need opinions on reception venue please!

emlou2009

i've spent days googling and asking around and this sounds like the best place, although i've not been there myself yet a friend of a friend had a wedding there last year and everyone said it was lovely, also the prices seem fairly reasonable! there is a pdf brochure here that details most of their prices. we are looking to have our wedding at the local registry office, have the hot buffet selection package for the wedding guests (family and close friends - about 40 people, will be whittling them down hopefully but OH for some reason is insistent on inviting distant family just because he was invited to theirs!!) and then the rest of our friends will come to the evening reception.

what do you think of the prices? we only have a budget of about £2.5k for everything except my dress and the bridesmaids dresses which my nan has kindly offered to pay for :eek: are we going to be too stretched if we go for something like this?

also, if a venue has their prices set out so clearly in their brochure i wouldnt have thought it would be particularly easy to negotiate?

ETA - it does say the prices include complimentary use of the honeymoon suite for the night which is another plus, and we would not be taking them up on the decoration options as we could DIY it much cheaper IMO.

ETA again lol -
venue http://www.farmhouseinnlodge.com/innlodge/weddings.html
brochure http://www.farmhouseinnlodge.com/innlodge/pdfs/2008%20wedding%20package.pdf

Horace

Did you want us to look at the pdf brochure? We can't see it as you havent told us the venue.

Prices are always negotiable - if you don't ask then you don't get.

Re your guest list: invite people that you know, no point in inviting great aunt maud if you never see her, same goes for distant cousins regardless of whether or not OH went to their wedding. How many people do you want at the wedding - more people means more cost, less people less cost. Maybe the room size doesnt allow for 100s of people?

emlou2009

do the links not work? hang on, i'll add them again

emlou2009

Horace wrote: »

Did you want us to look at the pdf brochure? We can't see it as you havent told us the venue.

Prices are always negotiable - if you don't ask then you don't get.

Re your guest list: invite people that you know, no point in inviting great aunt maud if you never see her, same goes for distant cousins regardless of whether or not OH went to their wedding. How many people do you want at the wedding - more people means more cost, less people less cost. Maybe the room size doesnt allow for 100s of people?

i keep telling him that :rolleyes: he thinks he needs to, to be courteous! i say sod being courteous, money is money!! the venue will hold 170 people in the evening which is £250 and 100 in the day which is £195, which i dont really understand so would have to ask about that.

lindaatno9

emlou2009 wrote: »

i keep telling him that :rolleyes: he thinks he needs to, to be courteous! i say sod being courteous, money is money!! .

Courteousness is like scruples. leave them at the door when talking about budgets and money. If you want a family reunion, leave that to a seperate occasion. This is about you getting married and what you can afford.

trina2010

venue seems to look nice enough, although there dont seem to be any pictures of the outside of the building, I would advise you to definitely go and see it before you think about any firm plans.

the main thing that would worry me is that they seem to have 2 rooms... both to accomodate up to 170, if you are only having 40 guests it may very well feel that you are rolling around in this big room rather than feeling as comfortable as you otherwise would.
I could be wrong, but this would certainly be the first thing that I would look at.

the reason for the difference in price could possibly be the fact that the longer you are within the venue, the more money they will make from the wedding party, so will drop the room hire price to tempt you to book the whole day instead of just the evening. (remember thats just my opinion, I would definitely ask anyway)

hope this helps you a bit

Trina
x

dizziblonde

Just something to consider with guest lists that cropped up at a recent family wedding. The recession's hitting hard and they lost about 10 or so of their guests who had a fair way to travel as they simply couldn't afford to with job cuts and things going on. Just something to potentially bear in mind I guess (and one reason we're getting married where the family are from rather than where we live - loses out on our friends coming but means the relatives aren't as inconvenienced - and hopefully means more of them will show up - I'm terrified about no one wanting to come!).

emlou2009

trina2010 wrote: »

venue seems to look nice enough, although there dont seem to be any pictures of the outside of the building, I would advise you to definitely go and see it before you think about any firm plans.

the main thing that would worry me is that they seem to have 2 rooms... both to accomodate up to 170, if you are only having 40 guests it may very well feel that you are rolling around in this big room rather than feeling as comfortable as you otherwise would.
I could be wrong, but this would certainly be the first thing that I would look at.

the reason for the difference in price could possibly be the fact that the longer you are within the venue, the more money they will make from the wedding party, so will drop the room hire price to tempt you to book the whole day instead of just the evening. (remember thats just my opinion, I would definitely ask anyway)

hope this helps you a bit

Trina
x

the outside of the building just looks like a normal pub with a lawn outside and some picnic tables really, its nothing special, but for nice outside type pictures the registry office has a really nice garden. i am going to look at 2 possible venues tomorrow and i've left a message for this one so hopefully it will be the third! the other two places we will be looking at are a restaurant with a function room, so will probably be smaller, and the local holiday inn of all places which isnt as weird as it sounds cos it was refurbished a couple of years ago and is really nice!
the 40 people is just for the meal, for the evening reception we have at least another 100 coming so although it might look a bit empty for the meal it will fill up.

dizziblonde wrote: »

Just something to consider with guest lists that cropped up at a recent family wedding. The recession's hitting hard and they lost about 10 or so of their guests who had a fair way to travel as they simply couldn't afford to with job cuts and things going on. Just something to potentially bear in mind I guess (and one reason we're getting married where the family are from rather than where we live - loses out on our friends coming but means the relatives aren't as inconvenienced - and hopefully means more of them will show up - I'm terrified about no one wanting to come!).

thats a very good point, its one of the reasons we think the inn lodge will be the one, as its a bit closer to OH's hometown and will be easier for his friends to get to.

Skint_Catt

Please go and see it!

We saw a perfect place on the internet - gorgeous and reasonably cheap - and they said they had a lot of dates available next year.

When we got there we realised why - very selective photo's and the civil ceremony room my OH called a morgue! It was black! :eek: :rotfl:

emlou2009

well we went to have a look at the inn lodge and thought it was lovely, and then went on to the holiday inn and we were totally stunned - its amazing! we really didnt think we could afford anything like what their facilities look like. gorgeous room which opens onto a private courtyard, and a special pretty garden area too. so chuffed. and heres the best bit - they do weddings for £1000 :eek:

the £1000 includes a one night stay, evening sandwiches for 100, evening DJ til midnight, bar til 2am, all day room hire, drinks reception and hot fork buffet (wedding breakfast) for 30, cake stand, civil ceremony room hire, red carpet and a wedding co ordinator! basically if we deliver all the bits for the centrepieces, chair covers etc, she will do it all for us! and they offer half price accomodation for our guests too! i'm so pleased i could poop :rotfl:

they are also flexible on it all, so if we dont want evening sandwiches we can swap them to the wedding breakfast to get more of a budget there, or to the drinks etc. they will also arrange for us to get married there for £250, which is about the same as the registry office so we have decided to get married there instead. :j

bubble96

hi, is that portsmouth holiday inn or fareham?