London/Surrey Weddings?

browneyedbazzi

Hello folks,

Is anyone else planning a wedding in London or Surrey at the moment? Or done so recently?

My OH took me by surprise and proposed while we were on holiday in August and we're hoping to get married next May or June. I've recently started looking at venues and have been shocked by the costs - a couple of places I've looked at had reasonable hire charges, but only allowed approved caterers/suppliers which were extortionate and seemed to have unreasonable 'minimum spends' (one quote was £10k for food and drinks for a party of 50!!!).

We're not religious so will be having a civil ceremony - we're considering both all in one venues where we can have the ceremony and reception and having a registry office ceremony followed by a reception nearby (which will save the fee for the registrar attending a licensed venue - York House in Twickenham or Morden Park House in Merton both look nice options for this).

I was wondering if anyone knows of some affordable venues, caterers, florists etc in the area? Any tips would be appreciated!

cashewnut

The Knights Templar on Chancery Lane does a cracking wedding deal, I think 3k all in. It IS a wetherspoons but it's a nice one!

browneyedbazzi

Thanks cashewnut, I'd have never thought to look at a Whetherspoons....I can't imagine them feeling very wedding-ish

cashewnut

If I was getting married in London it's where I'd go! I saw the actor Robert Powell in there recently so it's obviously a stylish venue

I'm marrying in Hertfordshire but like you was horrified by the prices. We managed to find a gorgeous 18th century hotel for our reception that does a package for 50 for 2.5 k so pretty happy. Some venues charge that just for hire!

browneyedbazzi

Would you mind sharing the name of your venue in Hertfordshire? That isn't terribly far for us to go and as many of our guests live in the Midlands and further north it might be an option - my partner's best man lives in Hertfordshire so it might even save on the night before hotel bill lol

cashewnut

Check your messages

browneyedbazzi

Thank you!

We're going to look at a rowing club and a country house hotel later in the week.

w211

How about Kempton Park or Sandown Park?

browneyedbazzi

w211 wrote: »

How about Kempton Park or Sandown Park?

Thank you for the suggestions but I go to Kempton and Sandown for work sometimes so I don't think either are places I'd like to get married.

Some of the DeVere hotels have good offers on for weddings next May so I'm going to look at a couple of them - one is offering a wedding with 50 guests for £4k all in (including a dj for the evening) which sounds quite reasonable. They seem to be nice old manor houses that have been converted into hotels with nice gardens etc so quite picturesque. I'm hoping we'll like one of them because it would make planning so much easier!

sl_jones

We are planning on getting married at Northbrook park which was quite reasonable. It was just 3K for both the ceremony and the reception (in April) and we are having a luxury BBQ done by Scotts of Carshalton which is costing us 4.5K for 60 people.

I would highly recommend Northbrook as they have cottage site for people to stay over in. The only down side is you have to pick from a list of caterers, or pay charge for any external.