Is a village hall wedding much cheeper than your average wedding venue?

Little*Miss

Hi all,

Me and OH are thinking about the future and hopefully getting married in the next few years. Have been looking at wedding venues before they are pricy don't get me wrong, but when you compare these to a village hall wedding I personally haven't found too much in it, when you consider decorating the venue-flowers, candles, table, linen hire, time, stress etc etc.

What do you think/experiences is a village hall wedding much cheeper?

Thank you all!!!

P.s I live in the South West-wedding venues I have been looking at cost £6,000 including 3 course meal, toast drinks x2, couple of bottles of wine on eight tables.

belfastgirl23

I have been to both types of wedding recently. My observations were:

Church hall:

Positives:
You have control over the costs
You can implement your own vision of the wedding
Can feel friendlier and more intimate
Good if you have friends and family willing to help you out - eg your mum can grow flowers, your friends can help decorate.

Negatives
A lot more time intensive
Some people might look down on it (if that bothers you!)

Hotel

Positives
You have people paid to help you out
Venue might seem classier to some

Negatives
You have less control over costs etc
More impersonal

I have to say I enjoyed attending both but the church hall event felt very much in the image of the bride and groom whereas the hotel felt like any other wedding (and both were close family). So you need to decide what it is that you want, what would be your ideal big day, how much time you can give to planning it (accepting that time = money, so if you have lots of time and little cash, the church hall is best, if you have lots of cash and little time, the hotel is best). Also whether you have people around who would enjoy being part of it and who would have skills and time to give to helping you out.

Good luck with the decision making!

dizziblonde

Ours was cheaper - we got the use of the hall for free because they'd never done a wedding before and wanted the practice... but when I say village hall, it was a brand new purpose built community building, with proper commercial kitchens for the caterers to use and good quality tables and chairs etc - so not your stereotypical village hall.

And because it was the first wedding they'd had there - all the committee really pulled out all the stops going the extra mile, and the place looked amazing when it was decorated.

queena987

Yes,I think it is much cheaper..

kingfisherblue

A village hall will be much cheaper, but much more personal as your wedding won't be just one in a series of weddings throughout a season. You can choose everything to suit yourselves, and can get friends and family involved if you want to. It could also be easier and cheaper for transport for everyone - those who live locally can walk if they choose to, whereas hotels are often further away and can either cost a fortune in taxis or mean that someone can't have a drink.

onlyroz

Are you talking about the wedding itself, or the reception? Because you can have the reception wherever you want, and you can do whatever you want (e.g. you don't *have* to do the whole formal sit-down dinner with speeches thing if you don't want to). We did ours on a Thames riverboat with a buffet dinner and it didn't cost too much at all.

duchy

If you are trying to duplicate a hotel reception then yes you may find it as expensive because you don't have the bulk buying power or in-house resources a hotel has. If you want something more personal to you and individual a village hall or other venue may suit better,

My wedding (sitdown meal for fifty-didn't want a disco after although the option was there for us had we wanted to) was half the price of a hotel. We used a council owned function room in the local town hall which was walking distance of where we got married. We used external caterers who dealt with the decorating too and it looked fabulous. The room had its own bar and was entirely self contained. We got lots of comments about what a nice venue it was and how much more personal than a hotel. So there are other options rather than hotel v hall.

Seanymph

Ours was MUCH cheaper!

We had over 250 people at the church, pretty much the entire village turned out and we were able to make them all welcome - unfortunately it meant the vicar went on a bit (I don't think he normally saw that many people!) - but it was wonderful to see a full church.

To do a hotel thing from there would have been ridiculous, and with a big family on my new husbands side would have meant leaving people out. And we were on a budget!

So, we all walked up the road to the village hall (from memory it cost £40, but the village i am currently in is £5 an hour, so they aren't terribly expensive).

We had a buffet - part catered, part done ourselves - the caterers provided teenagers in white shirts and black trousers to hand out glasses of wine (bought from Tesco, no corkage at village halls - all on sale or return)...... and whilst we put out some tables, we didn't put out loads, the VH backed onto the village playing field and we opened the doors and people picnicked and milled about the playground with kids and drifted around - it was wonderful and unbelievably cheap.

We moved the two big flower stands from the church down there quickly (well someone else did whilst we had our pictures taken) so we used the flowers twice (the church took them back later so they could use them for the remembrance service the next day!).

Looking back I'd have liked a band playing, and could easily have asked people to bring a 'sharing dish' to add to the buffet.

But it was a huge informal gathering (although my husband was forced to make a speech despite not intending to). We timed it to be after lunch and before dinner, so no one was expecting three courses - and we were all there about three or four hours before everyone drifted away.

It depends what you want - but something personal and informal needn't cost so much.

suki1001

A village hall can be much cheaper, but if you want a 3 course meal, then that's what bumps the cost up, but I still think it will be cheaper.

Personally I'd opt for a village hall every time, partly because I find hotel receptions just a bit impersonal as others have commented on.

You can make it cost as much or as little as you want, depending on who does the catering. A hot buffet is a good compromise.

My mum got a local pub to do a bar at the village hall at her wedding reception, so I think they just had to pay for the staff.

Do remember, most people are happy to go to a wedding and as long as there's plenty of food, they're not bothered whether they have a 3 course meal or not. In fact the last 2 sit down 3 course meal weddings I've been to have been a bit of a let down and they weren't cheap either.

The only way to find out for yourself is to ring around some local caterers and find out the prices for food, as that's your biggest expense.

Good luck x

picnmix

I love village/community hall weddings.

I find the hotel ones are beautiful, but lack personality and all end up being much the same.

The best weddings I have been to are those in halls/community centres, they do not have the curb appeal of the grand hotels, but have great atmosphere and a lot of love put into them.

Last week but one we went to a wedding on a village green, it was great, the whole village had pitched in to help, a marquee had been erected,the brides family had made bunting, flower arrangements, balloons, it was wonderful. The food was from a catering company, but was delish and perfect.

haras_nosirrah

The big downside - the clean up!!!

Went to a wedding reception at a church hall on saturday. Guests left at 11:30 -the family left at 1:30 after the clean up. Big bonus of a hotel wedding is that they do the clean up not you