wedding venues in Essex - so overwhelmed!

Spains Hall is fantastic and so is Gosfield Hall, Gosfield Hall is a lot larger and stately home type of venue but stunning.

https://www.leez-priory.co.uk/

We viewed here when we were having out wedding down south, its beautiful. Only reason our wedding isnt here is we decided to have it in Chester where we live.

https://www.blakehall.co.uk/

I loved this place but it was just too far for us

Parklands(Quendon) does some good midweek discounts.

I assume that your church is in/near Brentwood. What sort of distance are you happy for you and your guests to travel from there to the venue?

Peter

I'm getting married at Gaynes Park, its just stunning! Also look at Blakehall, that's also lovely but very reliant on good weather! Hanbury manor is also lovely c

I second Gaynes park if you're looking for somewhere fairly local, it's a beautiful venue.

Friern manor and Blake Hall are also gorgeous and again, local ?

Others I can think of offhand are Marygreen Manor,

Channels, Maidens Barn and Great Baddow barn (which are all roughly Chelmsford way, so not too far)

I would also give my vote to Gaynes Park. Its got a lot going for it with a beautiful walled garden, great views out over the Epping / Essex countryside and a good sized converted barn for the meal / dancing.

I guess, as has been said, how far you are happy for your guests to travel after the Church service - allowing for traffic, people getting lost(!) etc. There are loads to choose from but hopefully you can narrow it down. Most brides tell me that once they start visiting venues, one always stands out as the one for them - good luck!!

Im getting married at Friern Manor in Dunton so close to Brentwood. They are amazing and everyone has raved about their food to me. They are affordable to and I love the place, obviously Im biast though and we have a smaller budget than you so should be affordable xx

Try Crabbs Barn. It is beautiful and they have been really helpful. when are you looking to marry? What time of year are you looking at?

Crabbs barn is beautiful!! My fsil got married there and it was seriously one of the best weddings ive been to xx

I would recommend Crondon Park in Stock, it's beautiful and I'm not getting married there on Monday!

Thank you for all of your suggestions so far, have been checking them all out. ive found it hard to get prices for gaynes or crondon park which is a shame, but I have done some extensive research to give me 6 venues to go and view-

Blake hall

Channels

Friern manor

Warley park

Stock brook

Orsett hall

I ideally dont want my guests to have to go more than 20-30 mins from brentwood church to venue. Havent been to a church wedding where the venue to seperate so don't know whats acceptable?

Gaynes park is quite expensive if you want a friday sat or sunday in summer it will be over 12k with food/drink for 70 guests ( thats what we were quoted for). We were looking at a thursday in august and it was almost 11,500.

I have photographed many weddings over the years where the travel between church and venue is over 30 minutes. This does mean that some will take longer. As long as all the guests have a mode of transport, its not too bad. I had one wedding where the ceremony was in Chelsea and the reception was at Down Hall(Essex/Herts border). Some guests came by train to Harlow and then taxis.....many were late arrivals.

If the venue is a "straight run" on a main road, distance is less relevant than if you are going across country IYSWIM.

Peter

Another worth considering is The Manor of Groves. Its near Sawbridgeworth, so only just over the border from Essex. Some very reasonable midweek deals are available...

Peter

Ahhhh I miss this part, looking at venues was one of my favourite bit about wedding planning!!

We went to see (we are a bit further up the a12 in colchester)

Crabbs Barn, Kelvedon

Maidens Barn, Chelmsford

Blake Hall, Chippin Ongar

Marks Hall, Marks Tey

Crondon Park, Stock

Smeetham Hall Barn, Bulmer, Suffolk

And our winner Vaulty Manor, Maldon

Enjoy this bit it is fun so take your time - you'll know once you go and see!!!! Also order the brochures throught the hitched search they are always a fun read Post back once you've picked!!

Hi congratulations! I was in the same situation and on the same budget last year! We booked stock brook as well fell in love with it and the package we chose was affordable compared to some of the venues in essex which are beautiful but just so expensive! We are going for a friday at the end of march next year to cut costs, summer isnt the only time of year for nice weather. Good luck! Xx

Another Essex bride! We are getting married at Crabbs Barn and it would definitely fit your criteria in terms of numbers and budget but I'd worry its a bit far up the A12 for you (although you could organise a coach or something similar if you were really interested).

We looked at a few venues in Essex but they were all a bit further away from you. Crondon is gorgeous - I'm not sure what the prices are like but it is a really lovely venue (we went to a wedding fair here after we'd picked our venue to go and see our florists who were there). Stockbrook is also beautiful for wedding and I've heard really good things about it (my gym is based at stockbrook and I love seeing people all suited and booted for weddings when I'm parking my car on Fridays and Saturdays!).

As Goldpants says, venue hunting is one of the best bits! It's weird because it feels overwhelming at the time, but looking back I loved it, and I love that feeling of finding your venue too.

When you're ready to look there's also a great thread on here about reviews of wedding dress shops in Essex, which will be worth a search!