Reception at a Village Hall?

[WeddingOnAShoeString]

Hi,

For various reasons DP and I want to our wedding cheaply but we would still like a party.

I have been reading about hiring village halls and some near us rent out for about £10/hour which is on obviously very cheap. If we went for this option we would likely look at hiring caterers for the evening but I still have lots of questions about how it would actually work?
-how/when does the DJ set up?
-who announces dinner/speeches etc.
-how do you get everything set up for when you arrive post ceremony?
-what about clear up?

Has anyone made this work? I’m keen to do it but concerned it might just be a bit crap? Keen to hear from anyone who has gone down this route!

It depends on the village hall but many would be happy to let you see et up the day before (and may even help). I'd book the hall for the full day to allow DJ to set up. Get best man/similar to announce speeches if you're having them.
If the hall offer a tidy up service buy it.

I verged a wedding yesterday, who used our hall for their reception. Their team spent all day Friday setting up, and the caterer was in a 9am Saturday morning.

You just need to book enough time to make it happen.

Think that a wedding venue will charge you £10000 just to walk through the door. You don't need to penny pinch on the church hall.

These receptions can be good or they can be really bad.

They can also be deceptively cheap. When you add in the caterers, people to set up AND clear away, glass and plate hire, table hire etc you can end up spending more than if you got a package at a hotel.

Have a look at some traditional venues and get an itemised quote so you can better compare them to the village hall.

You need to get the village hall people to confirm what is and what isn't included in the hire price.

We did this :)
We had a hall with 2 rooms. My husband and some family friends went and set the room up in the morning.
Guests arrived and gathered in the large bar area after the church ceremony for welcome drinks.
The speeches were announced by the best man.
Everyone gathered back in the bar between wedding breakfast and evening reception while my husband and his friends moved the tables round, put more chairs out and the dj set up. Took around 20 mins. Then our hire included until 1200 the next day so we could clear up the morning after. We didn't have to clean, just clear our stuff out.

We had caterers who did all the food.

Not everyone's cup of tea but 6 years later I wouldn't have done a thing differently.

One of the best weddings I’ve been to was in the local church and then the village hall. It felt really personal and special. They hired a catering company and the head waiter did the announcing of the speeches etc. they had a band come in and play at night . Best wedding ever and was a short walk to get home.

Thank you - perhaps I need to visit some different ones and see what they have to offer. The one with two rooms sounds good.

We are hiring a town hall and one hand it's great to have complete autonomy but on the other we are having to remember everything down to the tablecloths and it's a hassle to get all the timings right, as well as trying to remember everything. It's a good thing I like planning stuff!

I have managed 3 different halls (church but similar). They all have different rules but their will be music volume rules, curfew time, etc. you will need someone to coordinate the setting up, or commit to a longer hiring period and set up prior to the ceremony. It helps to have lots of friends and family willing to muck in. A buffet makes most sense, could friends and family all bring food too?

If you want things announced you will need the equipment and allocate the task eg to the best man, and you will need to be clearing up by the end of your booking.

My last work charged £30 an hour with a curfew of 11pm (that everyone out plus all cleaned up) and had a noise limited so the neighbours weren't complaining - we had lots of weddings but mostly Asian ones who all pitch in.

Remember you are hiring a blank canvas, this is good and bad - you provide everything (well we have cutlery and crockery for 80 but it's a odds and ends) if you are looking for hotel slick, I think it's not for you (I'm judging based on your questions)

I went to church this morning thinking that there would be residue from the wedding yesterday.

I could not have been more wrong.

Both the church and the hall were restored immaculately. Apparently it was all done by the wedding party. Once you have 8 or 10 people tasked to do something, it takes no time.

Apparently, people were given jobs to do ahead of time, and they just rolled into action at the appointed time.

We looked at lots of village halls in our area for our wedding and all of those, your hire was for the whole weekend so we could have gone in to set up Friday afternoon, wedding Saturday and out by 4pm Sunday. They all included use of crockery, cutlery, glassware and tables and chairs. Some had professional sound systems that DJ / band can just plug straight into and a few of them had seperate bar areas and even outdoor space. They were really good value and some lovely buildings, and we have similar to do as we will have to do at our chosen venue - best man being a master of ceremonies, friends and family helping us decorate on Friday and undecorate on Sunday, caterer doing food we told her what time we'd like it and she has suggested what time she will arrive and how she will set up etc. and can provide tablecloths etc. if we want them. Band will take care of themselves. Some of our guests will turn the room around for us after having our ceremony there. We were all set for a village hall, we only didn't go for one in the end becasue they were all quite a way from venues we could actually get married in (because we aren't having a church wedding) and we went for somewhere that we can have the ceremony and the celebration in.

We did this! We had use of the hall the day before and the morning after to set up/clear down.

We used a company to set up drapes inside so it was like a marquee with little lights, had caterers in the evening and hired a company to decorate the chairs and tables, it worked out so cheap and you could decorate yourself to keep the cost even lower if you needed to.

We had our reception in a village hall, we loved it! We had Friday to set up. We hired glasses and bought all of our own alcohol, scoping out sales in the months before, then had some ladies from the hall committee run the bar on the day (for a donation).

For the food, we had a hog roast van outside and set up long trestle tables both inside and outside where people could choose to eat as they liked, this was awesome, the food was great and the casual meal meant that people mixed and chatted. Hog roast chap also did the desserts.

We had a ceilidh, they just set up on the day. They were great fun and had a really good caller who got everyone up and dancing for most of the night.

I got married 3 weeks ago. Local church and used the church hall.

Caterers came in and got a venue decorator.

Booked a band.

We went with the flow and just let the afternoon dictate itself. The caterers call people to the meal and announced us coming in with bagpipes.

End of night everyone left too the covers off the chairs and tidied up. We were back at church with my brother and 2 friends at 9.15 on the Sunday to collect the empty bottles as we sourced our own wine. £8 a bottle not £20!!!

Also mopped the floor in kitchen and hallway. Put chairs away and finished in 30 minutes. Then went and got sandwiches for 15 people at our house later that morning.

I'd advise not going away on honeymoon straight away to recover! We had 2 days to relax.

It was the best day ever and everyone is still talking about it.

2nd wedding for both of us.

Hall cost £400 plus church fees and organist made it £850 and I'm a church member.

Food £4k (57 people)
Hall decoration £1200
Wine £450
Band £850
Photographer£280

Did whole lot for just under £7k