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Hi all, I'm trying to find a nice London reception venue for dinner and dancing after my church ceremony. I'm getting married July 2014 (ages away lol) but I'm struggling to find a decent venue that doesn't cost silly money!

It's for about 80-100 people and needs to be fairly central or south of the river as I'm getting married in south london. We don't actually have a set budget but I don't want to spend crazy money on just the venue and then have to add loads on top for food etc. Does anyone have any good recommendations?

Ooh, my friend had fantastic venue around Westminster
Will see if I can find the details

Thanks so much, it's driving me crazy trying to find somewhere! All suggestions welcome

We went to look at somewhere on Wandsworth Common that wasn't too bad (in the wedding scheme of things)....

here you go

Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park is lovely.

We got married in the Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich. It has he advantage of the Royal naval College next door for photos and Greenwich Park a block away for exhausting children.

Also Templeton (not in Richmond Park but nearby) is (or was -- we considered it for our wedding thirteen years ago, but haven't looked around since) nice. Don't know how much it costs these days, though.

Tower Bridge does stunning wedding receptions with the view to end all views, but I imagine they are mind-buggeringly expensive (a banker friend had his second wedding reception there several years ago, and he won't have been scrimping on cost).

try this

No idea of the price
It was fantastic, they had the ceremony and reception in beautiful rooms

this looks like a good website

RIBA is lovely...

Make sure you don't say it's a wedding reception before you book...prices seem to go sky high if you do. Also consider whether bringing your own booze is cheaper...it was for us even with corkage!

The bluebird on Kings Road has a lovely function room above

We got married in legothique in 2010. It worked out pretty reasonable cost wise & we had a super super day. We also looked at a private members club in putney... cant remember the name though (helpfully) as we really wanted a garden

What about a restaurant?

Horniman Museum, you can have a reception in their conservatory, looks lovely especially if the sun shines!

How about a Thames cruise ?

RicStar, was it the Winchester House Club?

we got married at Skinners Hall which is in the City, very close to Cannon St station. It has one of the best addresses I've seen - 8 1/2 Dowgate Hill - for the hall itself although they don't seem to use it any more for administrative stuff.

It's one HQ and hall for one of the big City Livery companies (the Skinners) and was rebuilt after their previous hall was burnt down in the fire of London. It has outside space - a court yard downstairs and a roof garden I seem to remember. They were very friendly and it was a beautiful place, plus they let me take my own wine in and just pay corkage, as well as I had a big chocolate wedding cake which I used as the pudding, they just provided a raspberry coulis to go with it and serve it too, both of which kept the cost down.

In fact there are lots of lovely livery halls in the city or close by - and usually fairly reasonably priced. Try looking on the City of London Corporation website for venues - lots of them. And because they get used by businesses etc during the week too, they are often quite reasonable - weddings are an extra, whereas lots of other venues are often only wedding venues and therefore need to get as much as they can from you for your wedding!

I nearly had my wedding in The Brewery, Chiswell St, also in the city. Unfortunately my dp, my mum and I all got food poisoning from the tasting meal that they laid on for us and so we decided not to use it. In hindsight, although it's probably good for evening events (and I've been to several there and enjoyed them) it's a bit gloomy during the day and quite big, so there's a chance that there will be another wedding in there too on your day. Luckily for me Skinners Hall had a rare space on that day and we were able to book at relatively short notice, and they were really helpful!

And agree with not telling them that it's a wedding too!

Oh wow, these are great thanks

If you want somewhere that is good value I would highly recommend the Amadeus centre. theamadeus.co.uk

If you want to save money I would really do a dry hire (which you can do there) and get the booze/catering in yourself. Acclaim were the best value caterers (that still had good quality) and they will not charge you corkage for them to serve your own booze.

If you end up at a restaurant you will have to pay for their booze and it will become hugely expensive.

Congrats and good luck!

We had our reception in the Winchester Hall Club, many years ago... It was lovely, with a garden overlooking the Thames..

Yes it was the winchester house club (recalls the supernatural connection )

I got married at Lansdowne House - a bit pricey but they took care of the food, wine, organisation of the day, and because it's so pretty, didn't really need to spend much on flowers, etc. to make it look good. A completely stress free experience.

Dulwich College, also Charlton House is beautiful and it's owned by the council so very reasonably priced.

I love Greenwich, have seen good reviews of the Trafalgar Tavern as recommended by a previous poster - and it's such a beautiful area there.

I second Charlton House and also St Faiths Community Hall in Dulwich village with its beautiful wood panelling and galleried landing.
We have catered for Weddings there and had BBQ in the gardens