Wedding disaster

mshelsbels

Hello all,

Found out on friday that our reception venue was gutted by a fire and wont be ready in time for our wedding in 7 weeks. I'm completely devastated, but I'm trying not to lose it completely!! (I keep taking huge breaths!!)

The way I see it we have a couple of options (I'm trying to remain calm here)
1. Find another venue (my worries are people have booked accommodation, travel. Also chose the original venue as its 2 mins walk away from register office, and we go there all the time and love the food!)
2. Postpone until they're ready. The owner doesnt know how long this will be....poss end October / November. (My dress is summery, as are most of the guests outfits. The venue has a garden terrace and we were looking forward to being outside for some of the day, weather permitting.Again, guests have committed themselves already to time off work, and all of that)

I cant think straight - just need to get my head around this.... any suggestions please?

Hels

paulies_nixie

Awwww hun
were you insured??

Is there anywhere else close?
or a park you could mebbe put a marquee in?

sounds like you already made your mind up not to postpone - so thats a step forwards.

rinroo

When you say your worried people have booked accomodation - was it at that particular venue?

If it were me, I'd be hunting for another venue, you never know I bet there is one or two with a cancellation. Did you have a back up venue when you originally started looking?

I wouldn't want to postpone, given your dress is summery and guests taking time off work etc.. plus all the hard work and planning you would have been doing on the run up...but thats just my opinion.

Really sorry that your having suck bad luck so close to your wedding x

mumps

What a nightmare for you. Would they have room to put up a marquee for you?

mshelsbels

No - we didnt have insurance. The venue owner/chef has kindly offered to do the catering elsewhere if we can find somewhere.
(the venue was our favourite restaurant - we were taking over the whole place from 12 noon till 5.30pm and having champagne reception, fine food and fab wine with all our our best friends and close family. Its a lovely place, with a lounge area for the drinks reception, the dining bit, a bar and the garden terrace, so really 4 'rooms' where we could spread out a bit and perfect for a wedding reception)
I really cant begin to imagine being anywhere else for my wedding - we have ben hit terribly by the credit crunch this year (HTB self employed), so this fit our budget perfectly and have done so much already on our own, from the invites to calling in favours for other things. It was really all perfect!!
Just cant believe it.

ps...no they dont have room for a marquee.

SugarSpun

There was an empty restaurant under my apartment for a while, and the owner occasionally rented it out for one-night functions.

With the credit crunch something like that might work for you - but if the owner manages to rent it out in the meantime you might be back to square one. Still, if you're only seven weeks away it could work.

Alternatively, if there are any parks nearby you could enquire about permission to put up a marquee, or do you know anyone with a massive garden?

You could also rent a bus to get you from the registry office to the venue. That might cut down on the guests' problems with transport?

Norma_Desmond

Is there perhaps a 'nice' picturesque pub near the original venue; maybe one with good grounds for a marquee like others have said?
I'm sure many landlords would want a full house for a day in these times and be happy to give your party a bit of 'privacy'?
I certainly wouldn't want to postpone the wedding itself.

mrbrightside842

Hi! I'd go against postponing, as it would be a shame and you already have everything in place. I'd have a ring around nearby venues and see what they can offer, so that you have all options covered. Would you consider getting married on the day and having a meal/do somewhere else, and then having a big celebration when your dream venue is ready? You could all go out for a meal one your wedding day, and all pay for themselves, and on your 1 year anniversary you could hire out the original venue and have the party then. Would give you an extra year to save too, with H2B's work and all.

silverfairy

Sorry to hear about your venue.Do you have a local newspaper? Get your story in a.s.a.p. and maybe another venue will try to help out maybe offering rooms & facilities for your chef or giving a good discount on their own services,it would be good publicity for them and could help solving your problem.

paulies_nixie

silver fairy that is a FANTASTIC idea!!

bluemeanie999

Hels (((big hugs 2u)))

I myself was in your predicament last week when I found out my 2nd venue had shut down without even telling us (it happened with our 1st one too ) the next night we rung around places and even though its a little bit out of town managed to get somewhere else AND it is cheaper than other 2. I agree with others, don't go postponing and the newspaper idea is brilliant even if you go a bit away, minibuses or coach companies could help you out (we are currently looking at this now to get 100 people to our new venue).

fingers and toes crossed things work out for you hun xx