To be upset about my wedding venue?

[IfIDontKnowAndYouDontKnow]

Name changed
Basically have a tiny budget. We were going to cut our guest list but we don't want to. We love everyone on it.
Have been offered The British Legion as a venue for free. Best man works evenings there.
We have decided to take it so we can afford to give everyone a nice time. Its bloody ugly inside. Has lovely big field though/n pretty outside etc.
I know I chose this, and I am not wanting to save up for few years as I just want to marry dp and have all our friends and family there. And would be stupid to not accept such a generous offer.
Just venting I guess... and wondering what to do about the fading carpet, chipped paint, arcade machine...

Email the heads of department at Bromley college. See what happens.

Re choir, put out a call to mumsnet, tell them which day, what you want sung, and see who is available. Before you spend 80 quid, see if you can do it cheaper. It's a heck of a lot. You might not get the choir robes, but you might get a fun group of people. Most reasonable singers are used to sight singing and as long as they can rehearse for an hour before hand can do most hymns. If you want something really special you might need the choir.

Auntpittypat Thank you. MN is helping me greatly to notice the potential I have for a fab day

Is that aloud? A choir that's not the church's?

Op read a fair bit of the thread but bit all so sorry if this repeats things anyway;

Your day already sounds lovely!
The best wedding I ever went to was in a British legion, lovely buffet, friends band. They gave us all sparklers to hold up as they left - it was a memorable one.

My wedding dress cost £120 and, I'm told looked a lot more. I got a bridesmaid dress ordered in ivory, lots of places do this. I can't even remember where mine was from now but dessy might give you ideas.

The absolute best bit of my wedding was walking in to the room after the ceremony and realising that everyone we loved and cared about were all together. It wouldn't have mattered a jot where it was. I realised that might never happen again and that it was a moment to hold in my head forever.

That's lovely rabbit

Meant is that allowed not aloud.

Where would I put a call out for choir on here? Whats a reasonable price for a choir than?

A choir that's charging £80 won't be a brilliant choir. It will be the church choir who are all volunteers and keen and happy, but not trained musicians. At least one will be stone deaf, and one will be nine years old.

They will happily sing hymns they know and an anthem they already know.

All of that might be absolutely lovely for you - depends very much on how snobbish interested and knowledgeable you are about church music in general, and the extent to which it's your local parish church and your community and so on.

If you put a shout out on Mumsnet you might get a similar musical level, but on the other hand you might get a dozen or so genuinely good singers who'd all practise something they all like and your chosen hymns separately, then come together on the day for a quick run through and a stunning performance. Or you might get a generous soloist who'd sing something absolutely awe-inspiring while you're signing the register.

Do you know what kind of music you like? Have you thought about hymns, anthems, prayers, etc? What style is the church - traditional, high, evangelical?

We got married on a budget.

Our rings were £40 for both including delivery from ebay (plain titanium)

My dress was a bridesmaids dress, cost £200. They said it was getting more and more common for a bride to wear a bridesmaids dress in cream or white. As I don't like strapless dresses it gave me a lot more choice. It was also no where near as heavy as the other dresses I tried on.

DH's suit was from debenhams in the January sales it was about £100, DDs dress was £10 from BHS and DSs suit was £15 from ebay.

FIL drove us in his car with a set of ribbons on (£2 from ebay)

Decorations were from ebay too, cost about £150, paper table cloths, tea lights balloons, champagne bubbles from poundland and fish bowls. The fish bowls were cheap from ebay with some water gel balls in and 1 gerbera sat in the middle.

I spent £30 on bouquets from ebay for DD and I. Just plain cream faom roses.

Ebay, Amazon and January sales are your friend :)

Everyone says what a great day our wedding was, it was so relaxed.

Good Luck :)

I have not a clue when it comes to church music. The church is in the village we moved from. Lots of family and friends live near by.

Church is evangelical.

purpleflower The pound shop has wedding things?

They had a few bits in the party section. We got married a couple of years ago but I'm sure I saw them recently. It was a pack of 5 or 6 in the shape of a small bottle. The kids loved them, even the adults had a go :)

Thats great to know

Where abouts on MN do I ask about choir?

I'd suggest MN Local or just Chat tbh.

Have you tubed acapella weddings. That's beautiful

Acepella wedding choirs I mean

Thought my dress might fit but I think it would be too short for you. Shame as it's sitting gathering dust. Best of luck. For table decs eBay and a canister of helium is your friend.x

Just seen this thread. So exciting! Love a good wedding on the cheap. We had an expensive looking wedding for a fraction of the price because we were smart. I say we, I mean me. Dh bought his suit

I have loads of tea light holders left over from our wedding. All sorts of different shapes and sizes but all clear glass. You are very welcome to them. I'm in Surrey.

owllover Thank you anyway. Lovely thought.

K8Middleton

Have you thought about asking if local guide or scout groups can help with decorating your venue or hosting your tea party? If they are working towards some badges they might do it (and they'll look very smart in their uniforms) and I wouldn't think they'd charge much. I don't know if this is practical, just a thought.

Rings - have got anyone who would exchange their tescos club card vouchers for Goldsmith / Samuels/ Argos (or similar) vouchers for you?

That's a good idea from Charlesroi - I'd have really enjoyed making bunting and things when I was a Brownie! An especially good idea if you have DC in the Brownies/Guides/Scouts, or have close friends who do.

The best thing to do re: art colleges is to find the photography dept and email or phone the department head (phoning might get you a quicker response). The University for the Creative Arts in Kent looks like it has good stuff going on: UCA Photography

Just to add, my dress was £140 from Debenhams, and it was gorgeous. That was full price, not sale. It was Ben de Lisi for Debenhams and basically a white version of this dress that he designed: Kate Winslet red dress So definitely see what he's got on offer at Debenhams now.

And is there a trade flower market near you? We got our flowers at a trade market in Glasgow. My DM sweet talked the stallholder into selling to us, as we're not in the business, and we saved a lot of money. Plus I made my own bouquet with cabbage roses, florist's wire and grey ribbon. I made all the table decorations in the same way, but put them in white metal flower pots from Ikea.

Kent Institute of Art and Design is well respected and has a good photography department iirc.

Good idea Charlesroi

I don't know anyone who would do that Secondstar. We don't have Tesco card ourselves either.

Have bookmarked the link Profondo

Have put the call out to singers. Over on Chat. Hope I'm allowed to that.

Have been advised to play a cd in church instead. I didn't know this was an option. Has anyone does this/ know of this?
If so, looks like thats the way to go.
I have no idea what would be suitable/ unsuitable etc.