Church hall as a reception venue

UKJubilee_2

Has anyone out there had there wedding in a church hall? Did they enjoy it or did they feel it made the day less special?

Have been engaged a month now and we are planning on getting married in my church which I have grown up in (beautiful old one). Across the road it has a church hall which I am trying to convince the fiance could be an ideal reception venue (has kitchen, stage, back rooms, small lawned garden, car park). I don't want the reception in a 'modern looking hotel' and the price of castle's and manors is far more then I want to pay (plus they don't come with good disabled access generally which is a must).

The OH is offput by the idea as not only is it somewhere we have coffee's after church but is also his karate training hall so he doesn't associate it with a romantic special occasion. If anyone out there has done up a church hall for a wedding and has some pictures they wouldn't mine sharing that would be really helpful. Obviously any ideas on how the hall could be made to be romantic place are very welcome too.

Thankyou all in advance

bank_of_slate

Have a good look around for other venues near you, otherwise the OH may feel that there was no real choice in the matter.
Where in the country are you?
...Linda xx

bank_of_slate

Also,

Write a list of necessary features such as....
parking
space for kids to run
A 'quiet' place where people can sit and chat away from loud music
teas & coffee as well as alcohol
nice setting for photographs

The church hall could look totally different with decorations, flowers and lighting, it's not the venue...it's what YOU make it!
Is there a local college who do flower arranging courses that could do it for you to reduce costs? Students are often looking for projects to practise their new skills!
...Linda xx

UKJubilee_2

We are in Bristol so there are a few lovely v.expensive places nearby. I have sent off for a couple of brochures and downloaded details from a couple of websites to put in the planner to keep him happy that we would have looked at other options

Trying to keep the budget sensible as we will be paying for it mainly ourselves (his parents have offered to help financially but as I don't have any left to contribute on my side I feel guilty letting them contribute too much)

I hadn't thought of flower arranging by students...thats a really good idea.

bank_of_slate

Look on a local neighbourhood forum and definately Netmums (just put that into Google, register free.....it's a little goldmine of information!) local forum for ideas!
The ladies on there are often brilliant at ideas for this sort of thing.
See if there are any large converted barns in the area that you could hire and maybe do a huge ceildh in the evening!
...Linda xx