscene language emanating from the venue and the extra traffic the weddings generate along the narrow country lanes surrounding the property.

One local told MailOnline this week it was ‘like having a disco in the back garden’.

Cyclists say they have been knocked off their bikes by wedding guests hurtling along the winding lanes nearby and horse riders complain the vehicles pass too close to their animals.

Local gardener Jax Ward, 72, said the weddings at Euridge Manor should stop immediately.

‘He knows full well that no-one around here wants these weddings but he just doesn’t care.

‘When he first moved here, he made it known that he wanted to be part of the community and get involved with us. If someone from the village had a birthday, he’d invite them to the manor house and make a fuss of them.

‘But over the years he’s withdrawn more and more, and now he never mixes.

‘The fact is these lanes around here are incredibly narrow and cars can’t pass, so the result is mayhem for everyone. Us locals hate getting in our cars now because we know even a short journey can take forever.

‘They should be stopped until the end of the appeal process.’

One resident who lives on the opposite side of the valley to Euridge Manor said the noise from the weddings is ‘intolerable’. 

She said: ‘We have to listen to the speeches and all the swearing those speeches often contain.

In one particular instance, a best man was giving his speech through the public address system on a microphone and shouted ‘W****r, W****r, W****r’ at the top of his voice. A lot of children live round here and they are being subjected to some awful language.

‘They say they are putting on so-called society weddings, but they sound like an uncouth lot to me, if the swearing is anything to go by.

‘Then, when the music starts up, it’s like having a disco in the back garden. The noise carries across the valley and seems to amplify it. It’s like the acoustic effect of an amphitheatre.

‘This used to be such a lovely place to live but since he started up with his weddings, life around here has become a nightmare. Many locals are considering selling up and leaving the area if he wins his appeal.

‘And if he loses his appeal, what about the people who’ve booked weddings there in the months ahead? They’ll have to cancel their plans and find somewhere else. That would be very stressful.’

The woman, who asked not to be named, added that if he wins his appeal, she believes some locals may be forced to stage protest demonstrations outside the entrance to his estate on wedding days.

‘For now, we’re following the legal process but if he wins his appeal, a lot of us will be feeling very let down and that might well result in an escalation in terms of what we can do to show our objection to his wedding business. This just isn’t the right place to be hosting these big events.’

Another local, retired primary school teacher Karen, who now works as a volunteer at the local village church, St John the Baptist, in Colerne, said: ‘This is an area of outstanding natural beauty and it is just not the right place for events of this kind.

‘Mostly, they all come in from London and they have no idea how to drive on country lanes like the ones we have here.

‘Many of them drive huge cars and I know several people who say they’ve been knocked off their bikes. Horse-riding friends say the wedding guests often drive way to close to them and the horses get very scared.’

Wiltshire Council said matters now rested with the Planning Inspectorate, which handles appeals. 

Parvis Khansari, its corporate director of place, said: ‘Two planning applications have been submitted by the owners of Euridge Manor to enable them to hold wedding events. 

‘The first was refused and appealed, but the appeal was withdrawn. The second was appealed for non-determination and is still to be decided by the Planning Inspectorate.

‘We have served Euridge Manor with an enforcement notice against holding wedding events, which has also been appealed. 

‘The enforcement notice doesn’t take effect until the planning application appeal has been determined by the Planning Inspectorate and only if it is dismissed.’

Alice Grochowska, venue manager at Euridge Manor, told MailOnline: ‘[The matter] has been the subject of a 10 day inquiry where local people both in support of the venue and opposed have been able to put forward their views. A decision from an independent planning officer is likely within a couple of months.

‘By hiring our own two 8 seater minicabs to ferry guests to and from their local hotels and accommodation, we have put in place arrangements to ensure that traffic is at a minimum, and since doing so it is factually inaccurate to refer to traffic jams.

‘Music at the venue is managed by way of a noise management plan and sound limiters prevent music being over agreed limits.

‘I want to add that Euridge weddings and their guests contribute almost £2 million a year to a local economy by supporting local suppliers, taxis, hotels etc.’

In 2022, locals in Oxnead, Norfolk, voiced their strong opposition to weddings with visible protests.

‘Brides and grooms are not welcome’ proclaimed signs put up on the way to stunning rural Norfolk wedding venue.

‘No more weddings – we’ve had enough’, said another banner.

The hostile messages on display along a road to Oxnead Hall, near Aylsham, followed a series of complaints from neighbours of the hall in a row over excessive noise and disruption coming from wedding parties at the exclusive venue.

Residents – including the owners of the 500-acre Hill Farm which surrounds Oxnead Hall – erected the signs on a track which runs directly past their homes.

Complaints of loud music long into the night, a constant flow of vehicles driving past their homes, and rowdy guests entering land around their properties resulted in the bitter dispute reaching breaking point.

There were claims wedding guests had even used villagers’ gardens as a toilet. 

But this week, MailOnline discovered that peace had broken out in the north Norfolk countryside after Oxnead imposed strict controls over noise and hired security guards to keep guests from straying.

Landowner Roger Crane, mastermind of the signs protest in 2022, said this week: ‘To be fair, the owners and the new manager are staying within the red lines set down by the local council and it’s quietened down a lot now.’

Venue manager Francis Guildea agreed: ‘We respect the fact that we’re in a rural environment and we genuinely want to have a good relationship with our neighbours. Communication is the key.’

The owners of the 16th Century hall, former Fortnum and Mason director Beverly Aspinall and her husband David, were abroad this week.

But Mrs Aspinall told the Eastern Daily Press two years ago: ‘We’ve now made a few changes to make things better for them [the neighbours].’

The measures to minimise disruption in the evenings include a sound limit on the venue’s music systems and parking vehicles at the front of the hall to avoid driving past the neighbours’ properties.

They have also employed a security guard to stop guests from entering people’s land, and they are taking deliveries and tipping glass bottles into bins no later than 5pm.

In February, the owners of popular wedding venue Dalston Hall were told by Cumberland Council that parties would have to move indoors for spring and summer after a flurry of complaints about noise from the marquee.  

Jad Keiling, 30, and Nathaniel Lee, 29, only found out about the change after their wedding DJ posted on social media.

‘I wasn’t too happy as it’s too late to change our plans,’ Ms Keiling said. 

In the south west of the country, families living near the popular Kilminorth Cottages, in Looe, Cornwall, have lifted the lid on what it’s like to be an uninvited and unwilling guest on the happiest day of a stranger’s life – dozens of times every year.

Kilminorth Cottages, an ancient manor farm turned venue set in by 32 acres of Cornish countryside has hosted over 100 ceremonies since it opened in 2013, offering everything from tiny elopements to three day wedding extravaganzas.

But last June when owners Jayne Longrigg and Julie Howes made a seemingly routine licensing application asking Cornwall Council to remove a condition that only allowed one event per week, allowing them to cease applying for temporary event notices, a dozen neighbours strongly objected.

Among them is Andrew French whose rural home is sandwiched between Kilminorth and another venue that hosts a handful of weddings every year.

The 66-year-old retiree – who has lived next door for more than five years – told MailOnline: ‘When weddings are in full flow we can be sitting in the living room and we can’t hear the telly.

‘We can hear the speeches word-for-word, I just don’t need to know about that time when Marjorie’s knickers fell off.

‘When people are sitting in a marquee, I don’t understand why it needs to be amplified to that extent, it’s complete disregard for us.

‘The weddings tend to be around the weekends so if I want some friends around for a BBQ in the garden we can’t hear our own music. We can sit out here with Alexa playing and we can’t hear.

‘Last year I’d say there were 15-20 weddings. This summer is the first under the new licensing conditions so we anticipate it will be worse than last.’

Neighbour Martyn Coleman has also reached breaking point with weddings being held on his doorstep.

He told MailOnline: ‘On a quiet day when you are trying to sit outside you can hear every word of what is being said.

‘We’ve had some awful acoustic music before, I remember thinking Ed Sheeran would’ve been turning in his grave – if he was dead – at how his songs were getting butchered by one talentless musician.

‘In the summer months when you sit outside, all of a sudden you get the wedding speeches – which other people have stated you can actually hear what’s being said – then the music starts.

‘With another wedding venue nearby you have the potential of stereo noise until the wee small hours. Therefore you’ve got to plan your life around that. You can’t sit inside with your windows open because the bass beat comes up the valley as well as the singing and shouting.’

‘We actually get on very well with the venue owners, they have got a business to run and we understand that but if you’ve got a licence for 365 days a year then it’s game on for anything.’

Another neighbour who spoke out during the licencing meeting was Derek Allison, who owns a property next door to the cottages, told a licensing meeting on Wednesday, June 19, that noise from the venue has an impact on neighbours.

He said: ‘At the end of the day, a band in a marquee is going to make a lot of noise and in our garden it is really, really intrusive. I’m just a bit fearful that it will be more frequent.

‘It’s an absolutely beautiful valley – peaceful and quiet – and if you’re outside, not at 11pm or midnight even but at 7pm, you want to enjoy the peace and quiet on a nice evening and it’s really loud. I don’t want to be awkward about what Jayne is doing but that’s how we feel about it.’

Cornwall Council approved the venue’s licensing application, noting it had not received any complaints about previous events at the site.

Ms Longrigg told the meeting: ‘I want to note the local concerns from our neighbours. We take what they’ve said in their feedback seriously. There is concern that we’d do more events to 12 o’clock at night. This isn’t about doing more events until midnight – we’ve not gone on beyond midnight.’

She added that licensing conditions had alleviated issues associated with weddings initially held at the venue and historic complaints had not recurred. 

She said in the last few months they received a text message from a neighbour complaining about noise, but the sound was coming from another wedding venue in the area.

Ms Howes said: ‘We very much want to work with our neighbours. Our business is about happiness and weddings. We run a really tight ship – all weddings receive a contract containing our conditions. All of our live music stops at 10.45pm and then switches to PA music around 85 decibels until midnight.’

Jayne Longrigg, co-owner of Kilminorth Cottages said: ‘We’re proud of the way Kilminorth has grown over the past decade as both a holiday destination and a wedding venue. Since 2013, we’ve hosted over 100 weddings, many for couples travelling from across the UK, who bring valuable tourism and income into the local area. We want to continue to grow the business but remain family owned and we do not wish to be running events all year round.

‘We’ve always taken our responsibilities seriously and worked hard to maintain a respectful and collaborative relationship with our neighbours. Every event is carefully managed — live music finishes at 10:45/11pm, followed by lower-level background music until midnight — and each wedding is bound by a contract with clear terms around noise, timings, and conduct.

‘While we acknowledge that a small number of neighbours raised concerns during last year’s licence review, we were pleased that Cornwall Council considered all feedback and granted our requested amendments. Importantly, they noted that no formal complaints had been received about any of the events we’ve held and to add despite us running weddings and events here.

‘We have kept in place our contract conditions even though restrictions were removed as we don’t want to damage our relationship with neighbours or our reputation. We continue to look for ways of reducing any noise and have a meeting next week with an acoustic company to look at further reducing any bouncing bass that comes from live music predominately.

‘We are looking to apply for planning permission in the not-too-distant future for a permanent wedding structure, removing marquee will remove noise and we welcome support from our neighbours in this application.’