simple barn venue prices in SW, am I normal or just naive?

HI,

Sorry i can't add any constructive to your search. We are getting married at Kingscote Barn in Gloucestershire. It is pricey though and i have often wondered why exactly as all decoration and catering is done separately. They essentially just provide the barn and surrounding fields. All i can think of is it covers their insurance, staff, energy bills and general upkeep. That's how i'm trying to justify it to myself anyway.

Barns do tend to be pricey right now as they are very in vogue. I will be impressed if you manage to find a barn for 1k, do you have any friends of friends who own a farm who wouldn't mind you putting up tents etc.

Like others have said, barns/farm weddings are just pricey! You would think they'd be cheap but for whatever reason, they tend to be more expensive than more standard venues. We are from Bristol and have up on our farm/camping/festival wedding as it would've cost a fortune. Folly Farm, just outside Bristol, is beautiful - you can camp and have a marquee, or you can hire their indoor barn space for smaller weddings. When we enquired, it wasn't as expensive as I thought but we couldn't afford it as our budget is tiny. Might be worth checking out though.

You wont find a barn for that price unless you are marrying a farmer (like I did!).

Seriously I would start looking at village halls. There are some amazing ones out there with good outside spaces.

Thanks for the responses, I guess we do just need to up our budget or find something else. The trouble is there isn't really an alternative for us, and we have no more money (family financial assistance will not be much). My fiancé absolutely positively won't do a formal wedding breakfast then buffet evening thing etc etc, we just want to have a relaxed party, so barns and halls are our only option really, as most hotels don't have the flexibility we need.

HundredMonkeys thanks for the Folly Farm suggestion but we have pretty much ruled that out too as it's too much for us. Have you found any alternative venues? I am looking at possibly hiring out a YHA bunk barn or similar that may have outside space and then hiring out a marquee, although I really don't want a marquee if I can help it. Good luck in your search.

Sorry to continue to rain on your parade, but we originally had dreams of a barn wedding...soon went out of the window when we costed up the first venue we visited and it came to just shy of £10k, just for the ceremony & reception!! (our TOTAL budget for everything is around £6k)

I get where you're coming from; I always assumed that barns were the cheaper alternative to a stately home or posh hotel. Sadly, everything 'rustic' and 'vintage' has become extremely en vogue and people with cash to splash have driven up the prices for the rest of us! The irony.

Hope you find something. Marianne's idea of asking around / local farms, etc. is a good one.

Hmm well does anyone have any suggestions for a relaxed venue, apart from barns and village halls? We've looked into a couple of village halls, but some look at lot nicer than others! We wanted an afternoon wedding to combine wedding breakfast and evening reception into one event really, so anything with a formal package won't really work for us.

We have a cheap as chips barn venue in Northamptonshire (which isn't the most expensive area in the world) and even that is costing £1850 just for the venue hire. For midweek it only drops to £1495.

I would defo check out Westbury on trym village hall - it does have outside space and is very pretty inside. Also the Southville Centre, they have outside space and in-house catering. You'd be able to have the more informal day you'd like at both these places and they're both on the cheap side.

Thanks HundredMonkeys, will be looking at both most likely! Westbury hall is pretty booked up though :o(

Also check out Paintworks - it's a blank canvas and is quite modern, it's around the 1000k to hire but has a lovely outside space and you can do what you like to the inside.

Pubs, galleries/museums, cafes/restaurants, community centres, campsites, working mens clubs. There are loads of alternatives to hotels.

Barns unfortunately tend to be quite expensive, we are getting married in a barn in Devon and it is £3500 just to hire the barn for 3 days! And that is one of the cheapest barns around

Maybe look at cricket pavillions/village halls, both have a vintagey feel without the barn price tag!

As the others have said, barns seem to be really pricey at the moment as they're very much the in thing at the moment. It's crazy because I had absolutely no idea just how expensive they was until a little while ago, especially as you decorate yourself (but then, they may be charging more because they see this as some sort of luxury and that people can decorate how they want, and a lot of people want to do that these days) whereas obviously if you go for a hotel, registry office etc it might not always be exactly to your taste.

I know a lot of barns take down a small deposit and the rest is due just before the wedding, it depends on what sort of date you're going for and whether you could perhaps go slightly over budget for it - although the cheapest I've seen for barns is around £2500.

How big is your wedding? I second the above, btw. When I was looking for 'alternative' venues, alot of pubs and restaurants will do weddings and larger parties these days. Good luck xx

Hello,

I bought a Bristol wedding magazine a few months ago and there was a feature inside on barns in our region here they are in case you've missed any.

The Barns at Wick Farm, Yarlington Barn, Nailsea Tithe Barn, Clavelshay Barn Restaurant, The Great Tithe Barn at Haselbury Mill and The Tythe Barn at Priston Mill.

Hope that helps a little.

x

Might be too far outside Bristol for you but mells barn near frome is £600 for three days for non residents (cheaper if you live in the area).

i went to a wedding there and it's beautiful. I think there was around 80 seated which was a few too many to be honest and was a bit cramped. Oh and it has a fully working kitchen if I remember. Hope this helps!

http://mellsbarn.org/index.html

I seem to have failed on posting the link - just google "mells barn"

Barn prices have now gone through their own roof, because everyone in this climate thinks they are a cheep option- indeed they were until the owners realised that they were not charging enough, they are charging more now because they have a que of people wanting every date. Very soon the same will happen to village halls, it will be something like "ok if you do not live here then its 2K" Hog roast prices have also gone up because everyone wants one

LoveBug1950 thanks for the barn list, I think I’ve already looked into a few of those but I’ll definitely be looking into the others!

Darth Lucy and Red Kite thanks for the suggestions, they both sound great and cheap!

Hi there,

Unfortunately I think it's going to prove incredibly difficult to find a barn for that cost.

I'm having my after and evening reception in a barn, the ceremony is on sight but in a lovely Elizabethan Hall. All for the total of £1200 excluding catering and such.

This however is in West Yorkshire where prices are in my experience significantly less.

Best of luck in your search for a suitable venue, I hope you find one for your budget and which will make for an amazing wedding day ?

How many guests are you having?

If I was in your shoes I'd start by getting a map of the whole area you'd consider getting married it, then make a list of villages in that area. If they have websites, go on them and see what venues may be available. As some others have said, widen your horizons to church halls, golf clubs etc. which may be suitable if your numbers are small enough. You could visit the villages and see what's there, you may find somewhere. If you just get a marquee in a farmer's field you have a list of other headaches, like sourching electricity, kitchens and toilets. Which would work out expensive.

The village hall I'm having my reception in is costing me £60 a day, I'm hoping to have it Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This is cost without a bar, if you need the licence it's £80.

Hello,

I dont know whether its your thing, but have a look at Egypt Mill in Nailsworth. My cousin got married there and she was on a tight budget for venue so it might be worth a try. Its not a barn but its really lovely and quaint .

Hey I am in Bristol too I am getting Married at Circomedia ( Portland Square) really loveley and £2.5K but have you looked at Community centers in Bristol?

I dont know the prices or any thing, but Due to RPZ i have been to quite a few lately which have big spaces and could be cheaper - no guarentees

St werburghs comunity centre

Malcom X center -

Salvation Army center

Just to name a few but may be cheaper ....

I think Stroud Slad Farm have a barn and camping. it's not fancy by any means but if rustic is what you're after it fits the bill and is in a lovely spot. Not far from where Laurie Lee who wrote Cider with Rosie lived.

Can't get married there but the register office is quite pretty not far away.

I thin barn weddings in gloucestershire have just got pricey we got married at Kingscote a couple of years ago and it wasn't cheap then so can only imagine it has increased since then.

Have you tried Cripps Barn?

also depending on how far you are prepaired to travel we looked at this venue

[View:http://www.cleevetithebarn.org.uk/Open_news.htm:550:0]

and have been to a evening reception there it is a lovely space inside, however no camping as it is in the village

if you want to hire for a whole weekend fri evening til sunday am the current charges page says £650 but that is literally just for the space so you would have to sort everything else.

/weddings.html

Have you tried asking for quotes and not telling them it was for a wedding? You might find they offer it cheaper - once they've done that they won't be able to up their price.

When getting quotes for a bus I accidentally said wedding on one of my e-mails and they quoted me £450. With the other e-mails I avoided saying wedding and the max I was quoted was £250.

I dont know how much it would cost to hire a youth hostel, but might be worth looking into:

https://groups.yha.org.uk/groups/special-occasions/

People would have somwehre to stay then at least.

Village halls are your best bet for under a grand.

Many things affect barn prices. They usually cost a lot to restore, maintain and have licenses to pay for on the couples behalf.

But mainly it's because they can make an awful lot more in the catering costs so a wedding in June that they could confidently book three times over with catering will mean dry hire gets priced higher to cover the lost profit.

Lastly it's also a duty of care to the staff. Many are salaried so dry hire only will mean a loss to the barn hirers as the staff still need to be paid on a regular basis.

in short if any business needs to make 90k a year to break even and only has 30 chances to do this per year the profit has to be evenly spread across the hire price. Dry hire or otherwise x

I had the same 'WTF?' moment when I started looking at venues up here (North West). Have a gander outside the usual 'wedding venue' market. Look at Universities, colleges, village halls - anyone who doesn't depend solely on income from weddings. You'll find they're MILES cheaper. I had a look up here at Hope University (some gorgeous listed buildings) and they only want between £700-1500 because they have multiple income paths.