Neil (H2B) and I went to view a second venue tonight. As a lot of you know we had and still have our hearts set on Hopetoun House (pics in my profile) but after viewing tonight's venue it is making me realise I'm thinking with my heart rather than my head. The venue tonight was alright on the outside, nothing really special, and inside was lovely although it was a wee bit small. Hopetoun on the other hand gives me butterflies when I think about it, the ballroom is just gorgeous and it really is a dream come true. The only problem (although is it a problem) is cost. The venue tonight doesn't charge a venue hire where Hopetoun charges around £5000 for hire. In all Hopetoun will cost around £10,000 and tonight's venue will be around £6,000. I think we can afford Hopetoun if we save, save, save and make cuts elsewhere but it still worries me something will go wrong and we wont be able to afford it. So the question really is, do I go with the venue both myself and H2B have had our hearts set on or do we go with a cheaper venue? Thanks for your help ladies. xxx
CommentAuthordebs x
I think and its my opinion that you should go with your heart on this one, the venue we chose was expensive and we would have saved money going elsewhere but its where we wanted to get married and I didnt want to look back at our wedding with any regrets so we saved really hard and there were some weeks all our money went to the wedding but we did it and im so glad we did x
CommentAuthorJane
Thats a difficult one.... I would be tempted to say go with your heart but if you are going to struggle and worry about paying for it then the pleasure may be taken away from it. Have you got any more venues to look at or is it just a final choice between those two? You still have 21 months and plenty of time to find something that appeals to both heart and head! Good luck!
CommentAuthorjenniebean
we had the same and decided to have what we wanted after all we are only going to do it one time i say go with what your heart says you will only think what would your day of been if you dont
CommentAuthorNHR115
Debs I was hoping someone would say that. lol. We've got a few other venues to see but we're only going to see them because my Dad wanted us to keep our options open. To be honest our hearts weren't in it tonight when we saw the venue and I was kind of trying hard to make it better than Hopetoun but failing miserably. lol. We've been used to a bit of financial struggle (H2B was made redundant in 2008 and there were weeks we lived on £4) and looking at our finances it wouldn't ever be as bad as that as we now have a hell of a lot of disposable income. We're back at my parents living which isn't really bad as we have our own complete living space so our rent will never go up and we'll always know what we have to spend each month. Can you tell I'm trying to convince myself that it's fine to chose the more expensive one? lol. One good thing I suppose is that come May next year Neil will be a fully qualified design engineer and should get a job fairly quickly so we'll have two full wages coming in. I think we'll have to decided what's the most important factors in our big day and weigh up the pro's and con's of each venue. I'm going to view all the venues on our list and I'm going to go with an open mind. Thanks for the luck Janey, I might need it. lol. xxx
Look at the others by all means we did but because we already knew deep down what we wanted we couldnt get that excited feeling about anywhere else, we saved money on other ares such as cars only got one limo for £165 to take me, all bridesmaids and my son to wedding, H2b has a friend with a lovely car who has agreed to take him and best men as a favour so just cost me £2.50 for wedding ribbons and bows if we had hired cars could have cost around £500 so saved money there just for example and there were loads of other ares that we saved so that we could have our dream venue, somewhere that mattered to us so you can do it, look at other costs and where you can save, you can do it hon I know you can x
CommentAuthorPennylane
I don't know if I'm gonna be a help or hindrence here, but my mate went to a wedding in there about 3 weeks ago and she said it was the most beautiful venue she's been in!! If I was you I'd get saving and have the dream one! :)
02.07.11
All you need is Love!
Why is the rum always gone?
CommentAuthorPennylane
But, there are loads of beautiful places out there you haven't seen yet remember x
02.07.11
All you need is Love!
Why is the rum always gone?
CommentAuthorNHR115
Debs, so far I've managed to save on my photographer/videographer (£100), DJ (£100) and will get my coaches cheaper too due to a friend. My uncle may well make my cake for me (he's making my engagement cake), my auntie is giving me her tiara as my something borrowed, I have a friend who is part of a string quartet and is giving me a deal (although my price for that hasn't been confirmed). I'm thinking of getting Ann to do my dress, saving me a fortune, and I can pretty do everything else on the cheap. Table linen, silver cutlery, chair covers etc are all included in the venue price so there isn't any extra costs there plus the venue hire covers my ceremony. I'll have to weigh up everything and price everything to make a proper comparison and see exactly how much cheaper everywhere else is. Leesy it is absolutely amazing and brings tears to my eyes everytime I hit the gatehouse. lol. Its sad I know. Ok tomorrow I am going to sit down and seriously think about every single cost and look at every single penny we can save from now until 2012. lol. I have a feeling I will run with my heart but I will weigh up everything. xxx
CommentAuthordebs x
Good luck hon if there are a lot of things included in this as a package you will have to weigh up doing them all seperately too, I think you know what you both really want deep down and nothing is going to change that the other thing is have you haggled the price of the venue at all everyone has a margin that they can let down a little bit talk to them and tell them this is your dream venue, they will understand and maybe able to help you, you wont know till you ask, x
CommentAuthorMrs (Dove) Pidgeon
Is it worth having to cut back everywhere for? To struggle for every penny?
Remember to leave some breathing room for emergencies.
Now a extremely happy German housewife and now a Mother!!!!
Islay Jean born 24th June in Hannover.
CommentAuthormrs pinkalice
have the dream venue! you might regret it if you dont. if it is possible to save the money then go for it i say :)
CommentAuthorWinterrose
I would say go for your dream venue & do as the others have said & cut back elsewhere. Is there anyway you can do the wedding on a different day of the week when it's cheaper? We found our dream venue and didn't think we could afford it so we'd arranged to do the ceremony there and then go elsewhere for the reception but then we found out if we did it on a Mon-Wed it was much cheaper so we chose the week before Xmas as people don't mind taking time off work so much and are now getting married the Tuesday b4 crimbo & spending the whole day at our dream venue & I cannot wait :) xx
CommentAuthorWinterrose
Just looked at ur pics! Def go with your heart you've taken so many of them you obviously love the place go & have a fab day xxxx
CommentAuthorNHR115
Debs we've already managed to get £6,000 off the price, we're going to speak to them about cutting the cost of the buffet as it is a bit extortionate for a couple of bacon rolls. lol. I know what you're saying Dove and I know you're right. We have made a budget and although we have managed to get a fair few things cheaper, we have budgetted full price just incase these deals fall through. Thanks Alice. That's exactly what I don't want to do. I don't want to be getting married elsewhere and having the thoughts of Hopetoun all day. That would be bad. lol. Rosei there were a ton more pics taken but I didn't want to take the mickey and post them all. lol. xxx
CommentAuthorShell
Our venue is expensive as well, but it is absoultely gorgeous and where we always said we would like to get married. We had thought about a different (cheaper) venue but we never felt the same as we did with the first!!!!!
CommentAuthorNHR115
That's exactly how I felt last night when we viewed the other place. Don't get me wrong it was a lovely venue but it didn't have the same feeling as the first one.
Ladies you have all been a fantastic help. I guess if you want something so badly you just make it work eh? xxx
