Skip to main content
The Rose and Crown Hotel, wedding venue in Essex, UK
Wedding Venue
Wedding Venue
5.0(210)

The Rose and Crown Hotel

East Street, Colchester, Essex, CO1 2TZ, Essex, UK

Guest capacity
50 to 160 guests
Per person from
Menus from £50

About The Rose and Crown Hotel

Step into 700 years of history at The Rose and Crown Hotel, one of the most unique wedding venues in Essex. The Rose and Crown Hotel is a 14th-century venue, rich in character and charm. It's also the oldest hotel in Britain's oldest city - Colchester, offering a setting that feels truly different from anywhere else. Original oak beams, a hidden secret garden licensed for outdoor ceremonies, and 39 bedrooms allow couples to turn their wedding into more than just a day. Just 50 minutes direct from London Liverpool Street, it is also a popular choice for those looking to celebrate away from the city without travelling too far. Facilities and Capacity The Rose and Crown Hotel is a fully licensed venue, allowing couples to host both their ceremony and reception in one place. Ceremony spaces can accommodate up to 100 guests, with the option of an indoor or outdoor setting. Wedding receptions can host up to 160 guests. The largest space, The Rose Suite, features its own private entrance and a spacious dance floor, ideal for evening celebrations. The couple can also enjoy a complimentary stay in one of the hotel’s four-poster honeymoon suites. In addition, 39 stylish bedrooms are available for guests, with preferential rates for those attending the wedding. Services Offered Couples are supported throughout the planning process by an experienced, award-winning wedding team. Having delivered over 500 weddings in the past decade, the team provides a calm and reassuring presence, ensuring every detail is taken care of. Packages start from £3,250 for 50 guests and include room hire, in-house catering, and a dedicated wedding coordinator. From smaller gatherings of 30 to larger celebrations of up to 160 guests, each wedding can be tailored to suit individual plans. The venue is available seven days a week, with midweek dates offered at reduced rates. Those who can picture their wedding here are encouraged to visit and experience the setting in person, and discover why couples from across Essex, Suffolk and London choose The Rose and Crown Hotel for their special day.

Gallery

The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 1The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 2The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 3The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 4The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 5The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 6The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 7The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 8The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 9The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 10The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 11The Rose and Crown Hotel photo 12

Styles & facilities

Unusual weddings
Historic
Large hotel
Landmark
Unique weddings
Small hotel
Outdoor license
Civil ceremony licence
Wedding coordinator
Accessible facilities
DJ facilities
Live band facilities
Overnight accommodation for wedding couple
Changing room for wedding guests
Evening reception facilities
Alcohol licence
In-house catering
Car parking
Seated meal facilities
Dance floor
Buffet meal facilities
Overnight accommodation for guests
Confetti permitted
Entertainment licence

Reviews

5.0(210)5/5 from 210 couple reviews

4.6/5 review

DeborahJune 2026

4.6

We were married on 3rd April and overall had a wonderful day at The Rose and Crown. A special mention must go to Ilze, who was absolutely fantastic. She was warm, friendly, professional and went above and beyond throughout the planning and on the day itself. She truly helped make our wedding special and is a credit to the hotel. The venue is beautiful, with many guests commenting on how lovely the old Rose and Crown building is. The ceremony was wonderful, the wedding breakfast was excellent with generous portions and great quality food, and the disco booked through the hotel was great fun. Our overnight stay was comfortable and breakfast the next morning was delicious. The only disappointment was the evening reception. There appeared to be only one person serving at the bar for over 70 guests. Our wedding cake was cut very poorly, leaving it looking messy, and there was no announcement when the evening buffet was served, meaning many guests missed it until the food had gone cold. We were also disappointed that guests with dietary requirements, who had been well catered for during the day, were unable to access suitable food at the evening buffet. I These issues aside, we had a lovely wedding day and would happily recommend the venue. If the evening b

5/5 review

SueMay 2026

5.0

From the beginning, Ilze (our wedding manager) was able to accommodate for our every need- including catering for an additional guest half an hour before the ceremony! The hotel was beautiful and filled with historical charm. The food was plentiful and delicious and the whole day flowed without a hitch! All the staff worked with professionalism. The added touches made such a difference: for example- listing the menu choices on the place names meant that guests could remember what they had ordered and moving the decorations from the ceremony to the wedding breakfast and then to the disco made sure we had nothing to worry about. Our photographs were taken in the secluded secret garden, in front of a

5/5 review

CarolOctober 2025

5.0

Our Experience were amazing for Me and My Husband to have our Venue at the Rose and Crown. Such a beautiful place. Llze our event manager was amazing helped us throughout. Thank you for making our day special. All the Staff were amazing such a lovely atmosphere. Food was excellent compliments to the Chefs. The hotel room was excellent. All I have to say I would recomme

5/5 review

LilyOctober 2025

5.0

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect, from getting ready in the morning to the very last song we had no issues. All the staff at the hotel are kind, friendly and helpful. On the build up to the day our coordinator was amazing, she ensured everything was right for us. The price on the other hand was just insane for what was included, we went for the gold package and honestly was so cheap and incredibly value for money so I highly recommend if you are on a budget too. Finally, the breakfast we had the next morning was d

5/5 review

CristinaSeptember 2025

5.0

The Rose and Crown Hotel in Colchester is the perfect venue for your special event, cozy and intimate! But the real gems are the management and their staff, making sure you are looked after from the moment you step foot into this venue. Ricardo, you are doing an amazing job managing your team, by keeping them motivated at all times and turning their jobs into a passion, and putting so much care in everything they do. Sian and Ilze, thank you for your friendliness, communication, and your down to earth approach. You’ve made us feel like VIPs, you made us feel comfortable to express our event needs without feeling like we are asking for too much. As a result of your great work, we had no doubts whatsoever that our event will turn up perfect - and oh my, it did! Sooraj, Harley and the whole team (apologies for not knowing everyone’s name), they took care of us during our event, making sure we are happy at all times - always with a smile on their faces, which made everything so much more pleasant! Thamas, our chef - OMG, even when faced with a challenge having to create a Romanian-English wedding menu, he absolutely smashed it! We cannot praise enough your talent, and you could see your cooking passion in all the plates that came out for us and our guests. Rowena and the team at reception, thank you for your kindness and for making us feel like VIPs. Our guests staying in were so thankful for making sure their needs were met when allocating their rooms. And our check in and check out was such a beautiful experience, full of smiles and emotions ❤️. And last, but not least, Solvita and the housekeeping team - you are stars, you have even taking extra time from your very busy schedules to decorate our room, making it extra special and adding yet another smile on our faces. Thank you, and all the love

4.8/5 review

LucySeptember 2025

4.8

Myself and my partner got married at the Rose and Crown in August 2025 and we had a perfect day. The feel and style of the venue, combined with the staffs friendly, professional and laid back approach made what could of been a stressful experience so much easier. Illze (co ordinator)was available prior via phone or email to answer any and all questions and allowed us to create our very bespoke wedding . The venue staff, reception,maintenance,kitchen staff and cleaners were all amazing. Sooraj, the venue manager went above and beyond for us and for the price we paid we really do feel we had a truly excellent experience . Nothing was too much of a problem and the R+C were extremely flexible and accommodating-we couldn't of asked for any more. So if you want

5/5 review

ZoeJune 2025

5.0

We had our wedding at The Rose and Crown Hotel on 5th June 2025. The hotel was the only venue we looked at and from the first viewing we knew it was the one. It’s a beautiful hidden gem. Sian and Ilze was amazing support for us throughout the process, no matter how many times we email for a million questions they were always happy to help. The venue itself is absolutely stunning! We arrived the day before our wedding to set up and the staff was so helpful. I cannot fault The Rose and Crown team. The day itself went so smoothly and without any hitches and I cannot thank the venue enough

5/5 review

StephenMarch 2025

5.0

From our initial enquiry to the event itself we were impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the team. Phone calls and emails were always answered quickly and efficiently. N

5/5 review

CarinaNovember 2024

5.0

I highly recommend the rose and crown as a wedding venu, it's a beautiful place and fantastic location. The staff went above and beyond from the moment we booked up until the day we left the hotel the day after the wedding. The rooms were lovely and the beds were ver comfy. Excellent communication throughout out and staff were friendly and professional. The food was exceptional and they set up the venu better than I could have imagined. The wedding packages are very competitive prices and take away alot of the stress of planning a wedding. The Dj was fantastic, excellent play list and got eve

4.4/5 review

KeeleyOctober 2024

4.4

We were very happy with the level of service provided by the team within the R@C Colchester. We dealt with Sian and she was professional throughout, emails were always responded to within a few days and she made herself available for us to attend the venue when needed during our planning stages. When looking for a venue as you can’t guarantee our weather we didn’t want somewhere with massive grounds, whilst it may look stunning for photos, if you can’t get outside it’s a waste of the extra costs. The beauty and detail of the R@C hotel is exceptional so all those stunning photos can be captured. As we had a large ceremony 120, and more in the evening we were worried the venue may have felt cramped, we didn’t need to worry, the ceremony space was set up for 120 with ease, we had an extra 30 guests in the evening and there was ample room for everyone to gather, sit and enjoy themselves. The canapés were fantastic. We opted for a hot evening buffet of curry and burgers, the food went down a treat and everyone said how delicious it was. Sian recommended we got less than we opted for, but we were worried there wouldn’t be enough food, unfortunately we had a bit of waste so should have went with Sian’s recommendation. The team on the day facilitating everything was amazing, they were attentive and responded to everyone’s needs. The in-house DJ Brian was fantastic and the dance floor was never empty. We had exclusive use of the venue, which I would 100% recommend as there was no concern having unknown people in the bar or the rooms. The booking team allowed me to direct exactly where each of my guests were staying in the venue and Rowena in reception helped with all my changes professionally. The manager Ricardo made himself available with any concerns and promptly addressed a few things that cropped up during the booking stages. You will not be disappointed holding a wedding here, the cost for hire, food and bar prices, we found really reasonable, especially in comparison to other venues. Remember it’s only a 3 star hotel so expect that with the rooms, but all were well equipped to fulfil our needs, and all the rooms in the oldest part of the hotel were stunning for pre wedding getting ready photos. The small garden area was great for getting those intimate wedding shots, if you really wanted you could also walk/ drive a few minutes up the road and have pictures in lower castle park or within the castle grounds. We stayed the night pre our wedding and had all rooms the night of t

5/5 review

JemmaOctober 2024

5.0

We booked our wedding with over a year to plan. We had amazing communication from the beginning. No question regardless of how many times I may have asked previously was too much. I had absolutely no idea what to expect on the day in terms of how everything would move on in terms of the timeline. It was seamless. The food was amazing and we had no end of compliments on the sit down meal and the buffet. Everyone had plenty. The ease of family and friends coming from further afield being able to stay was lovely for us and them. We got to chat over breakfast the next morning. The staff were just incredible, even being able to let us into the suite we had for the wedding night early so we could get ready (we were lucky with no wedding the day before). The garden went down a storm and was perfect for the kids to run around and for us and our guests to enjoy the last day of summer in the beautiful weather we got

4.4/5 review

DonnahOctober 2024

4.4

Fantastic day, everything was organised and set up for us, food was lovely, nothing

5/5 review

LinzSeptember 2024

5.0

Sian and her team went over and above to accommodate all our wishes, and helped make it the most perfect day ev

4.8/5 review

DamienAugust 2024

4.8

From the very first meeting that we had at the Rose and Crown we were amazed by the beautiful old building and felt welcomed by all of the staff. The package on offer is unbeatable in terms of value for money and ease of experience. We had many guests stay the night before and the night of the wedding at discounted rates provided by the hotel. Everyone had a great stay and staff were very flexible with people swapping rooms on the day. The venue is great in that it is so compact. We were married in the beautiful ceremonies room which was decorated by recommended supplier KMS Hire. We then moved through into the reception room where we were provided with a delicious 3 course meal. Because it was such a lovely day we also got to use the garden area for drinks and photos before return for an amazing Disco with DJ (included in the package!) Also in the package was a buffet which came out during the disco and was equally delicious and there were absolute mountains of food. All guests left with a midnight snack! The Rose and Crown is a truly beautiful

5/5 review

JoannaAugust 2024

5.0

We had the perfect day. The staff are amazing, the venue is beautiful and the food is exceptional. Would definitely recommend.

Frequently asked questions

Enquire with The Rose and Crown Hotel

Send your date and details. There is no fee and no obligation.

Similar venues nearby

The Reid Rooms, wedding venue in Essex, UK
Venue
Wedding Venue

Essex, UK

The Reid Rooms is a picturesque wedding venue located in the Essex countryside near Great Dunmow, England...

Capacity
2 to 200 guests
Per person
On request
The Lawn, wedding venue in Essex, UK
Venue
Wedding Venue

The Lawn

5.0(449)

Essex, UK

The Lawn is a stately home in Rochford, Essex, that hosts wedding festivities. Set on three acres of beautifully manicured gardens in the heart of the Essex countryside, this is a...

Capacity
15 to 150 guests
Per person
On request
East Mersea Hall, wedding venue in Essex, UK
Venue
Wedding Venue

Essex, UK

East Mersea Hall is a charming rustic wedding venue in East Mersea, Colchester, Essex, offering a versatile setting ideal for intimate celebrations, festival-style weddings, and ev...

Capacity
10 to 150 guests
Per person
Menus from £75
Blake Hall Weddings, wedding venue in Essex, UK
Venue
Wedding Venue

Essex, UK

Blake Hall isn't just a venue to us, it’s our home, and we love nothing more than sharing its history with couples starting their own chapters...

Capacity
50 to 150 guests
Per person
On request