Wedding Venues in London, any recommendations?

lynzpower

Hi there all

New to this sort of thing so do bear with me. I proposed to OH last October, and all is fab, we are now starting to think about setting up a savings plan for our wedding. We would ideally like to marry summer 08. We arnt religeous, so will be a civil ceremony, which we could do in a registry office, or could do in a hotel or other, whatever looks the best I guess!

However, we dont really know how to plan the budget as we simply dont REALLY know what it will cost. Ive had a nose on the confetti venues and TBH Im a bit like :eek: at the prices. We are tending towards the idea of having it in london as most of our mates ( but neither of our families, they are at opposite ends of the country!) so we figured london the best bet then we dont have to force people to stay in an expensive hotel when they could just go home. However, I guess we are flexible on this, as long as the place is fairly easy to get to on public transport ( i know everyone says, its your day do what you want, but I want everyone there, not just those who can afford to run cars!)

We want something a bit more glam than a community hall, but not the ritz! We want somewhere fairly classy, but somewhere where our guests can enjoy themselves without minding thier Ps & Qs and where we can all get drunk without knocking over some v expensive antique!

So, any ideas, any thoughts? Been anywhere for a wedding you oculd recommend, if so what was the food like

All thoughts welcome!

Lagerlegs

how about looking at the canal museum, they have venue hire, they donlt have an alcohol licence but you buy the booze from the pub next door and they take it to the venue, so I suppose that would only work if you were thinking of buying all the drink yourself, or you could hire a boat on the thames. Prices are very reasonable. Congratulations by the way x

flossy_splodge

Yes- Dulwich College. Went to a civil partnership there and it was a wonderful venue. They can do catering if you want but can't see why you would HAVE to use their facilities for this bit if you didn't want. Buildings were lovely, masses of car parking, easy to get to, cheap hotels in area,food was in fact first class and no problem with alcohol licence....what more can I say! Sorry, don't know cost. Good luck.:j

lynzpower

thanks to both, keep em coming folks!!

Tondella

jude law and sadie frost had their do on a barge on the camden section of the grand union canal - good way of limiting numbers too!!

lynzpower

Hmm, Im not sure we want to limit numbers. One a rough guesstimate we will probably have about 60 for the breakfast and up to about 300 for the evening do. No wonder im scared about the cost

clarew

kew steam museum do weddings, as do syon house (isleworth). -as a west london girl, i'm afraid i dont know much about east london!!

congrats by the way.

lynzpower

thanks ever so much will look into these

stpandp

Just because you are not religious, did you know you can still have a church wedding? As the Church of England is the established church, you can get married at the church in whose parish you live. This year, the cost for such a wedding (fixed by parliament) is £218 - and in most parishes this will include marriage preparation, well worth hooking into, even if you do in the end choose a civil venue.

Rev John

lynzpower

thank you, but I am a committed humanist, and I would not feel comfortable in a church.

But thanks for the thoughts!

wolvesinwales

We stayed here at the weekend and it is a fabulous hotel and only 5 minutes from the DLR.

http://www.sunbornhotels.com/english/weddings.html