Chester Zoo weddings?

RainbowDrops

There must be a contact at the zoo that can answer all of those questions (they'll have the most up-to-date info)

TudorRose

I had never heard of getting married at Chester Zoo until a few weeks ago when a customer came in to order her bridesmaid dresses. She is getting married in July & what she described she was going to have sounded really good & lots of fun.

ellay864

I'm getting married at Chester Zoo next year and was on a much smaller budget than the exclusive use would have permitted. You can hire one of the rooms for around £400 - one holds 60, the other 40-45. That doesn't include food. If you choose to have meal there (you don't have to) you have to use them, not outside caterers. The fee I mentioned includes Zoo entry for the day for up to the max number of guests. We're keeping costs down by only having around 25-30 for the meal, but we are inviting other guests to join us for the ceremony if they so wish, giving them a day at the zoo, but politely saying the wedding breakfast is for family only.
We have to leave the premises by 5.30 as we're having an evening do elsewhere, again to keep costs down. If you book non-exclsuive there are a few things to keep in mind:
Cannot be a Saturday in peak season - we're doing a Saturday but mid-October, couldnt get earlier than that
Weekdays non exclusive can usually be accommodated during the summer months
If weather isn't great and you need to stay indoors while they turn the room round (between ceremony and meal) you have to just hang round the bar/cafe where the public will be
You do need to factor in the registrar fees as well - for 2010/11 its going to be around £350
I was just so determined I wanted to get married there, that I can put up with the non-exclusive stuff. Of course I'd have loved to have the whole place, do the safari BBQ etc but funds just won't run to that
Go look at the place if you can. We go the Zoo all the time but had never seen the rooms. The library (larger of the 2 is nice) but we fell in love with the boardroom as soon as we saw it and there was no doubt that was where we're getting married. Jane, the lady who runs things is lovely, and there's loads of glowing reviews of how she helps
Let us know what you decide

nuttymummy

ellay864
thank-you that was so helpful!
thats what i was thinking..about the night-do, its traditionally a disco..n basically a chance for people to get drunk n dance! LOL but dont think it will have the same atmosphere just standing around outside in the dark eating a BBQ without any music etc. i just dont know what to do!
do u have to pay to see Jane? admission fee for zoo etc?

£400 sounds alot better than £1950!

awww thats a shame that u have to use their caterers, i was hoping we could have just gone to the local KFC n ordered each table a bargain bucket LMAO

ellay864

I'm sure there is the facility for a proper evening do, disco etc as well... but not sure what the costs work out for that as I'm not going there! If you want to see Jane to have a look round etc you don't need to pay Zoo entry (tho personally I'd say pay and make a day of it, it's a fantastic Zoo but I'm a member and get free entry anyway so it's easy for me to say that lol). What you can do is call to make an appointment to see her (or if she's not there Ian who works there is great too - we saw him) and you can park at a different entrance closer to the Manor building. I don't know if they'd expect you to leave straight afterwards tho or whether you get to stay around. Being a charity I think it feels a bit cheeky but I get guilty too easy. Oh and in case you were wondering, there's no discount for zoo members so don't think of paying membership fee in the hope it'll make the wedding cheaper cos it won't lol...we did wonder that ourselves!
If you want a bit more detail about what we're having etc you can PM me and I can go into more of what it's like, what we're doing etc

nuttymummy

thank-you so much...i was worried about the disco part mainly so to hear there are facilities for that is brill! its where me and my fiance went on our first date and none of us could drive so my mum n dad drove us there ha ha so it just seems so fitting and sums us up really....getting married in a zoo sounds so fun!!

will Pm you now

matgooner

Hello All,

Long long time lurker, first time poster.

Me and my fiance are getting married at Chester Zoo in August 2011 and hopefully somebody has either got married or been to a wedding there.

So on with the questions....of which there are many :-)

Firstly, the wedding planner has advised us that we need to give confirmed names and numbers two weeks before and everybody need to bring ID to enter the Zoo, How strict are they with this?

We're having the BBQ in the evening, could anyone advise what is the quality of the food like, is there ample to feed people and if the numbers were slightly wrong by a couple....would there be an issue?

Lastly, how, if at all , did you dress the venue....both inside and out.

Cheers for reading and hopefully someone can be my oracle!

Mat

sammy_wheeler

ohh congrats. ellay will be able to help you as she is getting married there october next year

PolishBigSpender

It's a great idea to have the wedding inn the zoo. Our wedding reception will take place in a restaurant in Wroclaw Zoo. All the guests (especially the ones coming over from the UK) are excited, I don't see why anyone would object?

ellay864

I heard my name!!! Yes I'm getting married there next year but we're only having our daytime do there.
ID...we were told guests should bring their invites to get in. The guests will use a different entrance to the regular main entrance - the main entrance is right over the other side of the zoo, wedding guests use the Caughall Road entrance which is closer to the Oakfield. They'll need proof that they're attending the wedding as that entrance is only usually for staff or 'booked in' visitors
Evening BBQ - can't comment on - ask me in June after my friend's daughter has got married there!
As for dressing the room, we're not planning to do too much as the rooms are so beautiful as they are I don't want to mess with it too much. I know my friend is talking about doing some balloons when her daughter marries there but she said they weren't planning on doing a lot. I've been to the zoo loads when weddings have been ongoing and can't recally seeing anything on the outside. You've got plenty of time so why not pop along to the zoo one saturday from spring onwards and see how it looks...if there's a wedding on in the day the Oakfield will be closed but you can still go pretty close to the building and you can go by the lawn opposite - they only actually cordone off the patio area itself - obviously visitors can still go round the zoo itself. Last time we saw the bride and groom in the roman gardens having photos taken...people moved out the way but they don't actually stop zoo visitors going in areas, you just rely on them being polite enough to keep out your shots! My OH wants us to have photos taken in the tropical realm which means trekking across the whole zoo in my gown and heels lol