Help needed - Inexpensive London wedding venues

TuttiFruiti_2

Hi All (and congratulations!)

I'm new to this particular forum although I've been browsing MSE for a while. My partner (of 6 years) and I have recently decided to get married - date TBC - and are currently looking at potential venues in London.

We are also saving for our 1st home - which is a priority - so are planning on getting married for as little as possible whilst still having a big celebration (with my other half's large extended family)

Our total budget is £4.5 - 5K but that needs to include EVERYTHING - decorations, dresses, suits, flowers, stationery, honeymoon (although I'm willing to spend more on that if needs be (!)) etc

Is £5K a feasible budget? We have a guest list of 140/50 for the WB and an additional for the evening do

So... my question is this: can anyone here recommend any inexpensive but 'pretty' venues (but not a community or school hall) in west, north west or south west London that allows you to provide your own food and drink? We'd like somewhere that lends itself to some nice pictures

I'd be grateful for any help that you can give us, although I appreciate you may have tough job meeting all the requirements (we're struggling, hence why I'm on here)!

Thanks!

xoxo

ellay864

Firstly congratulations and welcome aboard
No idea about venues in London but noticing you have mentioned decorations and stationery they are 2 areas where you can save HUGE amounts of money if you browse for ideas on here. Loads of people have done their own or used things like Vistaprint (all my invites etc came from there) so you can take a lot of things way down in your budget for starters.
That's quite a lot of people for the main day so maybe you could think about having a late ceremony and doing some kind of buffet/BBQ in the evening instead, rather than a large number daytime meal and then more in the evening.
Hopefully you'll get some more help from locals who can give you some venue pointers

TuttiFruiti_2

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome

Thanks for the tip re Vistaprint - I'll bear them in mind for the invites - any other money saving tips like that are more than welcome so keep 'em coming!

I like the idea of having a slightly later ceremony (allows me more time to get ready;)) and providing a buffet meal for all our invitees. I don't *really* like the idea of a tiered guest list but our (limited) funds will dictate what we can and can't do

As my OH comes from a VERY big family - his immediate family is HUGE - we'd have to cater for all of the siblings, aunts/uncles, 1st and 2nd cousins. As you can tell, the 150 day list is mostly family (about 75% really) who would almost certainly 'expect' to be fed and watered adequately. We have been debating whether or not it is 'culturally acceptable' to expect our guests to pay for their own drinks hence the need to find a venue that allows us to provide our own drinks (preferably with no corkage fee applied)

We are also considering going abroad to get married but doubt that all of the key family members (children, siblings, parents, grandparents, nieces/nephews) would all be able to afford to come. Plus, we'd have to go during school holidays which just adds more to the overall budget...

Thanks again

SnapHappy_2

I do understand that it is difficult when large families are involved, but your budget is very tight and that is a seriously large number of people even on a considerably more generous budget. The venue and food will be killers, although reading round here and other places I know, you can certainly save a LOT of money on many of the aspects your day such as invites, decorations, etc, so do read as much as you can in these forums.

I am am newbie so I can't yet post links, but you may find it helpful reading the blog of another bride to be that is also working to a tight budget. She not only blogs about what she is doing for her own wedding, but also about other bargains and ideas she has come across long the way, so you may find that very useful too. Try googling or looking at Twitter for at-confessionsofb2b - hopefully you will find her.



Good luck in your planning and I hope you find a venue that is perfect :beer:

ellay864

TuttiFruiti wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome

Thanks for the tip re Vistaprint - I'll bear them in mind for the invites - any other money saving tips like that are more than welcome so keep 'em coming!

I like the idea of having a slightly later ceremony (allows me more time to get ready;)) and providing a buffet meal for all our invitees. I don't *really* like the idea of a tiered guest list but our (limited) funds will dictate what we can and can't do

As my OH comes from a VERY big family - his immediate family is HUGE - we'd have to cater for all of the siblings, aunts/uncles, 1st and 2nd cousins. As you can tell, the 150 day list is mostly family (about 75% really) who would almost certainly 'expect' to be fed and watered adequately. We have been debating whether or not it is 'culturally acceptable' to expect our guests to pay for their own drinks hence the need to find a venue that allows us to provide our own drinks (preferably with no corkage fee applied)

We are also considering going abroad to get married but doubt that all of the key family members (children, siblings, parents, grandparents, nieces/nephews) would all be able to afford to come. Plus, we'd have to go during school holidays which just adds more to the overall budget...

Thanks again

Yes it is! We're putting on drinks for welcome, toast and limited wine with the meal...any other drinks it's up to the guests to buy their own. From personal experience you'd be doing well if you can find a venue that lets you provide your own drink with no corkage...the cost of corkage at ours meant we'd save very little buying our own.
There are lots of ways you can have a large number of guests but keep costs down...there's no law saying it has to be a full 3 course meal for a start, plenty of other options on that one such as afternoon tea for those guests and buffet later on. And most people expect a 'tiered' guest list...by the time we've got mine and OHs kids and their partners, and our mums, that left us only 34 to invite to the day but up to 120 for the evening

Dekazer

I don't think this one is licensed, which may not suit you if you want everything in the one venue, but you might like it.. http://www.avenuehalls.com/ Certainly attractive.

For finding licensed venues, Local Authority websites are the best - find the area you prefer and search their website for licensed wedding venues. For example, Richmond has quite a long list: http://www.richmond.gov.uk/marriage_venues

We ended up going for a registry office in the end, because none of the licensed venue were quite right, but I looked through loads in Richmond, Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Hammersmith and there are some great ones

Good luck!

Alibear

Hi there, this might be a 'quirky' idea, but the London Canal Museum holds receptions and seems reasonable for central London. There's also a Premier Inn down the road for guests to stay in. You can use your own caterers which will bring the costs down... Hope it helps? http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/venue/wedding.htm

jojo2004

Hi TuttiFruiti,

Congratulations! How exciting!

So, to the questions.
London wedding venues will be more expensive than elsewhere - as suggested, look through Local Authority listings for a chance of finding something cheaper.

Other thoughts that came to mind immediately: does it have to be 'London' London, or would somewhere in the surrounding counties work? I know of a couple of venue in Aylebury that are nice, for example.

Def try to go out of season - we're saving about 2.5k by getting married the weekend after New Year.

Catering - somewhere that allows you to use caterers is fine (although if they limit the choice, beware of this upping your costs), but be aware that caterers will often take advantage of 'corkage free' venues by charging 'drinks service' charges. Somewhere that will allow self catering as an option would be the most flexible option.

Consider a BBQ/Hog Roast etc if you do go for a non-chilly date. They are more relaxed (picnic style?) and cheaper, and 3 courses is less expected then.

You could always ask for contributions to the wedding cost instead of a Gift List? Not traditional (in UK culture anyway), but quite normal in Spain, Greece etc...

Dresses - check out the second hand options - sellmyweddingdress.com, preloved.com and the various charity shops that have wedding dress 'boutiques' (Barnardos, Oxfam principally).

Rentnotbuy.com is good for, well, renting stuff that you don't want to have to buy, basically!

You could start combing charity shops for vintage crockery to dress whatever venue you have up, or think about using things like candles (cheap), charity shop glass vases with artificial flowers, paper pompoms/origami cranes (this is SUCH a cute idea, seen it done a few times), branches, pinecones etc as decorations - don't think you 'have' to have flowers. Do your own bouquet - either fresh flowers (Columbia Road flower market, or covent garden for supplies), or buttons/felt flowers/brooches.

Ask any bridesmaids (at the start) if they would be willing to wear their own dresses/buy their own. Mismatching can look very vintage and cool. Same goes for ushers - do they have a decent suit they would wear?

We prioritised our budget like this: food, venue, wine, church (fees), rings. That allows you to filter out what you don't really want to spend on - then don't spend on it! Use vistaprint for stationery, make your own, do it all via a wedding website etc. You can find ways around a lot of the (expensive) extras if you think about it.

HTH, and good luck.
xx

wanchai_2

Spam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rotfl:

TuttiFruiti_2

Hi SnapHappy

Sorry for the delayed reply - I've been busy the last few days looking for potential homes and wedding venues!:j

Thanks for recommending the blog to follow - I've added a bookmark of the site on our laptop and showed the OH so we'll continue to follow and look for cost-saving tips

With regards to the guest list - the OH's sister got married earlier this year so we're going to get tips from her on how to cull some people off the list. It IS proving challenging trying to cater for everyone and save money

Thanks again

SnapHappy wrote: »

I do understand that it is difficult when large families are involved, but your budget is very tight and that is a seriously large number of people even on a considerably more generous budget. The venue and food will be killers, although reading round here and other places I know, you can certainly save a LOT of money on many of the aspects your day such as invites, decorations, etc, so do read as much as you can in these forums.

I am am newbie so I can't yet post links, but you may find it helpful reading the blog of another bride to be that is also working to a tight budget. She not only blogs about what she is doing for her own wedding, but also about other bargains and ideas she has come across long the way, so you may find that very useful too. Try googling or looking at Twitter for at-confessionsofb2b - hopefully you will find her.



Good luck in your planning and I hope you find a venue that is perfect :beer:

TuttiFruiti_2

Hi Dekazer

Again - sorry for the delayed reply (reason as above)

Thanks for the recommendation - we'd seen Avenue Halls online previously (think i saw it recommended on the Hitched website) and had kind of dismissed it (well, the OH did really) for a variety of reasons: location (Kew - so assumed it would be pricey) and the fact that it was church hall-esque. However, I rung and spoke to the events/hire manager and he quoted me £1200 +VAT (if we book this year), otherwise £1400 +VAT!! It's a fully self-catering venue so you can bring your food and drink, which is ideal, but music must be cut off at 11pm
That's cheaper than other venues we've enquired at but it still seems pricey... What do you think?

I've looked online at the various approved venues on the local council websites and although some of the venues were impressive, they didn't seem like value for money... I'll look again though, just so i know whether we are totally dismissing them or not. I'm not that fussy - I just want to be married TBH - but the OH is another kettle of fish (his chest is very high and he wants things 'just right' - like Goldilocks;))

Dekazer wrote: »

I don't think this one is licensed, which may not suit you if you want everything in the one venue, but you might like it.. Certainly attractive.

For finding licensed venues, Local Authority websites are the best - find the area you prefer and search their website for licensed wedding venues. For example, Richmond has quite a long list:

We ended up going for a registry office in the end, because none of the licensed venue were quite right, but I looked through loads in Richmond, Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Hammersmith and there are some great ones

Good luck!