Budget wedding Birmingham, venues?

schizometric

I'm having a bit of a nightmare! I can identify with the eloping post on here verrry much.

I've been searching for ages for a wedding venue within about 30 miles of Birmingham. I think I need a wedding planner (can't afford it though ). What we need is the following:

A civil ceremony, (how late can they be?)
Food for 65 people to the main do and 65 to the evening do, or preferably just one do and only spending around £15 per head for a BBQ or something (is this possible unless you get a town hall? cant find any nice town halls locally!!!)

But I can't find anywhere nice! The cheapest I've got it to for venue hire, ceremony and food for day and evening as above is about 6k. The wedding is next August and it would be almost impossible for us to save that much by then, let alone the extras (dress etc). Are there any nice town halls around here? I also don't want to marry in a registry office (too reminiscent of my parents!) so want a venue for that...

Our parents sadly arent able to help with costs, yet everyone around us seems to have really high expectations... which I know I shouldn't listen to but it's hard!

Can anyone help? xx

spoonymoose

http://custardfactoryspaces.co.uk/about/wedding/#

Civil ceremony - £400
Package C - £600
Plus food for 65 - £1625
Total £2625

I'll keep looking though!

Is there any type of place in particular you'd like? Old building? Outdoor area? Grand hall?

Also how much would the limit be?

spoonymoose

http://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-venues/birmingham.htm?location=15973 - venues around 30 miles of Brum...

http://www.ramadajarvis.co.uk/hotels/kidderminster/weddings.aspx?terms=kidderminster - I enquired about the Ramada before and they do a £1000 package for 80 evening guests... It's not on their website, only the £3000 wedding but if you ummm and ahhh a bit they'll send you the flyer for the grand wedding (I think I've still got it if you'd like it emailing to you?)

miss_pixie_2

We are having a package for £1000 at days inn chester, there is one in birmingham but not sure if they do £1000 package
we are paying £1000 for
wedding breakfast for 40ppl
buffet for 70 at night
cava to toast speeches
MC
red carpet
table settings napkins placecards, table plan etc
cake stand and knife
top table flowers
honeymoon suite for bride and groom with champers and strawberries
discounted rooms for our guests

and then paying an extra £175 for a DJ so may be worth looking seeing if birmingham have something similar

fawny

http://www.britanniahotels.com/weddings?gclid=COzZ6oWqtagCFQRqfAod925tDg

schizometric

spoony - thanks for the suggestions! I've checked hitched but they mostly seem very expensive. The custard factory looks doable though and I really like it - very modern etc. I'll be giving them a call! Would like catering to be hired in though if it's likely to be cheaper; £25 per head is OK for 65, but would need to cater a little for evening guests too.

Ideally we'd like to keep venue hire + food + wine to a total of about 3k ideally! How that's possible I don't know

Nyankochan_2

Sorry, no weblinks as I'm on my iPod and it's a bit fiddly, but Google them: the Uffculme centre near Moseley (a nice big Victorian building) and Hatton village Hall, which is out towards Warwick. Nice building for a village hall, costs £800 to hire (including ceremony) and you can bring in your own caterers.

FYI we are getting married in Highbury Hall, which we thought was out of our price range initially but we took advantage of their winter special package which is £1800 for 40 people. Only includes two courses and reception drink though, so by the time you factor in table wine, third course, tea/coffee with the meal, VAT etc it's more like £3000-£3500. Lovely, lovely place though, could be worth a look if you're planning to get married in Jan-March of next year!

_PennyLane_

Hi schizometric,

I'm afraid I can't recommend any specific venues as I'm not from the Birmingham area, however, I recently came across a wedding directory which helped me find my wedding venue so I thought I'd share!

The site's called WeddingReview.co.uk. Sorry, I can't post the link as I've only recently joined MSE, but you can Google it, or just remove the spaces from the the txt below ;-) !

http:// www. weddingreview.co.uk/venues/west-midlands/west-midlands/

Looks like it's a relatively new site, as there are only a few businesses which have been reviewed but it does have a very good directory of venues with civil ceremony licenses.

Also, if you're still searching for other stuff like photographer's, florists, caterers etc, it has loads of these listed - something I've found to be lacking on other wedding sites.

Hope it helps in your search anyway, it's a difficult process - I know!

xx

MsShopper

I have a suggestion, if it's not too late for you, schizometric?

We've booked our wedding at the Eaton Hotel in Edgbaston - https://www.eatonhotel.co.uk. We're on a tight budget and weren't sure we could afford a hotel 'package'. But their prices are very reasonable for a hotel of that standard, and the events manager is lovely and very helpful. Our wedding is next year but they held their 2011 prices, and they offer a discount on their room rate to wedding guests.

Good luck!

schizometric

Thanks for all your advice on here.

Although I am still looking to reduce costs (ahhh!) and we are checking out the Botanical Gardens tomorrow....

I think I have settled on the Granary in Kidderminster. They offer an afternoon tea for £13 ish for after the ceremony, BBQ in the evening for £20 ish plus drinks which isnt too pricey on top.

We are catering for 80 ish in the day and 120 in total at night. (would be nice to have firmer numbers for the old budget but you just cant ask people this far in advance I guess!!).

We met with some caterers and we were given the impression that it's not really much cheaper to go with them. Could be the caterers we met with though rather than a reflection in general and she was unable to provide a quote after us waiting for ages.

I don't really know! We went to see Hatton but we were a little unconvinced by the absolutely tiny outdoor space :-\ for an August wedding....!

I think its the sheer amount of people we're having and we really cant find ways to cut down on this. If anyone has any more suggestions please do post

schizometric

Forgot to add - thank you for the Uffculme suggestion.. I think we will try to go see them. I work for the NHS so have been to bits and bobs but not thought about it as a venue before!