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.

Olokia

I was wondering the same thing before booking my venue.

For my wedding venue and the local village hall, I calculated the cost and it surprisingly came to the same amount. Also factoring in that the wedding venue did everything for us (including the clean up afterwards.) It was better to go with the venue.

Obviously it depends on the venue and the hall.

double_mummy

little miss you dont say how many people you are having

some venues have minimum numbers so the village hall can be cheaper if you dont want to have as many people as they say you have to have

Scotsbride

yes we booked a village hall for £95 from 10pm on the 28th sept -midnight on 29th it worth factoring in things like catering, working out who's going to tidy and clear up and also finding out whether you can wear high heels some village halls around us don't allow high heels as they dent the floor!

Debbiecatal

My daughter's village hall wedding is costing us about £7000 which includes absolutely everything except the hen and stag nights and the honeymoon. This is for 70 people for the day and about 200 in the evening. I think we have done it cheaper by hiring a village hall, but it is definitely a lot more work to do it this way, so you have to weigh up the cost versus the time and effort you will have to expend.

Having said that, a village hall wedding is unique and you can really make it your own, so I think the time and effort in our case is well worth it. Will let you know after 22 September if I still feel the same!

Burlesque_Babe

we were going to have our village hall (£50), have caterers with a hot buffet (£500, bring it, take it all away) and decorate and set up the place ourselves.

We realised that whilst we were only looking at 40-50 guests, there was so much to 'gather' - linen, table decorations, ways of decorating the hall that it could start to get expensive. We would also be buying all the alcohol as there is no bar there. We had initially considered doing the food ourselves as we are both keen cooks but realised this would be madness :rotfl:

It also meant us setting the place up and relying on relatives to put it all away the day afterwards when we were whizzing off on our honeymoon.

We decided in the end to use our favourite local hotel - their small room is free and lovely and the food is £350 for the eventual 20 people we have decided to invite, arrival and table drinks are £150 and they will set it all up for us.

Much less hassle, still as personal to us as it is a little place where we know the staff and has fond memories because we used to stay there.

Little*Miss

Thank you all for your replies!

Interesting, I think I need to start making a few calls when we have an idea of a date.

There are pros and cons against both, I LOVE the idea of doing everything ourselves and making it all completely unique. But at the same time like Burlesque Babe mentioned there is a LOT to buy and organise. It really will depend on the difference in pricing I think for us. I don't mind putting in the time and effort if it's worth it financially.

Oh and the wedding would be for 80-100 people.

Good luck Debbiecatal with your daughters wedding!

Scotsbride good point about the heels and good luck with your wedding too!:D

Thanks for your comments.

xxxxxxx

*miaomiao*

We looking into the same for our upcoming wedding and hoped to have the same number of people. After being impressed initially with the low hall rental cost, the amount of work required the day before, monitoring things during your own wedding and cleaning up the day after, we decided that not only was it not cheaper it was way too much work. And then we found a venue that will do it all for the same price, no ordering of crockery/utensils/tables/chairs/tableclothes....etc.

Crowdpleaser

Im not having a village hall wedding but our venue is free as we work there but its not for the faint hearted as I am in stress central now due to all the making, organising, negotiations, booking Im having to do. For someone who has 3 jobs and a young family, this is not easy! But I wonuldn;t change it as I love where we are having it. You have to weigh up stress and work versus money. We dont have money so stress and work it is LOL! xxx

Idiophreak

I think it depends on what you're going to do, really...

If you just want to have some tea and cake, or a homemade buffet, in a relatively plain surrounding, I think the village hall would probably work out cheaper...But as soon as you start thinking caterers, bar staff, fancy decorations, DJs, furniture hire etc, I think you're looking at a) much more effort and b) probably as much/more money as just going to a "fancy" venue...somewhere that's set up for doing weddings 3 or 4 nights a week and has all the staff etc in place already.

littleemmie

We are having our reception in a village hall and it has saved us a lot of money. We needed a venue for 150 guests and all other venues big enough for that many in our area were in the thousands just for venue hire.

Having a village hall has also meant we can source our own caterer. Her sit down 3 course meals are less than £20 per head, including table cloths, waitresses and cutlery. We are hiring a bar (I say hiring, they do it for free as they make enough money from the drinks sales) and my Mum has made all the wine for the meal giving us a huge saving (no corkage also). All decorations for the hall have been fairly cheap online.

For us having a hall has also meant we can put our own stamp on it. Yes we will have the faff of setting up with our army of helpers the day before, and clearing away the next day, but it means we have had a blank canvas and can totally make the hall, and our day, as personal and unique as possible. It has also been good to use local suppliers, most of them smaller businesses, and they seem to have given us much better service and have been a lot more 'personal' than we found with the standard wedding venues, iykwim.

Our hall is lovely, with a big playing field where we are having giant games, and the full length windows on both sides of hall overlook the hills of the countryside. I can't wait!!