I'm feeling a bit down about the whole wedding thing. I'm engaged with nothing booked yet. I have always imagined getting married in a nice country hotel, with a lovely sit down meal and a big party in the evening. Pretty mainstream. Now that we are here and have started thinking about what we want and making enquires to venues, we have found that all the nice venues in our area have a minimum number of 60-80 guests. This is a huge issue for us as we only have about 40 to invite to the day. Maybe even less as not expecting family abroad to come although we will invite them. H2B has no extended family, so on his side it will only be his mum, brother and sister (they don't have plus 1's either) and a few friends. Feeling really deflated as we can’t find any venues to take us. Especially on a Saturday which is what we would prefer. We are not on a tight budget, its literally just that we don't have that many people to invite due to H2B's small family. We will have a few more to invite to the evening, work colleges etc., but it’s still going to be a small do. We just don’t know that many people! At this rate it’s going to be registry office/church and a meal in a restaurant which I really don't want. I'm also worried that if we do find a venue to take us it will be really lacking in atmosphere??
Felling disappointed and deflated
Anyone got any ideas, or similar experiences? xx
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
You will find the one eventually! We are getting married in a lovely country house hotel which is perfect for the number of guests we have (about 45 max.), and would even still be great for an even smaller wedding. It's a much more 'intimate' venue than some of the big country house hotels, so it still has the grandness and impressiveness, but it's on a smaller scale. And as for lacking in atmosphere, I wouldn't worry about that all. I personally prefer a more intimate wedding and think it will be much more special with just your nearest and dearest - it's no good just inviting people for the sake of it to bump numbers up.
Where abouts in the country are you looking? Someone might be able to recommend a venue for you.
Just keep searching and you will stumble across something that is perfect for you :) xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Where are you based? What area are you looking in? You will find the perfect venue.
Have you considered a church hall or similar that can give you the flexibility to hold it in any way you want? Or a really nice hotel with a function room?
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorEmily17
quite a few of the hotels I looked at had the ability to make a room smaller. so they could hold 200 guests or 20 with a moveable partition. they were really nicely decorated and you couldn't tell it was a partition. These were more modern hotels as that was what we were looking for rather than a romantic country style.
keep looking there are some lovely places out there. where are you based? there is a lovely hotel near me in the midlands which has 4 different sized rooms for different numbers of people for the ceremony. not sure about the evening but sure they would cater in the same way
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CommentAuthorVictoriaL46
Keep looking and instead of ones that officially do weddings like a country hotel why not a country manor house? My OH looked into this possibility and we found a house in Sterling which could sleep half of our wedding guests and it had a HUGE dining room. It worked out cheaper venue-hire-wise HOWEVER you have to do all the catering yourself and if you live in England you would have to check and see if it has registrars license or have a separate "legal" ceremony before/after the wedding.
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You can also try using our suppliers page and service to see if there is anything suitable x
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorMyranny
As everyone else has asked, whereabouts are you looking? If you need a hand searching, I'm basically obsessed with wedding planning and I'd be more than happy to see what I could find based on your numbers. There is no reason you can't have exactly what you want with smaller numbers :) xx
CommentAuthorCarlaY79
Thanks everyone for your help, all the ladies on here are so friendly.
I live on the south coast, we have the New Forest and Sandbanks on our doorstep so we have some amazing venues locally. I do like the idea of renting out a manor house, I will have to look into that. I have just submitted a request through the quotes section so will see what comes back from that as well.
Thanks ladies
CommentAuthorMyranny
If you unrestrict your profile, I can post a link on your wall. There's a website where you can search venues and you can reduce the search results by filtering on all sorts, including having less than 50 guests xx
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Hope you get lots of great options! Keep us up to date with what you finally go for.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorCarlaY79
Profile unrestricted, thanks Myranny! Will do InDreanland, I'm stressed out already and it hasn't even started! LOL
xx
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Try not to get stressed, it's supposed to be an enjoyable time. Make a list of the most important things about the wedding and focus on them.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Plus don't forget we are all here for you if you need a wedding related rant.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorFlossie
On the flip side, I sometimes feel as though we didn't spend enough time looking at venues and researching venues - we only went to look one and decided there and then that it was the one for us. I don't have any regrets at all and I love our venue to bits, but enjoy the whole process of viewing lots of stunning venues! At least you know when you find 'the one' you will have exhausted all other options xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorInDreamland
We only viewed 3 venues. Ours was just so perfect.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorMyranny
Link posted on your wall, Carla :) xx
CommentAuthorYuliaM36
edited
EDIT - you have been informed several times that we do not allow any form of surveys on the form ....you now run the risk of being removed from the forum and having your address blocked
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CommentAuthormichgib
Dont stress out you will find the perfect place xx
CommentAuthorSprucey
Oh don't stress you just maybe need to adjust your search criteria, like is a Saturday wedding a must for you? Decide between you for definite what you don't want to compromise on at all and then look what falls into that criteria. Like our wedding is 40 day guests, not many extra to the evening and its on a Tuesday, just because we have children and so do most coming so the school holidays all days are the same! And because of that we have the best venue all in one for a better price with a nice package and the registrar is cheaper too. I also thought that as we were only small numbers it would be registry office and a meal afterwards but if you look around you'll find something. Plus have you written down all your potential guests and added up with you guys included as sometimes it can be more than you think if you haven't. I thought we would barely scrape 30 in numbers
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CommentAuthorInDreamland
Have you looked at P01h@wn F0rt?
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorKirstyR386
A vague memory I have of seeing weddings done in the New Forest itself with all the trees surrounding a clearing. I know its not the country manor you were hoping but its definitely worth thinking outside the box. We have a barn and its beautiful with rustic beams but set next to a manor house which we can have pictures taken outside so best of both worlds. X
