Chester Zoo weddings?

nuttymummy

still thinking about getting married here!! waiting for an e-mail as to when i can see Jane in January

hoping to make it as cheap as possible...but with the safari BBQ

ellay, not sure if i asked or not, but when they give u the menu for the meal...is there any alternative to that? do you think if u asked they would maybe serve food that they usually make for the cafe/restaurant part instead?

matgooner

They are very flexible when it comes to food, order of how you want things.

We're getting married at two with around 60 guests, then we've got afternoon tea (Scones, Cupcakes and Sandwiches) with Pimms and Bucks Fizz for 90 guests with an acoustic guitarist. between 3.30 and 5.00 people can look round the Zoo. 5.15-6.00 Speeches and Champers. 6.30 - 8.00 we've got the safari. then BBQ when we get back with Tequila/Jagermeister all round and we finish off with a Ratpack Singer from 8.00 - 9.30 and a DJ until 12pm.

I thought it was cheap but it soon stacks up, £2,000 for the Venue, Afternoon Tea is around £6 a head and BBQ £35 a head. Then little extras like a Cheese board is £100 and Dessert is £3 a head. Plus drinks for people. We're looking at the best part of £6500 for the Venue.

ellay864

There is flexibility on food in that there's different options like the afternoon tea etc. But you couldn't just order the regular cafe stuff I don't think. They have a pack with all the different options - I just got the new one last week. This is what you can have:
Full wedding breakfast, 3 course meal - you select one starter, main and dessert - cheapest choices would come to £16.15/head, dearest would be £32.25/head. That doesn't include drinks
Buffet - cheapest option is £14.50/head, pay more if you choose extra things to add
Dressed and carved buffet with cold meats £29.50/head doesn't inlcude dessert
Afternoon tea wasn't in our pack but we had already said we didn't want that so maybe that's why
Tbh their actual venue price isn't as high as some so I guess they make it up on food - you have to use their caterers, and maybe that's whythey wouldn't serve the usual restaurant choices...you could always ask, they can only say no so you'd be no worse off. If you're doing the whole day and evening there I guess you'd be having the BBQ safari so you can't save on that - there's a set price and a minimum number of 60 you have to pay for. But if you're doing that then mat's idea of doing just afternoon tea would be a way to save. We're only having the daytime there, and a max of 45 guests (we don't have to have 60 as we're not doing the safari), but we're going for the full wedding breakfast as we're only doing a light buffet in the evening
When are you hoping to book for...they're already booking into 2012 so get in quick!!

Edit to add...safari is £33.50 per person when booking a wedding package

nuttymummy

well we didnt have a date yet....we were hoping to go and find out if its afordable for us...how much it was going to cost and then set the date to however long it will take us to save that amount.....im hoping to get married beginning of september, but which year depends on how much we have to save LOL

i must have the old pack then as it has no mention of afternoon tea's etc. though sounds like a good idea if you are getting married in the afternoon and the guests have already had dinner. saves us having to pay for a full meal!
though if we did opt for the meal i was hoping they may serve food from the adjoining 'pub' part they have on the side. my guests would much rather have pub grub than a 3 course meal LOL

so the venue is £2000? im sure i read somewhere u could just have a room for about £400...is this still available?

i have said that the safari is a must so we compensated for the minimum of 60 guests for that too.

just hope its something we can afford, there seems to be loads of hidden costs!

jennikitten

It's a great idea to make a wedding a bit different, people often get bored at weddings & sounds like there would be lots to do. Not sure I would choose Chester Zoo though, last time I went in the summer there were lots of severely depressed animals there & it kind of ruined the day for me.

ellay864

Nuttymummy...they wont serve the food from the pub part, I'm almost certain of that though if you ask...nothing ventured and all that
As for venue hire, it's £200 for exclsuive use the full day and evening Friday and Saturday, or £1450 Sunday to Thursday.
We couldnt run to that so we originally decided to have just one room - that was £400 but is non-exclusive use so zoo guests could still use the other room and the bar/cafe. Then we were struggling with numbers so we've paid to have both rooms but for daytime only - that's costing £750. I'm not 100% sure it's exclusive use (other people may get to use the bar area) but it's never that busy in there and especially mid October so we're going for that. But that is daytime use only - we're going elsewhere for the evening do so then you'd need to factor in transport etc
But you said you wanted the BBQ safari...so you're looking at whole day use. Not sure if you can do just a one-room deal for an all day do. I got the impression that was really just for people not doing an evening there. Just give Jane a call/e-mail and ask for all the possible options

ellay864

jennikitten wrote: »

It's a great idea to make a wedding a bit different, people often get bored at weddings & sounds like there would be lots to do. Not sure I would choose Chester Zoo though, last time I went in the summer there were lots of severely depressed animals there & it kind of ruined the day for me.

Sorry you found it depressing - we're members and go there loads and I've always been really impressed with the way the animals are looked after. The place is really special to us and it's the only place I wanted to get married