I held an evening reception at the Faenol Fawr Bodelwyddan in February 2007 following my wedding in the Caribbean.
I have to say that I was very impressed with the service and attention we received during our stay and I would recommend the Faenol Fawr as the perfect venue for a wedding celebration.
The food was excellent and so was the DJ and I was pleasantly surprised that there was no charge for the bridal suite and full english breakfast.
Jonathon Goddard was so helpful and accommodated our requests that again I would have no reservations in recommending the Faenol Fawr.

I stayed at the faenol fawr for 2 nights , (dinner bed and breakfast), the hotel is a superb building, helpful staff, fantastic food, the mood of the restuarant , was calming, even though it was a busy night. when we went in to the hotel we was greeted by the reception, and shown to my room, the hotel was recommended by a old member of staff there, who we went to school with, so we are so glad i've been. even though we have moved down the road now which dont get time to go for a a meal there, but occasions are coming up which we are arranging parties there at the faenol fawr, for my fathers 60th soon

highly recommended,

I had heard through distant friends that this was THE place to get married in North Wales (where my wife is from) and they weren't wrong. Weddings were their thing and from the first the Goddard brothers Jonathan and Steve, who own and run the Jacobean era hotel, were able to offer lots of advice and give a wide range of choices for my wife and I to choose from. Everything ran smoothly with only the usual nerves on the day and with their new extension they were able to accomodate my extended family who travelled from all over the globe to be there. Of course, being on the edge of Snowdonia they were also able to visit the usual tourist places during their stay.

If I were to make any complaint it would be that that my my post wedding morning swim was shortened due to the low temperature of the pool, but to be fair it was quite early and there was a heavy frost outside.
Apart from this small point everything was first class.

We have just attended a wedding reception here, and hope our experiences will be helpful to anyone considering holding a wedding party here.

The good points:

- The building is very cosy and atmospheric, with several tasteful public rooms and a pleasant, large bar area. It has the right atmosphere for a wedding reception or special event.

- The meat on the carvery (beef and ham) was very good

- There is plenty of parking, and is within easy reach of the A55

The bad points:

- Reception staff were brusque and rude. One of the main wedding party had booked a room for the night, but there was no record it. The man at reception appeared unsympathetic and unapologetic. There was no cloakroom and so we had to leave our coats behind reception. On leaving we could find no staff near reception and so in the end simply retrieved the coats ourselves....not a secure arrangement.

- Some guests we spoke to had booked a room at the hotel, and said it was small, dingy and over-priced. Also the walls were paper-thin and they could hear every word of conversations in the next room.

- We were the last table to be served our meal (in a party of 130 people). This meant a delay of 90 minutes between being seated and being given food.

- With the exception of the meat, the rest of the meal was poor. The vegetables were cold, and the broccoli/cauliflower cheese was almost raw with small amounts of congealed cold sauce clinging to it. The sticky toffee pudding had a thick burnt bottom and was solid, chewy and dry. The coffee was cold.

- Some of the serving staff were unhelpful. Tap water was served in dirty jugs, so I requested a glass of mineral water (I was seated next to the bar, it was not a difficult request!). The first waitress managed to sum up enough words of English to say she couldn't do it (other guests had similar problems with non English-speaking staff). The second waiter looked at me in disbelief and said he was busy, I'd have to wait. Thirty minutes later I asked the head waiter who was able to produce it within seconds and with good grace!

In summary, my advice would be:

If the numbers in your party are approaching anywhere near 100, consider holding your event somewhere else that is more skilled at catering for larger groups. Also be aware that your guests may encounter rudeness/unhelpfulness from some of the staff. Otherwise, for an event on a smaller scale I would consider this a reasonable choice.