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UKbride Member Request 13 Sep 2018

My fiancè and I got engaged in June and are hoping to get married in 2020....

My fiancè and I got engaged in June and are hoping to get married in 2020. We're plan on marrying in a church then having a separate wedding reception venue. Does anyone have any advice on which to book first, and whether to get provisional dates from the church before we look at venues? Thanks x

25 Comments
UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

We booked our venue first, but realistically should have done the church first as its the important one! I’d suggest booking the church, then you only look at venues which have that date available x

Jessica Fox
Jessica Fox 13 Sep 2018

I booked the church first and worked around that xx

Cheryl Jackson
Cheryl Jackson 13 Sep 2018

My venue wouldnt let me book untill is secured a registrar or church as they said if they couldn’t swap the dates id loose my deposit so i booked my church first x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

Book church 1st then look for the venue as if you book venue 1st and there are no churches available on the date you want. Our church was booked in advance for a long time luckily our date was available. X

Naomi Smith
Naomi Smith 13 Sep 2018

We booked the venue first ai think but then when we went to the church, they refused tl marry us because we're living together. We're now getting married at our venue x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

Our venue let us provisionally book the date we wanted and then once we had booked it with the church we paid the venue the deposit they required x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

I say church first. I don't think ministers appreciate it much if you've already booked reception venue first and expect them to marry you on that day.
I provisionally booked the church and made sure venue was ok with the date before securing them both.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

We did our research on venues first, visited them and chose 2 that we particularly liked. Then we booked the church. We then each immediately rang a venue, didn't need to worry about when they could see us etc and just asked if they were free that day. As it happened, both were still available so we had the choice of 2.

Charlotte Massey
Charlotte Massey 13 Sep 2018

We booked church first then venue x

Natalie Lloyd
Natalie Lloyd 13 Sep 2018

Id say church, thats who we booked first, we had a few dates just in case we couldnt have our no1 choice date. Then went to venue. You can provisionally book venues just to be on safe side if you are wanting to marry in high wedding season

Kayleigh E Alman
Kayleigh E Alman 13 Sep 2018

Definitely book church first, but look at venues at the same time, have a date in mind and ask both if they are available, it’s quite difficult to do it especially if the church can do one date but the venue you like can’t. Ours was pretty straight forward though x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

I have just booked my church and venue after getting engaged in June too. I visited venues first to see what dates they had available, while talking to the church. My church was not book for any dates for 2020 so it gave me the chance to have a good look... I then booked with the venue and then booked my date with the church. So my advice... go back and forth between the two. Good luck xxx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

I'd say the church first and explain your going to look at a venue to hopefully get the same date x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 13 Sep 2018

It depends which is more important to you I wanted a particular church and because we were only booking a year beforehand we asked what was available there was only 2 Saturdays then we looked at several venues and kind of simultaneously booked. Our venue also let us hold our date for 2 weeks. X

Siobhan Reid
Siobhan Reid 14 Sep 2018

We went to the venue to see what dates they had available. Then spoke to our priest to see if he was available on our chosen date before paying the venue deposit.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 15 Sep 2018

something to also note is when you do scout for the locations, i would recommend to think about -*transport*- something us brides can sometimes forget! so think about the logistics, the length of time it would take you and your guests to get from one venue to another...

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 15 Sep 2018

We checked that the venue was free the weekend we wanted and the following weekend just in case then booked the church first.

Emily Field
Emily Field 17 Sep 2018

We talked to both the church and the venue so they could both give us provisional dates and we could choose the date that both could do and worked for us x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 17 Sep 2018

Choose your venue, then get the church to give you a few dates, then liaise with your venue and book one x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 17 Sep 2018

Sort whichever is more important to you first. I went with my date to the church, they said they were available for that date so I paid my deposit and it meant I could browse nearby reception venues without worrying about not having my church sorted x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 17 Sep 2018

Another 2020 bride here too!
The vicar told us that the dates we were looking for were fine with the church so she’s kept both booked for us so once we’ve found a venue we can go back and tell her which date it’s booked for and that’ll be our wedding date.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 17 Sep 2018

I booked the church first, because I had a specific date in mind, the church had it available so I put a deposit.. then I looked at venues.

Gemma Lambert
Gemma Lambert 17 Sep 2018

2020 bride here too!! My venue kept our date provisionally booked for 2 weeks so we can get the date with the registrar! We are also having our ceremony at the venue and then confirmed date with venue when was finalised with registrar! Been booked since March 😳 Good luck and congratulations xx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 24 Sep 2018

We provisionally booked the reception venue - they held our date for 2 weeks before we paid deposit. A lot of hotels and venues offer this.
That way we had enough time to go to the priest and book our date in with him and with the church.

Jessica Fairhurst
Jessica Fairhurst 30 Sep 2018

Id book the church first as you probably have one church in mind where as you can look at various venues

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