Venues

I Think you need to deciede how important the venue is to you?

fir me example church, reception and photography were the things that i really wanted to spend money on.

I do think 10k is a lot esp when you say drinks arent included - have you come up with a budget for other things?

If you really like that venue could you look for a midweek or out of season if you love it that much?

That is very much what happened to us. We did look at others but they were just not cutting it. We both loved the venue so we compromised on a Wednesday wedding so we could reduce the cost of hiring the venue from £6000 to £1300. Food is on top of that too. Just be careful about inviting people. We thought, 'oh, no one will come on a Wednesday', how wrong we were!

That does seem very pricey, however if you have your heart set on it & really want it as someone else says you'll have to work out your budget and maybe cut down on other things, and again as suggested try a midweek wedding or something like that? Certainly seems a lot especially as drinks aren't included or anything, have a look around at some more and you may find somewhere just as good/nice for a lot less.
With our venue we knew we wanted it and didn't look at any others, always had our set on it and would have paid about any amount unless completely extortionate, quite lucky and got it for around £4k including meals, got prices down by not having as many people there (only 20 daytime) & about an extra 40 night time which really kept costs down. Also prices are cut down if you have an autumn / winter wedding (well that was the case for ours anyway) so might be worth asking about that.
Sure you'll know if the place is worth that money or if you'll think on the day you could have got somewhere better or as nice for cheaper

I think it's a gorgeous venue and would have loved to have got married there, but I wasn't willing to pay that much.

Have a look at some other venues, then you can either decide:

a) I found one I like more

b) still like it but is out of my price range, will go for my second choice

c) totally love it and it's worth the money

Happy venue hunting!

Great. Thanks for your help guys. I'm feeling a little more positive now. We have another venue lined up to look at tomorrow so hopefully will have more of a comparison.

Hi Tink195

We've also been on our first venue visits this week and to be honest I think our initial thoughts on budget were a bit naive! We were hoping to do our whole wedding for about 12K (a la "Don't Tell The Bride") but we've quickly learnt this week that for the type of venue we really love and want, we'd be looking at around that price for the venue alone.

We have decided to go ahead and reserve the second venue we saw as we just fell in love with it, and doing quick sums today it is looking at around 13K - that's exclusive use of venue for the weekend, wedding breakfast, drinks reception, civil ceremony etc. We just decided to go for it, reasoning that the venue really is one of the biggest and most important parts of the wedding. We are happy to 'splash out' on that element and be a bit more savvy elsewhere and make savings, e.g. high street bridesmaid dresses / suits for the men, homemade decorations/invitations etc., family friend doing the cake. It also helps that we have two years to save up, and we have had generous offers from family to help out.

I realise you might not be able to do similar to us depending on your circumstances, but I suppose the point of my post was really to not feel bad for underestimating costs as we did exactly the same. Try and assess what your main priorities are and identify what you'd be happy to 'scrimp' on, and what you feel is worth splashing out on. This definitely helped us to identify where we could justify the costs.

Good luck finding your perfect venue! ?

I would advise you to look around at what else is available in all price ranges before making a decision. Yes it might seem ideal at the moment but if you've only seen the one, you have nothing to compare it to. A few months ago we went to view a place and decided instantly that was the one, so didn't view anymore. Thankfully however we didn't book it because after doing the sums we realised it was too pricey for us, even though it was no where near as expensive as the one you viewed.I was initially gutted but a few months on we started the search again with a new perspective and went to view some extremely cheap venues and have now found somewhere that we feel equally excited about. In fact I am surprised by how pleased we are with the new venue. All in all with catering included it will cost us around £800 yet I genuinely believe I prefer it to the original venue that I had set my heart on and I don't actually feel like I missing out or compromising. So I guess what I'm saying is keep searching but just look at places that are within you're budget and you might be pleasantly surprised

Hey Anne,

I am sure how you irritating and disappointed you would had felt. I have faced the same few months back while arranging a Indian wedding reception for my brother.

Arranging a wedding reception and getting a great deal is really difficult. My friend suggested me about some online portal which helped me in finding a venue which I felt was quite helpful and in budget. Arranging a Fat Indian Wedding is Really Difficult you know :p