Evening Ceremony & Wedding - South East

You may struggle to find somewhere prepared to do something like that on a 'peak day' (eg Saturday) depending on if you're going for a popular time of year, as they could fill that spot with an all day wedding and evening reception and make more money. You may be best off looking for 'non-traditional' wedding venues, or maybe somewhere like a golf club, village hall, function room of a pub or similar - although they may not be registered for civil ceremonies, and you may need to look at a registry office for the actually marriage part.

Hope you find something - it sound's like a lovely idea!

Hi Liv, that sounds great fun!!

Our venue is Baddow Park in Essex - less well known than others but we loved it because they are so flexible for reception options. It's a lovely old stately home owned by a great lady called Annie; you pay the hire cost for the venue which gives you access to a few rooms of the house (such as a bridal dressing room, piano lounge for older guests to relax) and then you hire whatever size marquee you want for your reception to be set up on the lawn however you want. They only do one wedding a weekend so the marquee goes up on the Thursday, you can go there to set up on the Friday before the wedding on the Saturday. With food/bar/supplying your own alcohol they are really flexible and helpful and you wouldn't have to have a sit down meal or anything. There's a planning lady called Michelle who can help you organise all of these things. Obviously I haven't actually got married there yet, but we loved the place when looking at is as they are so happy for our day to be exactly as we want it, rather than the usual package approach. Hope you manage to find somewhere! Xx

Hi I would say try a Friday night if your only having an evening do but before u book. Have you worked out timings ? How long will service be and time for photographs etc ? It depends on what you both want just wonder if you get married at 6-7 ish will you have enough time to do want you want, my cousin got married around 4 pm and had time for service and photos etc. also are u getting married and having reception at same place ?

Id try somewhere like the ivory rooms I think they might be able to accommodate something like youre planning

Good luck, sounds like fun!

It depends on how far into Essex you want to go but have a look at Hylands house. I used to work there and they have a grand pavilion that holds your capacity and you can get married either in the pavilion or main house depending on numbers. They can be quite flexible with what you'd want and they're used to accommodating for different purposes/events. I can't entirely speak for them but give them a try if you like the look of them after done research :-) that's the key, just keep looking for what you want, try not to settle for only half of something cos you may want to make a costly change of mind! X

Can I suggest your first port of call is the registrar? They will tell you what the latest possible time you can get married is. You can then plan the rest around that. Some won't do a ceremony after 3.00pm

What you might be better off doing is getting married at the last appointment in the registry office which is likely to be around 4pm. That assumes you'll have a smaller cast list for the ceremony. I don't know of any registry office that could take over 200 people lol. You can then go to your party venue and have your big party which you'll likely find easier to get . They'll be reluctant to do a full ceremony etc so late as there just won't be time for then to fit everything in, plus the big venues will look for the whole wedding affair, ie cermony, wedding breakfast and then the big party and buffet etc to maximise their profit and Saturday is still the most popular day for a wedding, although increasingly people get married on all different days.

If you do want all your guests to be at the ceremony then you might have to just accept you'll need an earlier time. That doesn't mean you have to have all the formal mashings though. You could still do a more relaxed affair with a BBQ and Hog roast type of meal, it's just finding the right licensed venue. At the end of the day, you have to decide what is the absolute that you don't want to compromise on, and where you will/can, while understanding you are still restricted by what the registrar and venue will/won't do.

http://www.essex.gov.uk/Births%20Ceremonies%20Deaths/Marriages-Ceremonies/Pags/Ceremonies-in-Essex.aspx

Thank you so much for all your help ladies!

I have just been to see Marks Hall and have booked for next September. It is dry hire and really flexible!

Thanks for all your advice!!

Xxxxx