V.small wedding - reception in a London restaurant. Anyone done this?

[artylady14]

Hi everyone. I am thinking of having a very small wedding in London (20 or fewer of us in total) and having the reception in a restaurant in London afterwards. I am thinking of a place with a private dining room otherwise, of course, that would be weird being in the middle of a restaurant with other diners in a wedding dress? Right? My only worry is with such a small group in a dining room, would we lack the 'fun' factor - no music or dancing. Has anyone had a similar wedding? Thanks for any feedback!

My sister's wedding wss similar -28 guests in the upstairs of a pub.

No DJ, but an iPod play list. No three course dinner, but fish and chips (posh fish and chips mind you) and wedding cake for pudding. Plenty of dancing and celebrating. It was perfect, and I imagine nowhere near as stressful as arranging a big do.

I loved every second and bias aside it was the best wedding I've been to.

Didn't do this but my good friend did. It was brilliant and we all got to chat to the bride and groom, unlike other weddings where they may as well be in a Popemobile.

It sounds like a lovely wedding idea. I went to a wedding anniversary lunch a few years ago at the kitchen table in the Savoy Grill (a private dining room in the actual kitchen), about 8 people, and it was one of the most memorable, fun days ever, with not a hint of music/dancing! Excellent food, wine, conversation - what more could one want?

Your guests are in for a treat!

My parents did this nearly 50 years ago. Apparently it was rather raucous.

My parents' was at the Savoy Grill too.

We were going to do this but ended up having a bigger do but I did look at venues, lots of the lovely places in the city are closed at the weekend but will open for weddings.

We did this. 14 people (including us) to the registry office in Wandsworth then off to Bluebird for the meal. We had a private room that sat in a mezzanine level and looked down on the restaurant. It was lovely.

We had 9 people including us. dinner at our fave restaurant afterwards. The best way. I felt so happy and the photos show it!

I went to one like this some years ago - the bride wore a vintage lace dress from around the 1920s, so not that obviously wedding-y. We went to a lovely small restaurant, took up most of the tables there (about 20 of us iirc) and there was no dancing but lots of laughter and chat. There was probably background music but it didn't make much of an impact on me as I can't remember!

We did this too, islington town hall, our fave restaurant and then drinks and falling over at a nearby pub. The restaurant had never done a wedding before and they put loads of effort into it. It was pretty easy to organise and the day was laid back and lovely. Good luck with your plans OP

Sounds like an amazing idea, think it would really focus the day on the people rather than worrying if about the flowers, favours, decor, etc etc! You could always have background music on in the restaurant, I'm sure they wouldn't mind putting your own CD on or something?

Thanks all for your replies. Feel excited about this now. :)

Kensington roof gardens have the lovely gardens as well as the restaurant