Your suggestions for somewhere nice but affordable to hold a wedding

[Overmydeadbody]

My sister is getting married in the Spring

Well... if they can find a location for the wedding that is.

They have a very small budget but want a nice rural location for their wedding, a few hours from London max, possibly an old country house with lots of grounds and maybe a bit of wood or something.

Everywhere they have seen costs thousands and thousands and thousands, I think they are hoping to find someone with a house who is willing to let them use the grounds for their reception and just pay them £3000 max.

Can anyone help?

[MaryBS]

What are they expecting for their £3000, just the use of the grounds, or a marquee too? How many guests?

[EldonAve]

what about a field?
friends did this, hired field, marquee & loos

[Overmydeadbody]

Just use of the grounds I think, guest list is relatively small for a wedding, no more than a hundred I think.

Thier budget is seriously small.

I think they are hoping for no marquee and good weather, or grounds with an old barn they can use.

[Overmydeadbody]

Eldon they are looking for a field, can you suggest any?

[tiredOFTHEDMemma]

A friend did this (but in the midlands)- she phoned around all local farms etc and asked if she could hire one of their fields for the day.
She ended up with a beautiful field in Warwickshire with use of hay barn (which actually had bales of hay in it which were utilised very well as seating!!)
The farmer charged her £300 for the field (and of course she had to clean up after the party)
Hired 2 portaloos also which were placed out of view!

[turtle23]

My entire wedding including dress, venue, honeymoon, buffet lunch, etc cost under £3000 so I am boggled at this being a small budget just for venue.

[Overmydeadbody]

Well Turtle they would love to do it all on £3000 so any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated!

They said no more than 3k because all the venues they called so far where charging 5-10k

TBH they have no money so I'm not sure how they will pay for any of this, the cheaper the better.

Tired that is a good idea, £300 would be much more affordable and they want a rustic wild setting so hay bales would be perfect lol

[porcupine11]

My venue was Oxford town hall and cost £197 - it's a magnificent building, we got married in a huge panelled room, photos on a sweeping marble staircase, beautiful. You can get caterers too, and use more than one of the gorgeous rooms (though we moved venue for the evening). You could check out the town halls of market towns to find something similar?

[Thandeka]

Mine was Wells Town hall for wedding and Bishops barn (medieval tithe barn) for reception.

The town hall was £200 to hire for the 2hours (plus £300 for registrar to come out on saturday). The barn was £150 for 24hours but we had access day before and day after for set up and clear up.

Wells is a stunning city (smallest city in Somerset)- as seen in Hot Fuzz.

We had to hire tables (but there were enough chairs in there) we had picnic baskets on tables instead of a buffet and I think the whole thing came in at just under £5k but that was for 100 day guests and a further 50 in the evening.

Check out the moneysavingexpert wedding forum for moneysaving tips- things like getting your invites printed at vistaprint for free using their offers (you only pay postage) can save a fortune!

[Overmydeadbody]

Thanks porcupine, they want a rural location though but the pricing sounds about right!

Thandeka that barn sounds perfect, I am off to google it and find out more.

I've never been to Wells (I take it that's not Wells next the Sea or Tunbridge wells lol)

Vistaprint, why didn't I think of that? They are always emailing me with free offers.

Will point them in the direction of moneysavingexpert wedding fprums too.

[Thandeka]

Is a completely awesome location www.wells.gov.uk/services/bishopsbarn.php

Be warned though there is no heating in the barn and you aren't allowed to bring heaters in. But I have been in it on freezing rainy day and it was a fine temp and with lots of people in it will be fine.

There is a bar at one and and toilets. Is a little bit ramshackle but once decorated looks magical.

There is a whole thread on moneysavingexpert I started about the barn and lots of people have now had their receptions there as a result of my recommendation. The town hall manager Kevin and deputy nick are awesome and so helpful and lovely.

If you mail me on thandekatotango at hotmail dot com I can email you a link to all my pics of the barn decorated up. (another tip- ikea do massive white net curtains for £3 a pair- we brought £30 and this was way more than needed to decorate the barn but white netting, ivy, fairylights and butterflies made it look incredible!)

[newweddingname]

Try caer llan in monmouthshire, its lovely you can hire out the whole place for a weekend for £2600. The the food is on top of that but really reasonable. Ill try and do a link www.caerllan.co.uk/.

there are 14 bedrooms and that is the hire of the whole place for fri sat sun. food very reasonable too.

I sound like I own the place, I dont unfortunately! Its beautiful though

[newweddingname]

Ps what we are doning cost wise is splitting the £2600 between all of us for the accom. Everyone is paying about 100.00 each and then me and dp are paying for all the food all weekend for everyone which is very reasonably priced.
They can accomodate 4 people per room in 14 rooms for overnight stay (obviously couple will want there own room so it cuts down on number of people who can stay)but up to 100 guests for the wedding and night party.
All the prices are broken down on the website, we are hoping to have our wedding there over a whole weekend with about 35 guests and then a big party back home for everyone for a budget of about £4000. (thats for everything, dress, flowers etc)
If interested tell sis to phone up, the owner is called Vicky and she is lovely. Good luck!

[newweddingname]

doh, make that 25 guests! Very select guest list!

[Overmydeadbody]

Thank you Thandeka and newweddinggame, I am seeing my sister this weekend so will pass it all on to her.

Will email you thandeka if she wants to see the photos, thanks for the offer!

[muddleduck]

Did either of them to to an "old" uni?
Some of these have lovely venues that aren't too pricey.

[OrmIrian]

Thandeka - we had our reception in Wells too! We got married in Winscombe church but had the reception in the bishops palace. Was lovely. It was also quite cheap as they had only just started hiring it out for dos.

The tithe barn sounds nice - whereabout is it?

[OrmIrian]

Ah I say your link. I can place it now. Very nice!

[OrmIrian]

Friends got married here:

organic farm There is a pagan circle where you arrange a handfasting if you so wish!

this place does some good Sunday deals

Both in Somerset - bit further away than Wells but nice.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Another town hall vote - we got married in Berkhamsted town hall and hired caterers to do a lovely 3 course meal (£17.50 a head for organic chicken).

The hall itself is all stone floors and big fireplaces and wooden vaulted ceiling.

My wedding cost about that - sit down meal for a 110, disco afterwards, bought in my own very good champagne and decent wine.

You would never have guessed it was a 'cheap' wedding.

Heres a town hall picture www.berkhamstedtownhall.co.uk/wellcome.html

[Thandeka]

OrmIrian- the barn is at back of Bishops palace on the park. It is situated in the kids park which made for some great wedding photos of me and DH on swings and see saw having an awesome time! We also had all our photos taken at Bishops Palace and they let us in for free for that which made an incredible backdrop.

[MissisBoot]

I can highly recommend here. They do very affordable wedding packages which includes canapes, dinner etc and an overnight stay in the bridal suite and breakfast in the morning as well as disco in the evening. You can often get some last minute deals which are really good value as she's getting married in the next 6 months or so.

You have exclusive use of the house and grounds for the whole day. They were brilliant at making us feel really special and couldn't have done more to make the day go to plan!

[specialmagiclady]

this is a lovely spot, very close to Bristol so only a couple of hours from London but totally rural.

[turtle23]

OMDB-Will gladly email you a load of tips.
I got my dress custom-made in China for £37.50 through Ebay. That helped a lot!

[hester]

Have you tried Kew Gardens? Someone in my family got married there, in a special little building, and as they were broke I'm HOPING it was cheap