Venue ideas and decorations 19 April 2017 at 12:51PM in Weddings & anniversaries 9 replies 6.1K views

immuno

Hi guys,

My partner and I are looking to invite only 40-50 guests, and haven't come across many venues for such small numbers. We'd prefer to have round tables instead of one long table..hence the difficulty. We're willing to increase numbers to 50 just for that. We'd prefer a venue around London, so Kent, Essex, Surrey are all good...any ideas? We've looked at a few places in Richmond, but are still trying to find other options. We're flexible with having our ceremony elsewhere, as long as it's not far from the reception venue.

Any ideas on how to save on decorations would be appreciated! Especially flowers and table centrepieces.

Thanks! :j

firebird082

What type of venues are you after? I found loads that would have been suitable for that sort of size - all sorts of places have function rooms / garden rooms etc. Look outside all the 'normal' wedding venue type places - try museums, societies, places that have halls for hire.

VintageHistorian

Try The Maltings in Great Dunmow in Essex, only fits a maximum of 60 people, and you can have the ceremony and reception in the same space They don't have round tables but they can put two rectangular ones together to get a square, which could work.

nimbo

What time of year are you getting married?

You could grow some flowers?

Going to a flower market and arranging them in jam jars to remove the need for a florist?

paddyrg

Village halls? Usually have parking/hard standing which gives you more flexibility

ceb1995

Silk flowers can be a much cheaper option? Got all of ours off amazon for about £100

WolfSong2000

A friend of mine recently got married in Witley (near Guildford in Surrey) and had roughly the same number of guests you're looking at. The church is gorgeous - small and very old, and reception was held at the village hall which they had decorated beautifully.

Hands down the best wedding I've been to - both venues were lovely.

Lavendyr

I can't suggest specifics, but have you thought about having your reception in a restaurant? This is what we did, we had 60 people for the wedding breakfast and were able to add an extra 20 for the evening. We hired the entire restaurant for the afternoon/evening and, including food (we were able to offer 3 choices at each course because it was a restaurant) and wine (keep pouring!) except the evening which was a cash bar, it came in at £5k all in. That included canapes and prosecco on arrival, champagne for the toasts and a large cheese & pate board for guests in the evening. For the wedding breakfast we had lots of round tables ranging from 6-8 people and our wedding table was a round table for 6 (me & hubby, best man & partner, maid of honour & partner).

So it's worth thinking about whether you have any restaurants you like in the area which might be able to accommodate you.

POPPYOSCAR

https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/best-western-marks-tey-hotel-8

https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/clayton-crown-hotel


Other places available.

Bvv

We recently got married and had 55 guests. For flowers I ordered 2 nice, similar style bouquets from a local florist. This provided enough flowers to make my bridal bouquet, button hole for husband, and small flower arrangements for 10-20 jam jars (depending on how full you want them to be). Total cost: £70 for flowers + £6 for decorations for the jars.