Cooling Castle Barn, lots of information needed to go on the invites, can anyone help?

It doesnt need to be on the actual invitation. Send an info page or booklet (we had a booklet)

Hi Joanne

I am also getting married there next year!!

They sent us out an info pack a while ago, and had loads of info about nearby hotels, etc, did you not get one?

EDITED - sorry, didn't read your post correctly. I agree with Zoe, I am also going to include a seperate info sheet with my invitations.

My friend had her reception at Cooling and said it was brilliant.

I would suggest a website, we've got one for ours and it's fantastic. Although you can do a 'hitched' one, I found the wedding path ones easier to use and easier to personalise. We've got all our info on there and I had a rubber stamp made (vista print) with the website on which I stamped on the inside of the invite.

We also did STD with the website on...if you give people lots ot pointers, they'll use the site.

We had lots of info to give guests too (accomodation/coach/directions etc) and used an info sheet in with the invites. Attached some pictures - ignore all the blanking out....

I never thought of all of this before. To be honest, we're doing our own stationery which I just assumed would be Wedding Invite, RSVP, Evening Invite, Save the Date & Thank you Cards. Seems to be an awful lot more.

Any ideas what the general stationery for wedding should consist of? It's a civil ceremony & the reception is the same place so there's no need for several addresses.

Also, is there a way to search these forums? Someone must have asked these before but I can't seem to search!

Hello

You can combine the RSVP and information cards in a pocket or portfolio style invitation if you wish. The evening invitations can take either the same format or a simpler card without extra inserts. Save the Dates are not always necessary but useful if your wedding date is during a peak holiday time or Bank Holiday when guests are otherwise likely to book up holidays if not pre-warned. You wouldn't need a full Order of Service for a civil ceremony but you could consider having an Order of the Day listing the timings for key points and a short outline of the ceremony itself. Then other items for on the day, are place cards, menus, Table Plan, Table names/numbers, favour tags etc. Again, these are by no means essential but personal choice.

PS. Cooling Castle barn is a lovely venue - one of my brides from last year had her wedding there.

Hiya

Hi

Like Stazzle I am also getting married at Cooling Castle in 3 months, I had no idea about the pre-booked taxi thingy - bugger that!, who are they to say people have to pre-book cabs, or do they mean they won't book them for people on the night? We gave details on a seperate piece of paper the map to the venue, the pub B&B down the road, there is also a decent Ramada Encore in Chatham (5 miles away) that are reasonable (can't book in until 2pm though), we also listed local taxi numbers. As to cash machine, don't worry people will bring their cards and can pay behind the bar that way. C x

Thanks Cat26

Hope your wedding went well! You'll have to fill me in as to how it all went.

Would you mind posting the taxi numbers, hotels, etc that you included in your info card? Collecting the information is proving difficult. Also, did you sort out transport for people going to Cooling Castle?

Hi Joanne

Did you not get sent an info pack when you booked? They sent us one, it had all the local cab, hotel etc numbers on there already. I'll see if I can dig it out for you and will post the info when I get a chance.

Oh and regarding transport - are you having your ceremony there as well as the reception? If you're there for the whole thing I wouldn't bother with arranging transport for guests, think you might only need to think about this if everyone had to get there from a church but even then I think a lot of couples leave guests to get there their own way - just depends on what you want to do. We're there for the whole day for ours so I won't be arranging transport, just sending out taxi info with my invites so people can pre-book if they need one to pick them up.

We did but I've not read through it since we got it (how awful!).

Thanks for the help on the transport front. We're having the whole thing at Cooling so people won't have to move around, it's just that it's about an hour from where all our friends & family are based.

Hi Joanne,

I am also making my own stationary, We have a lot of people coming from abroad (both sides moved away from the uk) and I am going to attempt to make something like this - but obviously in my own style and colours. I need to make about 50 and i figured if I make them small all the cards apart from the main invite should fit on one A4 and then its just the cutting which will be a chore - but you wouldn't necessary need to print three times as much paper or whatever the amount of cards are
.

Well if you get a chance to look through the CCB info pack, it gives you details of everything you pretty much need for your info sheets so you don't really need to do any of the research yourself.

Oh and about the transport - travelling an hour to a wedding really isn't that bad, I think - especially as the whole day is there. People travel a lot further than that for weddings a lot of the time - I know I have. If guests want to be able to drink and don't want to pay for a cab they can always stay at one of the nearby Holiday Inns which are fairly reasonable. Or a number of them could group up and split a minibus or something, there's always ways around it.

For what it's worth most of my family and friends are only about 30 - 40 mins away from it, but some are longer away, and I'm not going to arrange transport for them. But of course it's depending on what you feel you want to provide for your guests.

Hope this helps a bit!

When next year is your wedding there? I'll be sure to put a shout out for you on here if I have any venue-related issues ?

Hiya

ooh thats weird someone bumped an old post of mine, wasn't me ... Never mind. Sure thing see details below alternatively if you want the file to play with I can send it too you via email - its on a a4 slip - my email is *********.******@**********.*** (pop me an email and I will send it the attachment to you). I included local taxi firms, hotels etc in an seperate sheet to go with the invite, I didn't tell people they needed to pre-book though and I know a lot of people didn't and just called the numbers up on the night, the Ramada Jarvis is cheaper when you book online, and even cheaper if you forgo having breakfast - the Horseshoe pub down the road from Cooling has 4 rooms though I believe.

Cooling Castle is ace, got married on 13th June this year - very professional and will really look after you, we had the best day ever. see our photos at: www.alexbeckett.co.uk/blog we are under matt and cat

Where to stay?

A special rate of £75 (double room - inc cooked breakfast) at the Ramada Encore in Chatham is available. Approximately 5 miles from the venue, please quote Arnold/Tolman Wedding.

Ramada Encore – Chatham

Western Avenue

Chatham, KENT.

ME4 4NT

Tel: 0870 8901777

www.ramada.com

In addition the local pub - the Horseshoe & Castle do a few rooms from £65 a night – inc breakfast

(5 mins walk from Cooling Castle).

Tel: **** www.horseshoeandcastle.co.uk

Local Taxi Companies

Star Taxis

****

Ace Taxis

****

Fantastic! Thank you ?

That's all so useful. Did you find that people were quite quick to respond? Cooling Castle sending out the room passwords at 7months (with only 1 month activity) means I'm hoping people will be quite quick...

x

No probs, ahh funny you ask that - ( we made the mistake of putting the codes in the envelopes of the people we thought would want to be on site) most people booked up quickly the on site rooms, but there were about 5 who didn't (I think some think its a bit mad to book up so early before the wedding - which I understand - cos CC take the money straight away we found out). In the end we had to take some codes back and also buy 2 rooms ourselves and then sell them onto people as they became ready to pay. Whens you actual wedding day Joanne?

Thinking the only option will be to put a 'do you need a password' with a tick box... then we'll contact people who do. Most of our guests are our age so don't expect they'll be paying to stay at Cooling! But Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents probably will.

Cheeky that they take the money straight away! But I guess that's the guarantee... do you know off the top of your head what their cancellation policy is?

8th March 2010 ? less than 8 months to go! Apparently the menu becomes available on 21st July which is what Cooling are calling 7 months!!! But their password letter is said to be sent on 8th August... it's all a little confusing.

Did you use their own music for the day? What kind of thing did you go for with the DJ? We love rock / metal so not sure what they're going to be able to provide ?

Hi

Not sure on the cancellation policy, good idea with the tick box on the invites though -- oooh I am envious you have it all to come - our wedding day was great don't get me wrong, but it goes soooo fast - top tip would be try and speak to everyone/couple for at least 10 mins.

7 months before the wedding sounds about right, but they can be flexible with changes - I was changing food/people orders for a few a week before by phone and even swapping new people to replace those who couldn't make it (keeping to the same food choices) the night/morning of the wedding.

We had a great band for the night - called the Roadrunners (SE London based), as we love rock (they did rolling stones, the who, U2 etc) and we used the DJ in between, we chatted with the DJ before hand, saying what type of music we wanted - give him a call (details should be in your pack) he's got loads of music. Cat x