Wedding evening location help!

[littleone23]

We are looking to get married this year. We are having a very small intimate wedding ceremony but we are looking for somewhere to have our evening reception where we can invite more friends and family.

We are looking for somewhere to have a buffet and a ceilidh. We want to invite about 50 people. Any suggestions? Preferably ones that won't break the bank. I would love the Caves or Marlin's Wynd but I don't know how much it would cost. Any ideas?

I was going to suggest the caves. I have no idea on castings. Email them and ask.

The caves will cost about £8/10k, probably about £5/6k for Marlin's Wynd if I remember correctly.

The caves is massive and 50 guests would be lost in it IMO. We discounted it for the same reason and we had more than double that amount of guests. I've been to a wedding in there that had 150 guests and it was still slightly empty feeling because of the different areas, people tend to get a bit disjointed. For that number of guests you might be better off with everyone in one room.

Hope that helps.

I meant to say that we got married in Howies at the foot of Carlton Hill - I couldn't recommend it highly enough. We decorated it with lots of fairy lights and candles so it looked beautiful at night, we had a humanist ceremony in the main room, a band there in the evening etc and it was just fantastic. It's a bit of an unusual choice but almost 2 years later people still rave about our wedding

We were married in the Caves last year and the setting is lovely. We had 180 at night and that felt like a good number for the venue. For 50 people however, they may get a bit lost. An alternative would be the Rowantree - same building as the Caves and same beautiful ambience. We were at a wedding there the week before ours and it was beautiful - perfect for

Have a look at the Assembly Roxy. Old church so nice venue with high celings etc. Big room but if you 'zone' it: band on stage, dancing, dining, buffet, casual seating and bar areas, then I think it would work very well for your numbers. They will advise on catering (no kitchen so I'd suggest using a caterer familiar with the venue - buffet should be simple). Not available during the festival. www.assemblyfestival.com/roxy/

Sorry, posted too early. Evening hire for Roxy Assembly is £425 (although there will be other expenses).

Also suggest the Thomas Morton Hall in the Leith Theatre. The hall itself is more ordinary but the entance through the theatre is terribly grand. Similar pricing. Booked through the Council. www.leiththeatretrust.org/

The caves is a hugely flexible venue so I would check with them as to what they can offer, and for those numbers it won't cost anything like 8/10k!

We had our reception in TheHub on the corner of Castle Terrace and Royal Mile which I'd definitely recommend. It's a former church and the space was really nice and perfect for a band and ceilidh.

I got married at Edinburgh Castle- not as expensive as you may think! We did it all there- ceremony, dinner and reception but you can just do dinner/reception or just ceremony. They were very good and it is quite a special place and gets people talking! Also a good sized space for 50 people- not too big that people will get lost!