Hi everyone, I am just wondering out of curiosity where people have booked their wedding venue for? Who has gone for the traditional church wedding with separate reception venue and who has gone for the more modern manor house wedding/reception, or even anything different? I love hearing stories from people about their wedding, where they had it and what they did etc. It always makes me well up a little out of happiness whenever I think of our wedding. We have just booked ours for 18th April 2017 at Middleton Lodge in Richmond. The perfect dream wedding (I think)!
CommentAuthor*KelBel*
Our whole thing is in a converted barn with registrar and external caterers x
Velcro...my wedding day twinny! The Two Kel's!
Got engaged 14/10/12 in Central Park NYC!
Became Mrs Macdonald 13th September 2014
Mummy to 4 girlies and baby blue boy Due 10/05/2016
CommentAuthorFlossie
We are going for an all in one affair too.. our venue is a country house/luxury hotel - Beechfield House Hotel. :) it was the only venue we looked round and both fell in love with it instantly. The staff were amazing as soon as we stepped foot through the door and have been even more amazing since. No one we know had heard of it.. we feel really lucky to have found it. A little gem :)
I've just searched your venue online - it looks stunning. Right up my street :) xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJennK
All in one affair too, but a modern hotel with a spa :) a country manor house didn't really suit us so I'm glad we found our venue :)
Our perfect day - 08.08.15 <3
CommentAuthorJoeS71
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I love the barn idea, I was thinking about that at first but there are no barns used for weddings which are close to us. When we saw Middleton lodge (I think it was the third venue we had veiwed), we both instantly fell in love, which is why we sort of waived the cost a little. I think barn's and country manor houses are perfect for the vintage and rustic theme. I have just searched the Savile Club... really stunning but too far away for us. We live in Teesside and Middleton Lodge is only 30 minutes away. I think it's great when you walk into a venue and instantly know that you want to hold your wedding there, and can picture everything down to the finest detail, and it is even better when the staff are nice and helpful!
CommentAuthorFlossie
Our venue is 30 mins away from us as well :) the key thing for us was to just have somewhere different. We didn't want our wedding where loads of people who live by us have been married.. not being snobby or anything, lol.
We looked at quite a few barns online.. there are quite a few quite local to us. Really liked that idea as well but we fell in love with our venue and the rest as they say is history! xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Where is it that you booked your venue FutureMrsPx? We were going on the same thought really. I don't think it is being snobby, it more about being unique and memorable. If loads of other people you know have had the same venue, it all just blurs into one. We did originally look at the same venue my h2b's sister got married in, but for the price (exact same as what we are paying for Middleton Lodge) it didn't live up to expectations. Also, with it being 30 minutes away, it is somewhere which isn't local and it isn't too far out either so both sides of our family shouldn't have too much difficulty in getting there!
CommentAuthorFlossie
It's called Beechfield House Hotel, in Wiltshire near Melksham. We live in Swindon.
Yeah it's an ideal distance to be somewhere 'different' but also close enough as to not inconvenience any of your guests! Most of our guests will be staying the night of the wedding as well so it's a bit of a 'get away' for the weekend for them :) x
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
That looks amazing! Reminds me of my venue haha. Our wedding will be taking place on a Tuesday (it is loads cheaper, and our only option if we wanted it on the date we chose), so the people who we really want at our wedding will be there, the rest is down to who can get the time off so I think only close family would be staying on the night of the wedding, as well as our 'best woman' and her boyfriend who will be coming over from America.
CommentAuthorKatieH
We are getting married in a church and then having the reception in a hotel 30 mins away x
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorFlossie
Your venue reminded me of ours as well haha, they have the same kind of 'feel' about them :)
As long as everyone closest to you is there it doesn't matter at all :) we're having an intimate wedding as well, there's no point just having people there for the sake of it. x
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Hi KatieD, do you find it more stressful to have two different venue's? How are you managing with your planning?
And yes, FutureMrsPx, that is what we thought as well. If we were to have our wedding on the weekend, not only would it cost at least three grand more, the minimum number of guests also went up as we felt that we would be inviting people just to bump up the numbers and not necessarily because we wanted them there. At the moment we have roughly 70 guests including children, which consists of a select few close friends, immediate family and a few great aunties-uncles and cousins. It is so much easier when you have smaller numbers, although I still feel that 70 is quite a lot but nevertheless it is the people we want there xx
CommentAuthorFlossie
We will have a max of 50 during the day - probably be around 45, just depends whether a couple of our guests bag themselves a partner before the big day ;) will probably have about 90 in total for the evening.
We didn't really think we would be able to afford to get married on a Saturday in June in a venue that we really loved, but we were pleasantly surprised that the cost actually wasn't that much greater in our venue, so we just went for it!! xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorKatieH
No I've always wanted to get married in a church and then travel to the reception in a nice vintage wedding car. It's not going to be any trouble at all (hopefully lol) Plans are going well :) x
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorJessica29792
I am glad that your plans are going good, KatieD! I like the idea of vintage wedding cars, but with our venue the wedding car isn't necessarily needed (which cuts our costs down a bit) and as neither of us are particularly religious or traditional we didn't fancy the church wedding. Plus, our venue is everything we wanted, it has the marquee for the reception, a big sweeping staircase which can be used as the aisle or you can get married out in the grounds (depending on the weather), and they provide the catering and everything else as well which is a bonus! x
Are you having your wedding set over the course of the full weekend, FutureMrsPx? I don't blame you for going straight for it, both myself and my fiance both jumped at the opportunity after finding out the price. The only thing I am having a hard time getting my head around is decorating. do you arrive at the venue with your fiance before the time of the ceremony (we were told to arrive for about 12, ceremony will be around 2), and both decorate how you want it in your normal clothes, then both go off to get ready? Or do you have your bridesmaids/bridal party there with you and have them decorate while you get ready? x
CommentAuthorKatieH
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Was gonna post a pic of venue but it had venue name on and don't think it's allowed
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorFlossie
Your venue sounds soo lovely!
No, not the whole weekend. We have exclusive use on the Saturday until 10am on the Sunday I think.. there is an outdoor heated swimming pool, so as long as it's not raining the Sunday morning, I definitely want a swim! I can see someone getting too drunk at the reception though and just jumping in the pool fully clothed!!!
I will ideally be staying at the venue the night before with my mum and my bridesmaids.. the other half isn't too fussed about where he stays I don't think, but we will be separated from the night before until he sees me walking down the aisle!! Our ceremony is at 2 as well :) the staff at our venue sort our decorations out for us. I will just make sure everything is boxed up appropriately and labelled and will write them instructions as well as speaking to them about it in person beforehand. :)
The room we are getting married in is also the room we are having our wedding breakfast in and the reception.. they go in and turn it around after the ceremony while we are doing the photographs, and after the wedding breakfast we retreat to the bar or the tea/coffee room and they re-arrange the room again ready for the reception. So we couldn't decorate it ourselves even if we wanted to! There are 5 rooms in total that our guests can just float in and out of and an outside area by the pool with tables and chairs.. also beautiful grounds if anyone fancied a little walk!! xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorFlossie
Oh yeah, forgot about not being allowed to mention names.. oops :)
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Did you have difficulty in finding the right place to have your reception or did you know where to go for it straight away, KatieD?
I would love a swimming pool, swimming is my favourite past time! Haha. I always thought the wedding breakfast was the day after haha, it might just be my venue, unless I have got it mixed up. For our venue, you get to choose, depending on the weather, if you want to get married indoors or outdoors and they change everything around within 30 minutes of the ceremony. I think I might do what you said, write instructions on how I want everything setting up and what goes where. Our reception will be held in the marquee that they have in the grounds so there will need to be plenty of decoration for that as well. As for the morning after, which I am sure is when we have our wedding breakfast, there is a different room we go in which is joined to the kitchen where you can get your own breakfast (everything will apparently be placed on the counter tops, not sure if there will be staff there too cook things though). There are also other rooms too, like a cellar bar which is in use for guests who want to stay and party after midnight, and there is also a games room with a pool table, chess table etc. and another two drawing rooms. It sounds like we have the same interests FutureMrsPx! What theme are you going with? We are going vintage with purple for the colour x
CommentAuthorFlossie
The wedding breakfast is just the fancy name for the meal after your ceremony.. so not a breakfast at all, will be a late lunch/early dinner really haha!
If you set things up at home, like your centre pieces for the tables and stuff, you can also take photos so they will have a visual reference to go by as well :) it's going to be hard trusting someone else to set everything up and get it looking perfect, but they do it so often I'm sure it will be amazing!
The bar stops serving all guests who aren't staying at the venue at midnight, but if people are staying they will keep serving until everyone has gone to bed.. considering the majority of people will be staying at our wedding, I think it's going to be a late one!
Yes, our days and venues do seem very similar! :) we are also going for a vintage theme (haha), combined with a country garden theme and are having a pastel colour scheme. All 4 of my bridesmaids will be wearing different colours and my little flower girl in a different colour as well xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Aww, the pastel theme is so beautiful! I have seen so many different ideas on Pinterest for pastel colours! Do you have pinterest? If not, you should definitely go and have a look, there are some amazing ideas on there of how you can decorate with budget costs and DIY ideas. It is brilliant. I am still undecided as to whether I want a plum purple or lilac for my colour. It will definitely be purple though (both mine and my fiance's favourite colour, or daughter is even called Violet haha!). At first I was thinking that I should have both colours incorporated into it somehow, like having my bridesmaids in lilac or plum and our 'best woman' in the other colour. Whatever colour my bridesmaids will be in though, my daughter who will be flower girl will be wearing the same colour in a sash, the rest of her dress will be white lace. I am wanting an ivory lace dress, mermaid or trumpet style as I am petite with an hourglass figure and 'just slightly' top heavy, I think this style of dress would be the best really x
CommentAuthorKatieH
We knew which Venue we wanted so went and had a look and fell in love with it. Didn't even look at any others. Our colour is hot pink x
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
I think different shades of purple would look really lovely! You wouldn't need to worry about matching everything to one exact colour then either :) love a mixture of colours and shades.
I have no idea what kind of dress I want at the moment. Part of my loves proper princessy dresses but then I am loving elegant understated lacey ones at the moment too.. Not going to look too much into it until I actually go wedding dress shopping, which I am planning to do around Easter time next year :) eeee.
And yeah I do have P1nterest. Love looking on there and got lots of ideas saved :) also have lots of ideas saved on et$y xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorJessica29792
I think it is lovely when you can walk into somewhere and know straight away that you want it, KatieD. And you can get plenty of hot pink wedding decorations for it as well (there are some ideas on Pinterest). I have seen some lovely ideas where the bridemaids are wearing hot pink with soft pink flowers etc. And it looks surprisingly good on the grooms men as well! I don't have an Etsy account, but love Pinterest. I have known for ages exactly what kind of dress I want (I just hope it actually suits me), and what kind of decorations etc I want. Thank fully my fiance loves all the ideas I have put forward, although he does keep saying that the day is really for me and that he is happy as long as I am! Typical men. I keep saying to him that if we were to go on Don't Tell the Bride, we would have everything done perfectly because we talk about it so frequently and discuss different things we can do, although I don't think they take on people who know so much about what the other half wants. I know it is just under three years away but I can't help but get excited, and can't help but plan how I want certain things already. We have already started compiling our playlist. There are a few more songs to put on it but the rest we are just going to leave to the guests. Pinterest idea... on the bottom of your invites leave a section for the guests to provide a song which they would like played at your reception and then either put it on your playlist or give it to your DJ along with the rest of the songs. Means half the work for you! x
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
We are having the wedding ceremony in my parish church which is where me and my brother were christened and we also went to the first school that was affiliated with it so as a child I used to be part of the choir and also the youth groups there so it has a lot of meaning and memories for me. We are then travelling to our reception venue in horse and carriage which I have always wanted as I love horses! The reception venue is in a marquee in the grounds of an old manor house and we have the whole place exclusively to ourselves and most of our guests are staying the night there too (as are we!). We picked it because it was affordable and only five minutes from the church, I personally wanted a big converted barn but they were way our of our budget and my h2b said he wanted it where we are having it so I couldn't exactly say no after getting my church! Lol xxx
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Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorVelcro
Mine is at the science and industry museum in manchester :)
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Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey
*Kelbel* is my wedding twinny!
CommentAuthorWelshBrideBethan2015
Ours is at our local cathedral
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And we are having reception in the national waterfront museum Swansea
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We will be using both the upstairs and downstairs area in Museum and the garden also :)
Somehow always connected , finally became friends .
Friends became soul mates :)
Engaged 6th July 2013
<3 <3 Married my best friend 11/7/2015 <3 <3
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Wow, these venues all look amazing! I think it is great when you can have something which has a lot of meaning to you personally, especially when your other half agrees! And as for the museums, they are such an unusual and unique place and yet so beautiful as well... I love it! People will definitely remember your weddings, they will definitely stand out in their minds :) what was your reasoning behind the venue? x
CommentAuthorJennK
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Realised I don't have pictures of the front or lake or fields out the back, damn!
Our perfect day - 08.08.15 <3
CommentAuthorJessica29792
That looks lovely MrsJennKirby2b! Do you get to hire this exclusively and stay overnight? I imagine you will get loads of lovely pictures out in the gardens! x
CommentAuthorWelshBrideBethan2015
Personally we wanted to marry in a church but cathedral is near us and a big family connection for me for members of my family who have passed away like my mum and gran . The museum we choose because it was different!The norm wedding venues are beautiful but all are somewhere where we know about 10 other couples already being there and I didn't want that also the venue is very flex and that's what I wanted as I feel like I can trust them with everything :)
Somehow always connected , finally became friends .
Friends became soul mates :)
Engaged 6th July 2013
<3 <3 Married my best friend 11/7/2015 <3 <3
CommentAuthorclair
edited
We are having a 'all in one affaire' we just though it would be easier that way. We looked at about 10 different venues but when I walked in to the one we picked I just knew it was the one :). We are getting married on a Sunday to make is affordable so we can get married there. It a place called the Elevtham Hotel, it's in a little village called Hartney Whitney about 20 mins from where we live in Basingstoke :). This is what it looks like.
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Started going out with my Gorgeous man 7/11/2010
Got engaged on the 21/9/2013
became mrs Thornton on the 2/8/2015
our wedding day was the best day ever :)!
CommentAuthorSallyB180
We are having an all in one day at a beautifully newly refurbished hotel over looking the sea, is absolutely stunning :-) perfect for photos on the beach too xx
CommentAuthorWelshBrideBethan2015
I am loving all these venues :)
Somehow always connected , finally became friends .
Friends became soul mates :)
Engaged 6th July 2013
<3 <3 Married my best friend 11/7/2015 <3 <3
CommentAuthorVelcro
My reasoning was I just love the place, always enjoyed going as a kid...and as a big kid lol, it's like my favourite place ever. Plus I have a bit of a weird thing for trains too, don't know anything about them mind, but i like looking at them haha.
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey
*Kelbel* is my wedding twinny!
CommentAuthorJessica29792
That is exactly what you want in a venue, somewhere which is unique to you and your h2b so that it is very memorable for yourselves and for your guests. It is why we chose our venue, because it isn't local and nobody we know or any of our guests know has been there before. Plus it is beautiful. Yours sounds lovely! :) x
CommentAuthorWelshBrideBethan2015
They all are so pretty :)
One thing which we are pleased about with venue is the hotel we want to stay in is literally end of the street from museum :) We also have one beach across the way and close enough to city centre for people to stay in hotels or continue the party after 1am lol :) x
Somehow always connected , finally became friends .
Friends became soul mates :)
Engaged 6th July 2013
<3 <3 Married my best friend 11/7/2015 <3 <3
CommentAuthorJennK
It is a huge venue with 120 rooms, so no exclusive hire but we are the only wedding booked there for our weekend :)
Our perfect day - 08.08.15 <3
CommentAuthorJessica29792
All of these venues look amazing! Elevtham Hotel looks like a fairytale wedding! That is what I loved about our venue is that even just going there to view the place made me feel special, let alone how I would feel on our wedding day!
CommentAuthorKatieH
Definitely Jessica. It was everything we hoped it would be :) We are so lucky to have the church too as it isn't our parish church but we've always wanted to get married there and it's near my parents, although they are just outside of the parish. Xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Have you got a specific theme to go with the hot pink? We are going with a vintage theme to go with our choice of purple. I think we are going to do a mixture of plum and lilac, and especially as we are going a bit out of the norm in having a best woman, I think it would be nice for her to wear a different shade to the bridesmaids so that people know she is separate from them x
CommentAuthorKatieH
We don't really have a specific theme but we are having roses in fish bowls for the centre pieces and on the cake and in the bouquets xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorJessica29792
You could maybe get some rose garlands which I have seen on Pinterest etc. and maybe wrap them around any posts or around tables and stuff. Or even sprinkle rose petals on the tables x
CommentAuthorScottishbride2016
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Ours is in gretna green In Scotland then reception in Carlisle .
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CommentAuthorScottishbride2016
This is it at night
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CommentAuthorErinV
We are getting married in our parish church and then reception is about 15 mins down the road in a beautiful manor barn with exclusive use of the grounds surrounding it.
CommentAuthorKatieH
Oh yeah we have been thinking of putting rose petals on the tables too x
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorJessica29792
Gretna looks lovely on a night! I must admit, I wasn't fond of the idea of getting married at gretna when my mother in law (to be) mentioned it, as it is too far away for all the people we want to be there and I wanted something in a big house! I know someone who got married there though. And Carlisle is a lovely place! Your reception sounds so beautiful, ErinV! We looked at barns before, even a treehouse venue, but they were all a bit too far away for us :( It definitely sounds like you are going with a rose theme there KatieD, haha. It sounds nice. I saw this idea on pinterest where the guests were given cones filled with lavender buds or violet petals (perfect for my wedding with the colours), maybe you could do something like that too but with roses? Or maybe have something with rose scent? x
CommentAuthorKatieH
Yeah I guess it is a rose theme after all haha. That idea sounds nice x
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16