surprise wedding (sort of)

nick49

Hi,

I'm looking at booking our wedding as a surprise for my partners Christmas present. We were due to get married last year at a local hotel but we cancelled as it felt like we had chosen somewhere local to keep everyone else happy and it wasn't the place that we had both pictured when we started looking at locations. She is very keen on the idea of getting married in Gretna Green, I was thinking of booking the ceremony as her Christmas present and then building a package with her once she knows.

I've been searching the net for a while and I know she was keen on anvil hall and auchen castle. I think it would only be for around 20-25 adults and maybe 8 children. The packages I've looked at offer set menus, I've had a quick look at them and I'm not sure they're our sort of thing, is there any restaurants that we could go to instead? I'd arrange for us to have a nice hotel for the night but are there any/many reasonable priced hotels locally? I don't want to invite people then expect them to pay out too much for a hotel. also with the numbers we're looking at do you think a reception is really necessary? I know that sounds a bit of a strange question I'm just not sure there would be enough people for a disco as we'd have a party when we get home (we live in the midlands). maybe if there's a nice smallish restaurant that we could hire out for a meal and have a sort of reception there?

I've also seen Comlongon Castle which seems very nice, and not too far from Gretna, I've read some things that have said Gretna itself isn't as nice as people think, I apologise if anyone is offended by that but I just want to get things as right as possible and feel maybe the Castle would give her more of a dream wedding feel but without spending enough to go bankrupt. I'm open to ideas and suggestions, any help is appreciated (and needed).

thanks,

nick

jansus

Have you looked at the Gretna wedding bureau lots of ideas and prices on there and you can easily have a reception without a disco if you get married late in the afternoon and have a meal later. I'm sure she will be thrilled with her Christmas present. Good luck

CompBunny

I have no advice to share, but good luck with your plans! I think its a wonderful idea

aliasojo

nick49 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking at booking our wedding as a surprise for my partners Christmas present.

I don't want to rain on your parade honestly but I'd be piddled off if my OH arranged our marriage as my present.

It seems to suggest that it's more a one sided thing if it's a present for somebody if that makes sense?

However everyone is different, just make sure you are certain as to how she'd look at this.

GlamGirlie

I have no advice I'm afraid, and I know nothing about getting married in Gretna, but having organised a wedding in England, I would ask if you have considered the legalities of organising a wedding as a surprise - does your partner need to be there to sign? Provide ID? etc etc....

nick49

Hi,

thanks for the replies,

aliasojo - I appreciate your thoughts on this, maybe present isn't the right word, I was thinking that its a sort of weird thing to say at Christmas - 'your Christmas present is you get to marry me'.
She has been looking quite a lot and would like to get married this year if we could, this year wont be possible but I was hoping to have just a location booked and then once she knows we'd do all the planning etc. I would be getting her presents for Christmas too not just using this

GlamGirlie - thanks for your comment, I'm literally just looking at getting a location booked as the surprise then doing everything after she knows. The places I've spoken to so faar have said it wouldn't be a problem and once we are looking at booking a registrar then we'd need ID etc

jansus - thanks for the suggestion I will have a look at the bureau to get some ideas

CompBunny - thank you for the comment, I think i'm going to need some luck to organise this

Thanks,

Nick

aliasojo

nick49 wrote: »

aliasojo - I appreciate your thoughts on this, maybe present isn't the right word, I was thinking that its a sort of weird thing to say at Christmas - 'your Christmas present is you get to marry me'.

That was kinda what I was thinking. :rotfl:

Sounds like you have it sussed though so I wish you all the luck in the world and hope your planning leads to a great day. :beer:

Sazzarella

I know nothing about Gretna but good luck. I think that would be a lovely surprise to get at Xmas

LEJC

I really love the idea and the sentiment behind it BUT if it were me I wouldnt go as far as actually booking the wedding...

However you could put together a really lovely sentimental thoughful present for her at christmas.

Why dont you start by getting a nice large notebook or folder and divide your ideas into sections..in effect creating a lovely keepsake but also a working book that you can both use to continue planning once the surprise has been unveiled.

I wouldnt book the venue until you have both had time to research and indeed find out how many of your guests are likely to be able to make the journey...at this stage lots of people will probably say yes but faced with a date time and venue you may find that their response is slightly less enthusiastic once the realisation of cost etc comes into play.....this might also be true of you too.
Its a lot easier to book something some distance away when fewer people are involved and something to consider would be just taking the nearest and dearest with you and having a bigger celebration on your return

I seem to remember that recently there was a bride on here that made the trip to gretna...not sure if shes still around and think she had something very small with just parents etc so if anyone can remember who I'm thinking of it might be worth messaging her for a few tips...possibly Georgie??

Good luck..I hope you keep us updated with your progress...

scousewife

I think your idea is lovely & wish you luck with it.

I would wholeheartedly recommend The Mill in Gretna
http://www.themill.co.uk/

We married here some 10 years ago & went back in December for our 10th anniversary & its still a lovely place.
We only had 3 adult guests & my stepdaughter, so only 6 in our party altogether and we were seated in a private area in the restaurant & chose our meals from the restaurant menu as didn't want a set menu. (2 of our guests had been living in abroad so fancied nice simple food so steak & kidney pie went down a treat with them!) there is a quiet snug area to have a relaxing drink afterwards or a disco area to share with other wedding parties if you chose. With regard to cheap accommodation there is a travel lodge close by to Gretna http://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/199/Carlisle-Todhills-hotel

HTH

skateykatey

I got married at Comlongon earlier this year; and it was amazing.

Booked the whole thing with the gretna wedding bureau and they were brilliant and really took the hassle out of things.

Our families are all over the UK and trying to find one destination that suited everyone was a nightmare; hence picking gretna.

If you need any more info, feel free to PM me.