Would you enjoy this wedding?

[toastand]

DP & I have decided to get married and we’ve spent the past week pricing up different days. DP is keen on a larger wedding, ceremony & reception all weekend type do. Manor House/Barn type thing. I was happy to marry just us and the kids in a nice registry office. I’d rather not get into debt and marry sooner.

3:30pm - Ceremony in London town hall
4:00pm - Photos & confetti throw
4:30pm - Chilled Prosecco & Beers on hired out bus.
5:00pm - Arrive at reception, welcome drinks and canapés. Singer or saxophonist.
6:00pm - 3 course sit down meal, plenty of wine & beer.
8:00pm - DJ
9:00ish: Evening Food
12:00am: Home

The reception is a lovely restaurant, exclusive hire, meal upstairs then into basement for party. We’d be spending at least 6 thousand on catering & venue, I’m wincing at this but it’s one of the cheaper options I’ve found.

All rough timings for now but would you attend this? My parents, siblings and nieces/nephews alone is 22. Both mine and DP’s family and friends are in London, he has a few family members who’d be travelling from Wales & up North.

Weve managed to compromise on about 60 guests for the entire day. I’m of course doing most the leg work in researching and enquiring, and to be honest I’m not sure he understood what weddings cost until I sat him down today and ran through the quotes.

Does this sound okay or do I need to go back to the drawing board?

That sounds lovely OP.

Definitely don't bother with the later food.

Lots of our guests had to stay overnight for our wedding. It never occurred to us to pay for hotels.

I’d come and i Don’t even know you!

But tbh I never go / not go to a wedding because I like / dislike the theme. I go to see family or friends get married and celebrate with them.

congratulations on your forthcoming nuptials op

Would your travelling guests be able to check in to a hotel before the wedding? If they can't check in until 3pm and have come on the train what happens to their luggage?

Do people really pay for hotels for all their guests? We didn’t, nor have we ever been offered a room for a wedding.

They might not be able to get into their room but I've yet to stay in a hotel that won't put luggage in a store room until you come back later. And if you phone ahead and explain most hotels will juggle things so that you can do an early check in. We got married at 3 o'clock and everyone travelled (many for several hours);on the day of the wedding except friends who were coming from abroad. I think people appreciated not having to pay for two nights accommodation. And if you marry at 3 o'clock it's very clear that you have lunch before the wedding. Worst wedding I went to was at 12.30 and we didn't get fed anything until 6 pm. Rubbish timings.
Your plan sounds fabulous OP. Have a wonderful day.

I had a "London Wedding" albeit in Peckham not Marylebone (!) and this is totally my vibe. We travelled separately with "our sides" of family and friends to meet at the register office in minibuses! Then the minibuses took us to the reception. Marriage didn't last, but neither of us at the time wanted anything complicated. It was a very enjoyable day, in retrospect.

Sounds a good wedding.

Guests with a long journey will need to book 2 nights accommodation but they normally pay for that themselves.

If you can I would adjust your timings. I understand the bus as it would be very odd to expect your guests to get from the ceremony to the reception by themselves, especially if they aren't used to London.
I would have the canapés - it breaks the ice. No sax player or anything else. No one listens, they are too busy chatting. 3 course meal at 7pm. No evening food. If you are having a cake, perhaps cut that and serve it at 9pm instead. Offer people lists of reasonable accommodation.

I would come!
My daughter is getting married at Marylebone registry office....it is beautiful.
Have a fantastic day!

I'm not convinced by half an hour on a bus with beers, but then I get travel sick, so am probably in a minority there!

Sounds lovely where’s my invite!

I would not, I wouldn't be eating again at 9. are you expecting a lot of big drinkers?

Can you get soft drinks and snacks on the bus for people to pick up as they take to their seats? I wouldn’t have alcohol. Or have canapés on arrival and the meal at 6.30? as they’re too close to meal. I think the food at 9-10pm does actually work well. But snacks rather than a full blown thing.

We did exactly this last year! Everyone had the best time and people are still saying what a great day it was. We got married at Marylebone Town Hall we didn’t do the bus as we had less guests and couldn’t justify the cost for 30 people so did cabs for everyone instead. Don’t bother with canapés people are getting a 3 course meal it won’t be needed. Make the evening food later. You have about 10-15 mins outside in the steps as the weddings are staggered so you don’t come across another one. Be mindful of traffic/other events in London we didn’t know until the day there was a massive event in London so most of the roads to our reception venue were shut!

Premier inns/travelodge can still be expensive we booked a block of rooms on booking.com at a boutique 4 star hotel exactly a year out for all our guests. We had free cancellation until the night before the wedding and they were pay on arrival so guests themselves paid but were mega cheap far cheaper than chain hotels (£130 a night!)

Any other vendors you have (hair, make up, photographer) if you pick someone in London will be London prices we used people local to us and paid their travel which was far cheaper and easier for trials, meetings ahead of the wedding.

Anything you want at your reception venue you have to get there before the wedding so be prepared to take it up a few days before.

Plan decent travel for yourselves, we got a cab the day before but needed a mini bus with all the dresses, suits, flowers etc despite only being two of us travelling.

Marylebone have a list of vendors for music during the ceremony we used someone from their list and was super easy to arrange.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions! It was the best day ever and we’re gutted it’s over but so happy with the way we did it over a big barn/ hotel wedding.

We got married at 3.30 and the day flowed great.

When you said he wanted big and you wanted small, I expected you to say it was just you, him and kids - max 10/15 people. But what you have described- your guest numbers, transport, timeline, catering, drinks and entertainment ideas all sound like a standard wedding to me. In fact considering offering accommodation is also not expected.
Maybe it’s a London thing?🤷🏼‍♀️
What on earth was he expecting big your ideas are “small” 😳

I had these timings almost exactly and had a town hall wedding at the other end of Euston Road. Be conservative on the canapés because people weren’t ready for a three course meal after hoovering up 6 canapés, evening food went totally untouched. It was such a waste of money.

I’d also be crystal clear that those attending mid afternoon are not evening guests. Somehow various guests we had were confused and turned up thinking we’d married late morning and already eaten (no idea why they gave meal choices in advance) and had dressed less smartly than other guests. They were very annoyed for some reason.

If check in will be an issue you could provide a list of hotels where you can buy an early check in. Not sure why a few seem so concerned by the cost of accommodation being met by guests. I’ve never been to a wedding with accommodation paid for a standard guest. And I’d rather find it in a city with a range of options and prices than a rural wedding with one sole option that’s over priced or a dump or face a 40 minute taxi ride at extortionate cost to the nearest town.

Nah, a Novotel conference room with matching sateen chair covers, a dancefloor with glitter ball and a buffet is WAY tackier.

Sounds much nicer than a usual wedding which are so boring! Also if I were invited a weekend of be hating it. Absolutely not worth waiting 5 years for, it's one day.
Dinner at 6 and another meal would be too much. Maybe ligh snacks later?

I’ve been to a wedding just like that, including Marylebone Town Hall, and it was brilliant! Much better than the sort of where you hang around barns/gardens etc for ages. It was very cool and very sociable. Photos were quick: mainly on those steps outside, with loads of guests gathered round.

This day sounds amazing!! I'd be so pleased to be a guest here. Because of that, I'm going to be extra cheeky and ask if you can give a clue as to where the reception is 😅 I've just started planning a wedding at Marylebone and any reception suggestions are welcome. No worries if not though.

I say yes to the saxophonist, I love a good saxophone at the wedding.

Not sure what hot food you were planning after the dinner but I think thinks like chips, sausage/bacon butties, slice of pizza are always welcome (this is what I've had around 10pm at weddings). Don't think you need the extra food for drinks as sounds like everyone will have plenty!! Sounds great honestly.

You could see if the venue would be willing to do something like bacon sandwiches at around 10pm? We married later in the day, so had the main meal at a similar time to your plans. We then did bacon sandwiches later on, which were a massive hit after everyone had had a few drinks!

I would switch your evening food to something like bacon rolls at 10pm/10.30pm, but other than that sounds good to me.

OP, it sounds lovely. My DD had something similar, only a church wedding, followed by a small reception for about 60 people - I had been keen to have evening food, but they decided that the wedding cake would be enough, and after canapés and a three course meal, it really was!

Sounds great and very like mine which was a fabulous day. I think most people prefer a one day event not too far from home tbh! Having to travel and stay all weekend is a lot for most people. When your weekend is your only downtime this option is perfect.

Honestly, sounds great. My DSS did something similar, except we hired a boat on the Thames and had the receiption and disco on that and everyone saw the sights from the river, that was about 80 people. it was surprisingly reasonable, 8 years ago now though. ( We also booked somewhere for breakfast the next day, but didn’t pay for everyone, so those who bad travelled could have breakfast together if they wanted.)

Marylebone’ reception office is nice. Sounds like a great plan.