We have looked at 2 venues so far - one I love and one we both hated.
I wanted to look at 2 more. The first of these two only takes 175 in the evening and our provisional guest list is already on 200! So that one is a no go and on the face of it I thought I would prefer it so I'm a bit gutted. The 2nd of these two I have just found out that one of our close friends sisters got married there and lots of our close friends went to her wedding - including my h2b. It may sound silly but I want a venue unique to us where none of my family/close friends have been.
Venue 1 ticks all these boxes but h2b has reservations over venue 1, as the conservatory is beautiful for a wedding - but if it rains it'll be noisy and the 2nd room for weddings isn't either of our cups of tea.
Also h2b would like to find a venue where we hire it for the day but can hire our own hog roast (we aren't having a sit down meal - just a late wedding & then evening reception). He thinks this will save money, which it will, but I don't think we will get anywhere 'nice' that offers that service. Plus we would then have to source other things ourselves like tables.
Aaaaaaaaargh - I never knew it could be such a pain. It would be much easier if I just did it all myslef :-D
How many venues did you all look at? Did you choose toghther or did one of you take the lead?

We considered about 6 venues on paper and whittled it down to 2. Because places werent very nice/too remote etc etc

We ended up visiting and viewing 2. One was in a village but like a manor style hotel with a golf course and beautiful grounds but a bit of a trek from where we live. The other hotel was 1200 above sea level and had wonderful panoramic views and is about 10 mins from us and has good connections to the motorway.

Effectively both hotels were doing a package of 50 daytime guests and 100 night time guests (obviously with other things!) for the same price.

When we asked the manor hotel if the numbers were flexible, ie could we add more if needed to the daytime, we were flatly told no. The limit was 50 and no more. When we asked the other hotel, we were told yes, of course, it wasnt a problem and we would only pay so and so per head. That formed our decision then and there for us as we couldnt believe how inflexible the other hotel was, considering we were spending thousands with them.

We went with the high up hotel to get married and yes there were some issues but nothing I couldnt sort. Ironically, a friend booked her wedding at the manor hotel for the Aug before ours and when she called in the July about her rooms she had booked for her and her bridesmaids etc, she was told that there was no record of the rooms being booked and the hotel was fully booked. This ended in a massive complaint and someone being sacked! Glad we didnt book there!

So the moral of the story, trust your instincts and other people's reviews. Look on Tr!padvisor. The place we got married had some fab reviews for weddings and fabulous reviews for one staff member in particular so we asked could he run our day and it went seamlessly.

I went for the cheapest... it was free!

But I also wanted somewhere noone had got married or might get married at...

The building's decor at the mo isn't currently in great shape... but is in the process of being entirely renovated and modernised... so I'm going to be one of the first users and as my Uncle is a Mason there...I got it for free with very heavily discounted bar rates!

The caterer that is approved for the venue is amazing and wonderfully priced too. Capacity is fine for our guest list...

You should choose what you can afford first, then look at capacity (whittle guest list down-plus not everyone will come in reality) and then what you like... if you can't fulfill the practical criteria then there's no point of bothering with them!

Don't be put off by the fact "somebody else had their wedding there". Nearly every venue has had 1000s of weddings... but how you make your day work will change the entire wedding! The way you decorate, the way you have the wedding, the timings, the way you look, the entertainment, food etc! So don't worry about that!

Me and hubby only ever looked at one venue and were sold. Its small as I dont have a lot of family and just wanting a small cosy romantic wedding. Go with your instinct I say xx

We only looked at 2 and picked the first one we saw. They are open to doing hog roasts etc. but dont advertise it particularly obviously so i would definitely just ask. Youre giving these places a lot of money so they should be willing to help you!

We made the decision together, after all it is both of our days!

We started by looking on the internet of venues in our county and made a list of about 12 that we liked purely based on location and facilities and ordered their brochures including price plans.

When we received all brochures, we sat down together worked out prices for what we wanted from a venue as a minimum. Anything that was over budget we threw in the bin straight away. We were then left with around 6 to choose from so we then had a proper look through the brochure, looked at reviews priced up all of what we would like to do to give us a price to haggle with etc. We then based on everything so location, appearance, price and options available and chose 4 favourites we then visited those venues and had the 2 others as back ups in case the original 4 were not as they seemed.

I had a favourite and that was obvious, H2b had a favourite (the same one) and was more diplomatic so we saw the favourite last to give the other places a chance as whatever we decided, we wanted to see all 4.

Our favourite won and as soon as we walked in and were sitting in the Library waiting for the Wedding lady to show us around we both knew it was THE ONE! It also helped that it worked out to be the best value for money too and we could get EVERYTHING (and more) that we wanted and is still under budget for us. It also helped, that the lady that showed us round was very accommodating too and not overly pushy which we found some places to be.

It's a pretty similar feeling to when you try on Wedding Dresses, you just know when you find THE ONE!

Ilooked a a number of venues in our area and was dissapointed with how they all expect you to want a typical wedding, which was not what we wanted. I narrowed it down to one venue that was beautiful but it still didn't feel right and i kept delaying and extending our provisional booking. Boy am I glad I did. We found a great quirky venue for our afternoon/evening but they were not registered for civil weddings so we've now booked the town hall for our ceremony (which is beautiful) and planning to transport our guests by vintage coaches.
What i'm trying to say is you could always look outside the box of typical wedding venues and consider having your ceremony in one location and your reception somewhere that will offer you exactly what you want :-)

Its such a hard decision isn't it?! xx

Going to have to search again I think and maybe not be so picky with my search criteria. A lot of places are a no go right away though as they aren't big enough :-(

We've only looked at one venue and we're going back next weekend to book! It's a lovely place and you get married outside. The whole hotel is yours for the weekend and so much stuff is thrown in its unbelievable. They do a bbq and garden games the night before the wedding, and get everyone back over for breakfast morning after the wedding :) they have their own fleet of wedding cars etc. Just sounds perfect and the price is unbelievable. Way under our budget. He's quoted us an initial price though so there still might be abit of wriggle room!

We're not going to go and see any other venues as the first place we've seen is just perfect for what we want. It's so casual and relaxed. My fiance wasnt too excited before we started looking at venues (think its a man thing-out weddings quite far away!), but when we went to visit this place he literally hasnt shut up about it since!xxx

Wow Bev I want your venue :-)
That sounds amazing - adding in all that the night before. I need to find a venue like that!!!