Choosing a Venue - how long did you take?

Whereabouts in Cheshire/Staffordshire have you been looking? I've a whole list of venues, who i've been working through and I've managed to narrow it down to two, just arranging to go view them now.

Hi Claire!

I've looked all over really and kind of edged into places which might not be in either of those two counties (geography not my strong point) but are close-ish.

The places on my 'long-list' are:

Combermere Abbey

Shrigley Hall Hotel

Chester Pulford Grosvenor

Wrenbury Hall

Peckforton Castle

Hollin Hall

I wanted country house hotel more than hotel, but that was because I wanted gardens for photos. Then I saw that some hotels have beautiful gardens too, so I started to include hotels as well. I'm mostly just confused! Perhaps I need to visit a few to get a feel for what it is I'm actually looking for so I'll know better how to refine my search?

I think visiting them would be a good idea!

I got a brochure for Hollin Hall but it's a little bit out of my budget. My parents went to a wedding anniversary there though and said it was very nice.

How about Mottram Hall or Tatton Park??

It's in Derbyshire but there's always Chatsworth??

Peckforton Castle is supposed to be nice.

Thanks for those, I'll take a look at them and order brochures this evening!

Peckforton Castle is lovely but they were one of the ones with a fairly large minimum room booking requirement - this was on top of an already expensive package fee, putting it right at the top of the list in terms of cost. I don't think I can justify the price despite the beautiful location, nor can I ask my guests to fork out for their room prices - I wanted to give them a range of options wherever I pick.

I'm sure there will be somewhere out there - thank you again for your help

No worries!

Yeah i don't think it's fair to make your guests book rooms on top of their wedding package -i'll be giving a range of options including the local travelodge!!

Sounds like you're looking in the same sort of area as me, although I'm hoping a bit closer to Shropshire.

Peckfoton is lovely, but as you said; Very expensive and you just can't expect your guests to stay in such an expensive place aswell as forking out to come to your wedding, new outift, gift, transport etc.

Combermere Abbey is SOOOOO overpriced and the staff are very unhelpful too! They told me £5250 JUST for the room hire!!

I'm at my wits end, I've been searching for 2 months. My ceremony venue was found and booked in about a month but reception seems to be much harder. Alot wont even entertain the thought of a reception only party (I liked Rowton Castle but nope!) on a saturday..

I'm even now looking into Chester Zoo lol.. The Oakfield manor looks very pretty.

You are right about Combermere being expensive, we were quoted £6000 just to hire the room. It was one of the first places we saw and almost broke my heart because I thought that's what everywhere would be charging!! We found the staff fairly friendly, but it felt a little too much like a hard sell for my liking.

I hadn't seen Rowton Castle before and might now end up eternally grateful for you bringing it to my attention because on first glance it seems perfect! I've ordered a brochure and can't wait to phone up for a visit - this is the first one that has given me a funny feeling in my tummy just by looking at the website I'm very excited!

Chester Zoo! I love Chester Zoo - makes me all nostalgic about school trips - do you reckon you could have wedding pics with the Tigers, or the penguins (since as they're dressed for it already *bad joke face*?

I hope you find a lovely venue for your reception soon!

I knew when I had found the venue and it didn't take me long. I happened to go to a wedding fayre that my friend was exhibiting at the day after I got engaged and fell in love with the venue there and then. We didn't even look anywhere else, just booked an appointment to take our parents and that was it! Good luck x

Rowton Castle is lovely, I have a brochure here and we had a tour round about 6 weeks ago, but as we are already getting married in a different castle, we can't have the reception there on a saturday as on Fri, Sat and Sun you have to have their exclusive use package. They get booked up SO quickly too, the guy (Bryan) showed us their calendar for next year and pretty much all of their weekends and fridays were already booked, same for 2012. It's significantly cheaper for Mon-thurs there but it wouldn't feel right gettin married in the middle of the week for me and think it could be difficult for family and friends with work etc.

The bridal suite and the suite down from that is looooovely, The bath in the bridal suite looked fun! There are monkeys dotted around the castle, painted on the walls etc. Oooh one bit I loved was their card box (Sad eh!) They have their own card box you can use, big metal one which is locked and they keep it safe for you. The only thing is the reception room(s) are split between big double doors which is a bit odd but still nice and the bar is concealed behind a wall which when the 'shutters' are down blends in with the rest of the room, which I though was good so it wasn't on show during the wedding breakfast. The garden is pretty and there's a nice turret down the bottom of the garden which would be cool for photos. We took my 4 year old niece along as she's being my princess on the day (Flowergirl to everyone else but she's determined she's a princess with Auntie Nat!) and we were sat in the lounge having a complimentary coffee (The staff are really lovely) and she asked where the castle was lol.. We were like "Errr we're inside it!" - That's the only bad point, the fact it's been a Hotel and before that a private house after it was a castle so there aren't like bare castle brick walls or anything like that. But it is sooo nice and posh!

I love Chester Zoo too, my H2B jokes that we have a zoo here lol, but we only have 14 pets! Be cool if you could have pics with the animals, bet they wouldn't allow it though In the brochure they have pics of all their animals dotted around, I'd be disappointed if I didn't get a pic riding an elephant lol. Omg I want a penguin pageboy!

We probably looked properly for abot 2 weeks - that is including both of us working so just trawled the internet every evening looking at places and what they offered. Then at the weekend we would get in the car and literally drive all over the place just looking at the venues not talking to anyobe getting the feel for the places - we managed to cut quite a few this way. Then my OH took me to see a venue he suddenly thought of one day, when we got out the car and walked into the garden i started to cry it was so perfect. My parents came down to see it and loved it as well. We were just about to start putting money down when our budget was halved... goodbye venue. After 2 weeks of me refusing to talk weedings my PH got me in teh car and we just atrted driving round dartmoor, at all times we were wondering if that gorgeous farm house could be rented out? That tiny hotel had enough rooms for everyone? If we were married in the registry office win town ould our guests then mind driving an hour to get to a reception venue in the middle of no where? etc ect It was then we found our second venue - which if i am honest is more perfect for us than the first. All together it prob took a couple of weeks we never would have found it if we werent just driving round. Good luck

I am in the same area as you and I looked for ages, I just wasnt happy with most places.

I loved Shrigley Hall and also Hollin Hall, but gardens here arent as nice. But I didnt ook them as the didnt feel right. Also looked at Mottram Hall, and the most impressive was a place called Davenport Hall in Hale Barns, they gave me a ridiculous price at first but I managed to get it into my budget in the end they were so flexible

There website isnt very good but once you visit its lovely

I have booked Statham Lodge in Lymm, they have minimum numbers on a saturday though

Good luck with ur search, will be interested to see where you book

x

I have just come across something which looks perfect for me!

The Chester Guildhall. It allows self catering (Which I really wanted so I could save money on food and spend more on little details!) and it looks so nice inside and out!

Pics:

(Ignore crappy table layout)

Very reasonable price too!!

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions! It's given me a few places to add to my list

BrideBrat - I've been to a wedding at the Chester Guildhall, years ago but I do remember it was lovely - its got loads of character but at the same time has so much scope for whatever theme you would like to decorate it with!

Unfortunately Rowton Castle isn't looking possible for us - unbelievably, my friend is getting married there next April and from talking to her, I don't think she'd be entirely happy if we end up getting married there too It's a shame, as we have no mutual friends and the weddings are 15 months apart, but I will respect her wishes. If we absolutely can't find anywhere else we like as much, I may have another chat with her but I'm sure there must be more out there.

We had another one lined up to visit, but they have subsequently informed us of their minimum numbers - 70 for the day and 120 for the evening and completely non-negotiable! We only have 60 people coming total, and that's only if everyone accepts!

I find it a bit greedy for a venue to charge a hefty hire fee and then still insist on minimum numbers If this carries on we may have to re-think getting married on a Saturday. Other than that, we may just ignore the literature they send out and negotiate over it when we get there. I feel a bit crappy though - I mean does everyone except me have massive weddings with 100+ people and only the popular people deserve to have the saturday wedding slots? Dammit I don't mean to whine, but I thought 60 was plenty!

HI,

I'm probably not going to be much help here but in the end we looked at 3 venues. The first didnt have was on the 3rd floor and didnt have disabled access (we have a few elderly guests who would not managed the stairs). The second didnt have many areas for photos. The third - we fell in love with and ticked majority of the boxes.

All i would advise, search the internet and find the venues that tick the majority of boxes and visit the ones that do. You may have to comprimise on a few minor things to get the venue you want

We spent 3 weeks looking at venues but had to rule some out for being just that bit too far away, no disabled access (sister is in a wheelchair) or minimum numbers (even for Feb). We probably saw about 10 places and I had a good feeling about the last one we were bookd to see and when we came out my OH said he was sold, as was I! It's like buying a house, you just get that feeling! Good luck with the search!

Its can take ages or you can be lucky and find something right quickly. I'd work out your must haves before going to see anywhere.... good photo opps, gardens, lights and bright, good catering and not too big as we weren't having many guests were ours

As i have seen hundreds of venues I knew what I wanted and i was lucky we were fairly flexible with location. I loved it, but didnt think about the fact it had no rooms for guests and the local hotels werent fab or were expensive!

J xx

Oooh yay I'm glad someone has been and liked it, we are off to Chester Friday morning to meet with the guy to show us round, if we like it, we're booking it there and then! Do you remember if there was much parking as it looks like it's on quite a main road. We'll have to find a suitable hotel nearby too for us and any guests who want to stay over.

Oh no, is your friend really not keen on you having Rowton Castle too? Seems a bit mean really as you have no mutual friends and it's so far apart! Infact it doesn't seem a bit mean.. That's really stupid! What does it matter to her? Is she worried you'll upstage her with your wedding or something? She of all people should know how it is finding the perfect venue! One thing with Rowton is, with you having a smallish wedding on a Saturday, you still have to pay for exclusive use, which is ALL of the bedrooms (19 rooms sleep 43 guests). You can recoop costs by charging for rooms, so it will then be knocked off your Exc Use charge.

Exc use packages HAVE to be taken out on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so that's upto £6000 depending what month you wanna marry in, then the wedding breakfast is upto £55 per head and Evening Buffet is upto £14.50 per head.

I didn't want exclusive use, but I wanted a Saturday.. Can't be done though and I couldn't justify the cost at all.

60 is small for the ceremony I don't think. Mine was originally only going to be 18 for the ceremony. The turret allows 36 so we have added a few more now. I like that it will be quite small. Our Evening reception will have 120-150 which isn't a huge number.. I've heard people having hundreds but I'm not even inviting half of my family, don't particularly like everyone so stuff em lol.

We've had a bit of a nightmare with it purely because all our friends and family are spread out over the country so finding somewhere that WE liked and that was convenient for everyone to get to was a real schlep. Plus we kept changing our mind about what sort of wedding we wanted and it wasn't until last week that we actually figured out our budget (thanks to a very very generous donation from the in-laws to be!). We started scouting for places just after Christmas and went to look at our first place at the end of July. We've only actually bothered going to view 3 places; the rest we've ruled out after extensive googling, looking at brochures and chatting to coordinators on the phone.

I've decided that venue hunting is the least fun part! Until you find the right place anyway.. then it's like falling in love all over again and is very, very exciting!

Anyway, the minimum numbers thing is something you're probably going to find they'll stick to but they might accept smaller numbers if you supplement it with a room hire charge (which is often usually included in whatever they charge for food/drink packages). OR a lot of places will offer smaller function rooms for more intimate parties. It's always worth asking anyway. Have you considered going for a Friday instead because you might find venues a little more accommodating about numbers then.