Wedding Forum - 2 ceremony venues...... Which one?...

So we have booked our legal ceremony with a deposit but now the registry office has added a new, more totally beautiful and much cheaper venue by about £150... We've paid £50 for the venue to secure it but should we decide to change, that money is transferred to the registry fees so all we would have to pay extra is a £10 admin fee to alter the booking.... We are going to visit both venues on Saturday. Current venue is £454 and the new one is £300 which is really helpful as we are trying to cut costs so it's like it's meant to be! I have literally fallen in love with it the last few days and can't stop thinking about it! So excited but what should we do? Which venue? Xx

Sounds like you've already made up your mind :) xx

I knooooow, I just have to persuade the OH! She likes it too but it's just sorting it all out and viewing it lol..... Eek, very excited and hope we like it as much as we think! xx

Let us know how a viewing goes

Oh you will! I'm just so excited and hope we love it as much as we do :D

Pro's for Larkbeare: nice grounds so good for pics
Con's for Larkbeare: don't like the outside as it looks like my old school, VERY ugly ceremony room, an extra £154 to hire

Pro's for St. Nicholas' Priory: gorgeous interior, can use whole venue, can use all rooms for whatever we want, can bring in drinks afterwards with no corkage fees, only £300 for hire so vastly cheaper oh and I just love it!
Con's for St. Nicholas' Priory: parking isn't on site but about 5 minutes walk away, disabled access not good but has a very good modern staircase with handles especially to counter this, ugly exterior

Overall, St. Nicholas' does it for me and I loooove the interior!! Totally what I envisaged :D xx

Oh wow - love St Nicolas Priory pics!!!! Hope the viewing goes well!! Xxx

Defo the cheaper one, it's beautiful.

Oooo the second one is lovely, fits your theme much better as well :)

Def the second one!

When I first started looking at venues, I thought I'd be most bothered about the grounds and external appearance, but when we started attending viewings I realised that the interior mattered more, for a few reasons. First, the more important moment will take place indoors (ie the ceremony); so I wanted the ceremony room to be nice. Second, good weather is not a guarantee in England: we're marrying on 2nd August but it could well rain! So, I didn't want to be relying on good weather for nice pictures. So in the end, the indoor space and decor became more important to us than the external looks of the building and the grounds.

With the second venue, not only is the ceremony room gorgeous, but there are lots of other areas that would make for some lovely posed shots. I also love that you can bring your own drink; that will save a small fortune.

I wouldn't worry too much about parking unless and disabled access unless you have a lot of guests that will struggle; if you're talking one or two then I don't think a 5 minute walk is too much, and I'm sure relatives will help. You could always let them know in advance, too, so that they come prepared.

deffo the piory hunni!

stunning x

St Nicholas would win hands down for me, stunning venue x

Weeeeeeell, we went to the 2 venues and the cathedral today and we couldn't have had a more successful day!!!

After no persuasion on my part, it was a unanimous decision on having St. Nicholas' Priory in Exeter with a 1 hour hire for £300 - We are actually their first wedding to be booked there as well which is quite nice! We can use the entire venue, do anything we like with it, bring in flowers, decorate, canapes so the whole package but for minimal costs which is even better They really couldn't be more accommodating!

T'other venue was awful as we couldn't even FIND it!!! The access was dire and seemed to be doomed from the start to not get off the ground lol.

Before this we had our meeting with the canon pastor at the cathedral which couldn't have gone any better and we have actually got even more in the service than we could ever have dreamed of!! We can have a welcome address, prayers, bible readings, a sermon, an act of commitment, hymns and any music we went - There is no set standard to what we have so we can have as many hymns and readings as we want (within reason!) and the act of commitment is in front of God promising to love and honour each other etc so it's basically everything except the signing of the registrar! This is so much more than we ever thought we could have! We are absolutely thrilled and overwhelmed with everything today and really feel happier now we know exactly what we can do at the cathedral :) we don't even need to worry about flowers for the cathedral as because it's after Easter that year, there will be flowers all over the cathedral and there's no need to buy more unless we specify to the ladies there that we want something different but what's the point of paying when it's already there and looking beautiful!

Im so happy for your girls, Its all happening for you now, hopefuly that means your run or bad luck is over x