AAARRRGGGHHH and other exclamations of woe

White_Sapphire

I may be needingpeople's help.

Basically,H2B andIwere all set with our day venue and eveningvenue, ahefty deposit havingbeenpaidtotheday venue,andthings appeared to be chugging along nicely.

Then, H2B threw a spanner in the works byactually working out how much stuff was costing us, and basically ourbudget is spirallingout of control. We are now considering cancelling our venuesand doing something different (hopefully we might be abletoget deposit back ifother couples show interest in thedate, but wewon't depend on it).

Trouble is, we both have large families who we both really wanttobe there; he is very close to his extended family, andI, although not in regular contact, get on very well with uncles, aunts and cousins when I do see them, and see the wedding partly as a 'family get-together'.

Plus, we both want at least some ofthe trappings ofweddings, such asa sit down meal and a boogie in the evening. We are tryingto cut costs as much as possible, by havinga late-ish ceremony, DIY-ing as much as possible, and are lucky with our family andfriends in termsof skills andwillingness to help.

What we would love to have is a barn or other lovely building, preferably with outside space, that we can havethe run of, just hiring in caterers and doing everything else ourselves. We are havinga Humanist ceremony so the venue doesn'tneed to have a wedding licence.

Does anyone know of anywhere near Bristol, or at least not a massive trek away and within easy-ish reach of a motorway (lots of people travelling long distances)?

Many thanks, partly for just gettingto the end of my post!

x

sammy_wheeler

oh thats rubbish! hope u get it sorted!
i dont no the area so cant help in that way
am sure someone can though

MrsRadford_2b

Sorry to hear that!

Have you tried Conygre Hall at Timsbury? Nice village and fab views also very cheap to hire for the day. Less than £200. The inside is tastefully done and has enough chairs, tables and crockery. It also has a bar area you can use which is set apart from the main area and they do not charge corkage.
It's large enough to comfortably sit 160 guests. (I spent the whole morning playing around with arrangements!) It has lights you can dim to gibe effects etc.
I live in Bristol and went round all the village halls.

I also saw a smaller hall at Chew Stoke - very cheap at £50 yes you heard right! It's not very big and can take max I think 90 people for a sit down.

Went to Farmbrough Hall and it was nice as well but I felt it was too close to residential houses.

I was going for Conygre Hall as I really loved it but OH wanted Wales and a weekend recpetion as our friends all live far away and so we went for Wales
Hope this helps and that you find a place soon xx

White_Sapphire

Thank you Mrs Radford 2b! I have bookmarked Conygre Hall.

Whereabouts in Wales are you getting married?

Scotsbride

Hope you get it sorted White sapphire. Don't know any where in bristol but have you tried websites such as the knot and confetti that have budget planners on them. I know confetti allows you to ajust it and adds up how much you've spent already.

LEJC

This one isn't really your side of Bristol...more the other side of Bath... and its a beautiful barn setting...but it is listed on a wedding venue search website that you may be able to have a play around with to extend your search...
http://www.weddingvenues.com/venue5143.html

loads listed for search of Bristol...
something like this in Keynsham...other side of Bristol
http://www.weddingvenues.com/venue3957.html

How wide is your search area?...as there are loads of barns in the sorrounding areas..winterbourne has one and there seems to be loads further you go up towards Stroud..."barn venue bristol" googled long lists....

The beeches in Brislington is also a lovely place for a wedding...but unsure how large their capacity is...so it may be too small for a large wedding...

lovely place but again the other side of town to you..
http://www.pristonmill.co.uk/

It may be worthwhile trying to find a venue that can do both the day and evening together..that way there is a lot more flexability on the haggle price to get both bits within your budget..there are some prices on this one...obviously I dont know if that works out more than your original 2 venues but its a base to start from...
http://www.coombelodge.co.uk/index.html

or a farm...
http://www.follyfarm.org/weddings

I wasnt going to include this next link as its not covering your date...but has the week before...seems to cater for day and evening upto 80 people...with quite a few extras..if its appealing its worth negotiating!
http://www.winfordmanor.co.uk/upload/pages/file/documents/133summerweddingspecial2012.pdf



Also I think there may be a wedding fayre at bristol zoo pavilion tomorrow...sunday...might be worth a look ...if only for inspiration....

MrsRadford_2b

@ White_Saphhire, you are welcome!

We get married at Craig Y Nos Castle in the Brecons. We got a deal where if we have 50 guests staying, they waive the day hire (£5450) and the meal is reduced to £30 per head for adults and £15 for kids. Also included is welcome drinks. It's a two course meal but I don't mind as we are asking each table to bring different kinds of cakes and they would swap for dessert. We are having 2 starters and 2mains so works well for me.

We have all 146 guests staying so I negotiated a few things in - Drinks for toast, DJ, flowers for the celebration room and half price for me and OH's accomodation for 3 nights.
We are putting £1600 behind the bar for drinks and the mgt offered to make all drinks half price if we become members - so that brings our drinks bill down to £900.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend x

MrsDrink

White_Sapphire - I can't help in finding the location cause I don't know that area well at all (used to go to Exeter Uni but that seems many moons ago!) But I just wanted to say - if what you have planned to date isn't the wedding either of you wants (including budget wise) then I personally would wipe the slate clean and start again... well maybe not from scratch but definitely change things like the venue to the one you want. I would also say given how far away your wedding is* then chances are your current venue will be snapped up by other brides to be and you'll get your deposits back.

*I say how far away - in reality it'll fly by (well I'm hoping anyway - we're getting married in July 2012 and I want it NOW! ha!)

Mmm this post really isn't very helpful is it but I just wanted to give some support!

ac085

There is a little village hall in flax bourton.
I think it can hold about 150ish standing. They provide tables, chairs and cutlery etc for about £20. It's not too much to hire the place (i've forgotten how much though)

It's just off the a370 heading out of bristol. Isn't too far away for city centre hotels either.

There is a newish wedding venue in clevedon - The Clevedon Hall I think. Don't know their prices or anything so not sure if it would be suitable.

fawny

Hiya,

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the venue, hope you can find something thats suitable.

Debbiecatal

If you don't mind crossing the Severn Bridge, Catherine and David are getting married at Dingestow Village Hall, it is really pretty and we have the run of the place - there is outside space for a hog roast, a kitchen and bar, and a PA system and stage. The chairs are nice and the crockery and cutlery is ok too.