Hertfordshire Venue Tips and Prices

Hi Clare, Congrats and Welcome to Hitched.

I'm not getting married in Herts, but we did consider the Spirella ballroom: http://www.spirella.com/ballroom_hire

It's just over £1200 to hire or £1500 if you have the ceremony there as well - might be worth looking at.

The Letchworth Hall package seems incredibly cheap though - I've seen plenty of places that are over £5K just to hire!

I am Herts based and have photographed weddings at all of the venues you listed.

You will gain from having Hertfordshire registrars who are incredibly laid back and were the first county to allow photography of ceremonies in all venues.

It may be worth checking out the Marriott Hotel group. They have been offering some very good packages lately. You may wish to check out Bush Hall in Welwyn Garden City and the Node Conference Centre.

Peter

we are getting married at three lakes this year and the package we are having includes the DJ, sit down meal, drinks for the people at the ceremony, and buffet for them. we have decided to stay in the marriott hotel hanbury manor which is only a couple of miles away.i am obviously biased towards this venue?! and maxine the wedding coordinator is lovely!

ware prioy is more expensive than three lakes, we looked around there and although it is lovely i dont know if it would be a bit small for 80 people, the rooms arent that big.

Can't comment on letchworth as I havent been there but sounds like a great deal, just make sure you are happy with the venue as well as the price.

I'm getting married at Fanhams! Lots of good suggestions above though. x

I didn't know that about our registrars, that is great that they all allow that.

I think based on advice I'll probably book to go and view The Three Lakes and the Hitchin Priory this weekend if I can, then, I'll look into all the others as well when I get round to it! One of my colloeagues said he went to an outdoor wedding at the Three Lakes last year and it was lovely.

Three Lakes is a relatively new venue, although they are ticking all the right boxes for those that have had weddings there. We have also had forum members on here comment positively on the place. As mentioned earlier, Maxine the organiser there, is very good at what she does.

One thing to consider is what you feel about having an open, private or shared venue. Some brides prefer exclusivity with no other weddings or members of the general public around. Ware Priory is an open ground and will have randoms around your wedding(although its still a nice venue)

Peter

Going to go and look at Three Lakes in the morning. Thanks for the info about Ware Priory, I don't think I'd fancy having lots of randoms around.

Priced up Sopwell House isn't looking too bad at around our £6.5k mark for the lower package. Will probably look to go and visit their wedding fayre next Sunday. Has anyone used them the pictures I've seen look lovely?

I photographed several weddings there when they first started being a venue and many times since. It is a nice venue although you are not guaranteed exclusivity. Indeed there may be several weddings on the go and you will be allocated a time slot for using the bridge area for photographs.

The bridge area has improved dramatically in recent years. When the venue first opened the lake had a serious leak and the water level was around 4 feet too low....making the shots less attractive. It took over 5 years to fix this problem.

Peter

Hello! I am too a hertfordshire bride (on the border with essex).

Have been to sopwell many times (just down the road from me) for work functions and also had a spa day there (highly recommended!). Not had a wedding there but the service and food that we had at the other do's were lovely.

I'm having my reception at Theobalds Park, M25 Junction 25 so not far from you at all. They have 2 locations which are very different - the old mansion house and the ridings barn. I chose the ridings barn as everything was in one place and the bedrooms surround the courtyard. The mansion house was a little spread out for my liking (although beautiful!) and I could just see all the men in one room with the bar and all the ladies in the other with the disco!

My friend had her wedding at Ponsbourne and loved it although I myself wasn't that keen.

Have you thought about going over the boarder into Essex? They have lots of venues in your price range. I used to live in Herts and they do have some great venues but very pricey

Happy Planning

Kim x

To be honest the further towards Essex way we go the further we make it for my relatives and friends from home who'll be coming down from Leicester so ideally trying to stay reasonably close to the M1 side for their benefit. I went to university in Colchester and it took 2.5 hours to drive on a good day as you have to go a very long way round, whereas in Potters Bar I'm further from Leic but its 1.5 hours.

Went to see the Three Lakes today it did look lovely in the snow must be very nice in the Summer. Liked the barn as well, only thing is due to my large family travelling so far (and some of James's friends will travel from further in London) we may have to arrange 30+ hotel rooms and it would make things considerably easier to be having the whole thing at a hotel venue. I know that The Three Lakes have a couple nearby might look into it.

There seem to be different positives and hegatives to everywhere so far its a struggly to balance them all! So confused! Still planning to go to Sopwell's open day next Sun and arrange to have a look at Hitchin Priory next weekend ideally as well as I couldn't arrange anything this weekend.

Whilst up that way, why not check out the Old Priory at Little Wymondley (excellent venue IMO) and the Blakemore Thistle Hotel in the same village. Knebworth Barns may also be worth taking a look at as you get access to some great grounds there. There is also Tewinbury Farm in Welwyn (although here you won't have exclusive use of the whole venue)

The Blakemore Thistle is now a Travelodge & I don't think Travelodge do weddings ! ?

Knebworth & Tewinbury are going to way over 6.5k for 80+ guests.

Looked at the Little Wymondley Priory pics look stunning in the brochure but that was coming up at 12-13k which would be out of our bracket.

I was only there less than 2 years ago!!!! Wasn't aware of the change since then....(mind you, cheap rooms for the guests!!?)...specifically if they opt for the nearby Old Priory....

Hi Clare,

I don't know how much they charge but Brocket Hall is amazing and well worth a look.

I suspect they will be v. expensive though...

Pete x

Hi Pete!

Brocket Hall starts from £35,000 so may be over budget!!

I negotiated with Tewinbury Farm for a bride last year and she had the whole wedding there for £5,000 so it's worth a look.

That's great! What sorts of numbers did she have?

Are there any other places in particular that are more open to negotiation on these things than others?

And the golf members get miffy if you stray to close to the fairway by the lake....

They had 70 for the day and an extra 30 in the evening.

Most venues are open to a bit of negotiation, especially hotels if you have a number of people who will be booking rooms. Letchworth Hall is lovely and that's a good price for their package.

There are loads of fab venues in our part of Herts - I'm in Abbots Langley so just down the road from you in Potters Bar.

Shendish Manor is nicer than Sopwell House as there will never be more than 2 weddings/functions, whereas Sopwell could have about 6 functions on the same day! I did a wedding at Sopwell last year and the guests for another wedding were walking through my couple's bar area which is ridiculous.

Hemel Hempstead has a number of venues at reasonable prices. Give me a shout if you need a hand finding somewhere.

Oh no what a nightmare!! Don't fancy that.

Does anyone know much about St Michaels Manor? Pics look quite nice and not too expensive.

Going to see Hitchin Priory this weekend as well, although the woman I was emailing was not particularly helpful, it took 5 emails going back and forth of her telling me that deals aren't on in 2011 for her to decide to actually offer to send me the 2011 price list even though I gave full details in my initial enquiry. Venues should realise how offputting they can be if the person you are trying to deal with is super snooty!!

St Michael's Manor has a rule that your evening reception finishes by 10pm which is a bit of a pain! It actually works out pretty expensive usually so they have either reduced their prices or there are hidden charges they aren't telling you about yet!

That's a ridiculous rule! ?I just did it based on their **** rates that are on their site not including the evening buffet costs. I know it would probably go up for next year, though. Will look into it a bit more.

I haven't been there for ages but from memory it's because they're in a residential area. Lovely venue, shame about the early finish!

Indeed St Michaels Mount is a lovely venue with an early finish.......done a wedding there a couple of times. Plenty of photographic variety (I use this venue in the images I show when I meet up with couples to demonstrate how easily it is to change the dynamic and speed of change of the location of each photograph.) .....I believe strongly that a wedding coverage should be interesting with each page turn having a different dynamic, and having most images with the same background definately does not work for me.

Peter

Indeed, there is a connecting corridor that runs along all the suites up to the reeption and people do get mixed up....(btw, the "new" reception really screwed up a great courtyard and archway when they relocated) Best photographic location at the venue was lost when they did this.....

The original design when the place opened was more forgiving as they only cared for one or at a push 2 weddings at the same time...although as Debbied says, there can be many more there these days.......

Just some ideas:

http://www.garston-manor-weddings.co.uk/

or

/

Happy Planning

Kim x

Ha you were right about St Michaels hidden prices. I emailed them and got back this advice:

I'm sure you know from our website that to go into the evening, you would need to hire the hotel exclusively - the prices next year will have a slight increase on this.

This just happens to cost a min of £12k! I sent back quite a stroppy reply

Actually the website does not make that clear at all, it only says "You may also wish to consider the option of Exclusive Hotel Hire". It does not clarify that this is mandatory for the evening celebrations.

EXCLUSIVE HOTEL HIRE

The hotel is available to hire from 1 pm to 11am the following day. This includes all 30 bedrooms and private rooms, and a full English breakfast buffet. Saturday from £12,000 Sunday to Friday from £10,000

So is it correct that if I had the ceremony and breakfast at your venue I would have to pay closer to £5k, but if I then wanted the evening do I'd have to pay an extra £12k minimum to hire the whole hotel.

I would not be certain that I want to book all rooms, a lot of my family would need somewhere to stay but I'd rather offer them preferential rates and leave it up to them than hire the whole hotel. Is it also true that you close the reception venue at 10pm?

So that's a bit rrubbish!

I've priced up Bobsleigh its not looking too bad and I've just now emailed Garston. I seem to be going round in circles!

Hi maris1111

Fingers cross xxx

Kimx

The Bobsleigh is nice, lovely gardens and a beautiful room to eat in ?

Mmmm, I thought St Michael's was very pricey so I was surprised by your earlier post.

Garston Manor is a bit of a rip-off - you have to use their caterers or they charge you extra! Not a brilliant venue IMHO. Bobsleigh is okay as is the Watermill http://www.hotelwatermill.co.uk/weddings and Shendish Manor https://www.shendish-manor.com/ and also Hunton Park http://www.huntonpark-huntonbridge.com/