Aaarrrgghh Venues, Venues & Venues

Would you consider popping over the Warwickshire border into Northamptonshire? Plenty of choice around here for that budget x

Much sympathy AB Bride!! I feel the same and it looks like we have a similar budget ...we originally thought 5k all in but upped it to 8k and even that is looking unrealistic ! I am so fed up with venues that only seem to offer generic 3 course meals and ee just don't want it! Feeling fed up at looking for venues and they being un flexible. I'm going to take a break I think for a few weeks. I have looked into marquees and halls etc but it's loads work doing everything from scratch and I don't want to be fussing on the day! !

Its worth looking into, especially as my best friend and bridesmaid lives in Northamptonshire. We had a stately home / country setting type wedding in mind, living near Birmingham I definitely don't want a city hotel venue x

We looked at the great barn in Aynho which we really liked and is not too bad on prices

Northamptonshire is def a good option too

hope you find something soon!

Also Hatton Village Hall x

View quoted message

That is exactly where I'm at, I thought 5k was a pretty reasonable budget - how wrong was I! It seems you can do registry office and a local club with your own catering for under a grand, but anything other than that your looking at at least 10k unless your having a small wedding and we just can't cut our numbers down any further and why should we? It's our wedding and we want all our family and friends there to celebrate with us.

Wishing you good luck with your search princessstephy - lets hope that ideal venue is just round the corner!

Our numbers are smaller but we're doing 75 in the day and 125 in the evening for about £1500 - £2000 venue costs.

This is only because the venue's attitude is 'do what you want'. They only do custom menu's, so we're having a hot buffet and in the evening am planning to get outside catering in (we've got a deal to feed 125 with a hot snacky buffet for about £300) which the venue are fine with.

What kind of venue would you like? Ours is a sports centre that just happens to have a gorgeous room which is normally used for yoga classes etc. But they do hire it out for weddings after popular demand. It also has acomodation (it's a residential centre, so nothing special but my friends can stay B & B for £20 each as they'll go 4 - 8 a room which they don't mind!) and is in the most beautiful place (they mainly do watersports so it's right on the beach!)

Your venue sounds lovely snow bride, the beach is a bit too far for us to consider. The hot buffet is just what we want in the day and a finger buffet for the evening, just need to find somewhere that will do it.

We wanted a stately home/mansion type wedding but I think I may have set my sights too high.

I will keep on with the search............

..........I tried a different approach and picked out about 10 venues I liked the look of and e-mailed them to ask what they could do for my budget of £5000.

They all replied with "nothing - not for those numbers" not even an offer of a Monday in January ?

I also looked at registry offices for the wedding to give me a wider range on the reception venue, but there are no registry offices in the area that can accommodate 120 people for the ceremony and we really can't cut the numbers any further.

So I think I will have to look at self catering venues..... does anyone know of any licensed country houses / hotels that allows self catering in Worcestershire / Warwickshire / West Midlands that can accommodate up to 200 guests.

Any ideas would be much appreciated ?

View quoted message

I've heard Hatton Village Hall is quite good; there's a barn near stratford-u-avon which can *just* about take 120, no corkage, no catering fee, bring what you want, do what you want - was £2750 to hire on a Sat - might be worth a punt?

http://www.alvestonpasturesfarm.co.uk/

View quoted message

Just had a quick look at both Alveston pastures farm looks great but from what I can see does not have a licence for the wedding. The venue needs to take 200 in total we have 120 for the ceremony and wedding breakfast and a further 80 for the evening.

Hatton Village Hall is definitely worth a look - Thanks a lot x

View quoted message

Bum - didn't read that bit! It's worth asking her though; she may have (her site's a bit rubbish) x

View quoted message

Yep we've played here and it's great. The venue is in beautiful surroundings and doesn't look like a typical run down village hall, it's more like a nice wedding venue. They have a stage if you want a band or DJ too. They are really flexible so you can choose anyone for the catering and save a fortune. Its not that expensive either although their website is pretty rubbish! It's definitely worth contacting them.

I just want to reassure you!

Our original budget was also £5k but after looking at venue upon venue we thought we'd have to up our budget to £8k at least as, like you have found, the venue and meal alone is near to £5k. I too have a massive family (my Dad has 13 siblings, add my cousins to that and, well, as you can imagine that alot of people to feed!) We got dragged into the fantasy and romance of a 'dream' wedding (the events managers are very good at painting a picture of the perfect day but don't forget they are salesman underneath all the smiles!). The reality was that we couldn't afford a 'dream' wedding plus we would've had to get a loan and we don't want to start married life in debt.

BUT then we thought outside the box...

We are now having our ceremony in a small hall (that looks just like a small chapel!) and the reception and evening do at a social club. Sure, the social club isn't pretty and will require some imagination and hard work to get it looking good inside but it can be done PLUS our entire budget now is looking like £3,500. Also the chef is amazing and we can choose whatever we like for the meal and pud and the evening buffet is going to be just as we want it. Oh yes, and the bar is cheap ??

You have to think about what is important to you and your H2B. We soon realised all that matters to us is that we get wed and we have all our friends and family with us to celebrate. And with the cheap bar I'm sure there will be plenty of celebrating?

PS Forgot to mention we can now afford a honeymoon too ?

Have you tried Warwick House? It's a beautiful venue and sent me a lot of reasonable offers when I was venue hunting x

Your absolutely right Penny. All I want is to be married and celebrate the day with all our family and friends without having to go into massive debt for the "dream". I'm definitely leaning more towards a DIY wedding at least it will be more personal to us. Thanks for the encouragement - I needed it

Hi, Hatton village hall is a nice venue, I've catered there a few times but i'm not sure you would get 200 guests in, i may be wrong.

Have you considered a marquee, you obviously need a field or a garden large enough to house a marquee but its cost effective, you choose the date , choose your suppliers and party until what ever time you want. Hope that helps and hope you have a great day, Dave