Warwickshire brides - venue advice

I've been to a wedding fair at Ettington park, we did like the venue but found it a bit small for what we wanted and quite dark. it also had quite a few steps so not great if you've got older guests. The grounds are lovely though.

Hi MM

I have shot at most of those venues so will give you my opinion from feedback from my couples.

Mythe Barn is amazing. The service you receive from them is fantastic. The food, the best I have tasted. I think that reflects in the price. Here is an example of a Mythe one https://www.daffodilwaves.co.uk/blog/mythe-barn-wedding-venue-all-saints-church-bruce-and-annabel and if you want to see more of the others, let me know.

Warwick house is also nice, options for an indoor and outdoor ceremony like Mythe Barn. DJ's are able to set up whilst you eat so it's all ready for when you finish. Again the service is great.

Wroxall is lovely, the grounds are very impressive. I find the bar area quite small but a lounge is attached for people to chill in. The rooms are nicely decorated and the accommodation has a wow factor!

These are my top three but some I haven't been too yet (as they are booked for this year) so can't give an opinion yet.

Thank you for the feedback, especially about Ettington Park as my Grandad is disabled and I wasn't aware they had no disabled access....

Mythe Barn still haven't gotten back to us yet, but we are very keen on it. I might send them another nudge in the next few days, it did look amazing. Nice to hear some personal feedback on it.

Not wanting to talk about my first wedding...but...I had it at Brownsover Hall in Warwickshire and it was a lovely venue.

I can also recomend Brownsover Hall, I have a

I have been to a wedding at Wethele Manor and it was lovely! Nice marquee out the back, the only thing that let it down for me was the portaloo we had to use outside.

Ettington park - well my sister got married there and It was absolutely amazing! The photos she managed to get outside were perfect! Food was lovely! Like someone else said though disabled access! Lots of stairs!

x

Went to look round a couple of these--

Wethele Manor Farm was nice enough but not very nice views from inside and marquee was MASSIVE with small dance floor in a separate room. It is also rather expensive; we were quoted £10,000 without catering, table linen, drinks, anything really!

Ashorne Hill was not my cup of tea; didn't seem to have much character for an oldish building but grounds seemed lovely.

We got a quote from Warwick House; was around £7500 for 45 people at the day and an extra 90 in the evening on a Saturday; this was over our budget so didn't go to look round.

Have you looked at Ashton Lodge? It was nice there and pretty good value.

My vote would go for Brownsover Hall as others have said but I might be biased because that's our venue ?

I could right pages on all of these but ill stick to the ones where i have most recently played at.

Wethele Manor is a great venue but you are basically in a marquee for wedding breakfast and then in a seperate room for the evening reception. There is no bar in this room and it means then guests can become segregated. - Next working there in June

Wroxhall Abbey - This depends on the room chosen, you have the gourgeous room inside or you can opt for the marquee outside. Again Working in June

Kenilworth Castle - I love this place but being an old ruins it can cause problems for access. I have only DJed here once.

Ettington Park (my regular venue) Access to the long gallery on the second floor is very restricted. Staff are on hand to help people with difficulties but its not ideal. If you have exclusive use you can have the party down stairs until 2am. If you have non exclusive use the party is back up stairs in the long gallery (party finishes at 12). I have lots and lots of pictures and videos from here - was there last week and again i na couple of weeks.

I am usually at the open days at Ettington but had other commitments so couldn't attend. How did you find it?

Have you considered The Menzies Welcombe in Stratford? I'm getting married there next June and think it's reasonable in price and very Wow!

The Menzies Welcombe is very nice. Shot a wedding there last year when the snow was very bad! Couldn't go outside for various reasons and did all the couple and family shots inside and it was great!

We have shot at Warwick house, and whilst it's a lovely venue, if your ceremony is moved inside there is very little light in the ceremony room, and depending on your wedding party size it can feel a bit cramped. Also the area for the bride to get ready in was extremely hot, but that may have been a once off!

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This can be a problem with most venues when you have a bride and 4 bridesmaids all having their hair done and some manor house type venues can have "sticky" windows that dont like being opened or a new hotel may have silly windows that dont open much (health and safety so you dont fall out)

Ahhh they didn't use that room for the ceremony when we were there! They used this one http://www.warwickhouse.co.uk/uploads/gallery/3_151_s.jpg and the light is awful in there!

Maybe best to confirm exactly where they will marry you if the weather isn't great!

I was just about to ask where that room was and then I recognised it ?. People usually put the photobooth and sweetie bar in there.

I shoot Warwick House quite a lot and have never had a ceremony in there. I would agree with you on the light, not a single window! Perhaps it's only held in there if under a certain amount of people.

I think it was because they were meant to be outside (it was in August), and the other room was already set up for the dinner. It didn't even rain!

IM not sure if its close enough for you but our venue is Hogarths Hotel in Dorridge.

They have alot of options for ceremonies including an island in the grounds if you wanted an outdoor wedding. I like that it is exclusive use and they set up for the evening with DJs etc while the wedding breakfast is happening so you dont have to wait for the room to be turned around.

Another couple of lovely venues are Hampton Manor or Walton Hall

xx

In the end it came down to Mythe Barn and Wethele Manor but we think we're going with Wethele as it just seemed to suit us and we're going for a second visit this week to be sure and hopefully will be booking something (finally!). We just preferred Wethele's mix of rustic and contemporary, whereas Mythe was definitely more contemporary (but still lovely!)

Mythe Barn was lovely though so if Wethele doesn't work out then I would be just as happy to go there.

You and I must live quite close to each other MrsBW ?

We also looked at Warwick House and Kenilworth Castle but both didn't work for us. My fiancé mentioned the Lord Leycester Hospital as a ceremony venue too and it's gorgeous. Where are you having your reception if you don't mind me asking?

I didn't even know Warwick School did weddings. I just had a look at their website, it looks really lovely!

I've not lived in this area long so I'm just getting my bearings but my fiance was brought up here so he knows the area much better than I do. I originally thought the Lord Leycester Hospital did what it said on the tin until he told me otherwise! It's actually really nice to talk to someone local, especially someone also planning a wedding ?

Hi both Warwickshire brides - Mrs BW and Mustard mitt!

I'm also a Warwickshire bride We are looking at Shustoke Barn and Moxhull Hall in the next 2 weeks

x

For those of your interested in the Lord Lyster Hospital, here are some pics from 2 weddings we helped at this weekend.

The first wanted pink moodlights, with fair light ceiling and DJ.

The second couple saw us packing down the equipment on the sunday from the previous wedding and booked the moodlights on the spot for their wedding the following day. They wanted them set on white for the day and then teal for the evening.

I've not heard of either of those, but if they're Solihull we weren't looking round there, only really Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth, Southam.... those sorts of areas.

Nice to see another Warks bride though! ?

I am a North Oxfordshire / Warwickshire bride! This is my first post as we have not set a date yet. We are on a budget because we are paying for it ourselves so I can only dream about some of these places! I find it a bit disheartening when you look at a venue for next year and then see they have last minute prices for this summer at half the price. It almost makes me think we should wait until later this year and book! Though of course you run the risk then of everything else being booked. We are looking at Ettington Chase and a couple of hotels like Warwick Arms and Warwick House. WH is out of my price range but it looks so lovely. Ettington Chase is great value but once you add all the extras that we want to, it might be as much as Warwick House!

I actually like a venue that has a separate dance area, gives people a place to chat. Wethele manor Farm looks really lovely, and I've heard the food is really excellent there.

Hi RogueSnowflake - welcome!

If you're on the border, you should check out Greenhill Gallery in Lower Brailes. We thought it was beautiful and in an idyllic location but it's not registered as a venue. You can use a celebrant there though if you wish but we decided on a registrar, which ruled it out for us, but it's gorgeous and quite reasonably priced too.

Also I'd highly recommend Wethele. It's our favourite. ?

OOh thanks MM, I'll look into that! I feel a bit limited by the fact that half of our guests will be coming from Scotland so there will need to be accommodation nearby and ideally it will be reasonably easy for them to get to by train. I love the contemporary look of Greenhill.

Cheers again!

xx

Morning all

We have gone ahead and booked Moxhull now for Thursday 13th August 2015 I feel a lot more relaxed now that is booked.

FYI we also looked at Compton Verney which was absolutely stunning but we fell in love with the gardens at Moxhull which are all so well kept, with lots of photo opportunities.

That's why we chose our venue too - the gardens and surrounding area - so beautiful! I'm glad you've finally booked lovelaurajane.

I loved Compton Verney on the outside, truly stunning venue with that amazing river and bridge, but the inside let it down for me. The rooms were quite dark and I would be worried about damaging something, plus the fact that tourists would be walking around next to where your wedding was happening. Not for me!

Have you booked Wethele?

I got married there last month and it was AMAZING. Best choice by far, and so reasonably priced

The food is EPIC - easily the best food I've ever had at a wedding reception. And the morning fry up is a godsend!

My tip: make sure you get some fairy lights for the marquee (Wethele may be buying ours from us, actually!) and check that the DJ set up is running through into the marquee properly (we had a bit of an issue there until they sorted it out for us)

I'm amazed at this quote: our whole wedding including all accommodation, food for 130+ people, linen etc was barely over that and we were at Wethele...

YES! I meant to say to you actually, I saw your flashes in another thread and noticed yours was at Wethele and I got so excited to see another wedding there. It was by far the best venue we saw. Thanks for the tip about fairy lights, we were talking about that room and how we'd dress it to not be a white box, so that's a good tip!

The team there have been lovely and really helpful. We're really chuffed to be getting married there, hopefully outside (weather permitting!) under that wooden arch.

Did you utilise all the barns? What did you have in each? We were thinking of having the ceremony outside, an area for the older folk with tea & cake in the conservatory and an area for the kids in the L shaped barn.

And they have a well. That won it for me! ?

Yep - we used the lot!

Will be doing a full wedding report soon as my photos have just come in - YAY!

We got married in Harbury church, so used the outside space for arrival drinks (had an iPad playlist that piped music outside and in all the barns and marquee). We hired a mini creche for the kids and that was set up in the breakfast room. Cordwainers we didn't really use as it was too small for our guests, so it was dressed quite plainly and people just milled around in it if they didn't want to be outside; it worked really well like that

The main thing we did in the marquee was the fairy lights; then we used their coloured uplighters and a load of candles, so it looked ace in the evening (I've seen pics of it looking really flat, so alternative lighting options were high on our list!)

The dance barn we dressed a little bit, and again added more fairy lights. I had *very* grand plans to dress all three venues, but in the end, they didn't really need it once the people were in there

Can't wait to read your report. We have lots of ideas and we're taking our wedding planner round there soon for design ideas (she's only with us in a design and styling capacity), so hopefully all the ideas in my head will come to fruition!

The fact they have accommodation on site was a huge winner for us too, especially for the parents and grandparents.

Hurry up and post your report please! ?