Tips - find small wedding venues

[Weneedthestuff]

Hello everyone.

My partner proposed a couple of days ago and it was a complete shock. I never thought I’d get married so I’d nothing planned in my head and am fairly clueless about weddings tbh.

I need some tips please on finding a venue. We want a small wedding with around 12 people (inc us). I want to keep it simple and personal to us. I’m not a fan of big weddings which become more like an entertainment venue (no offence to those who like that) or that are super fancy, or heavy on the wedding decor (bows on chairs, balloons etc 😂)

We thought of a Gretna green wedding as we like the simplicity and cost of the packages but it’s probably too far for our grandparents.

I’d like a pretty venue (I.e. somewhere in countryside) but I’m worried about getting sucked into a package with more than we want. I know the wedding industry is huge and counts on people spending £££. We don’t want to spend more than a few thousand really.

So my question is: any tips on how to find a nice venue, and to keep it small and personal? How did you find your small venue? Google? Are there lovely registry offices?

Thank you

What about booking a beautiful restaurant mid week so that you might get a room to yourselves ?

congratulations 🍾🥂

Congratulations OP.
Maybe it might be easier if you at least mentioned a town or county so maybe people in that area can make suggestions.
Some registry offices are lovely and then onto a favourite restaurant if there's only 12 of you? Or a hotel who can provide the room to get married in and a private dining room?
Gretna Green sounds ideal - depending on how you plan to get the GPs there. Maybe someone could drive them there and back, depending on the distance, of course

Thank you both for your replies and suggestions (and the suggestion of stating my area - see - clueless! 😂).

Hotel / restaurant could be a good idea and DP did mention this.

I googled ‘wedding venues’ in my town and there are some old fancy mansion houses which are nice but no price so guessing expensive and the ‘packages’ look a bit OTT.

I don’t want to be too outing so won’t say town but I’m in West Yorkshire and tbh any part of west Yorks would be ok.

I did a quick search and there are some venues that are converted mills which I think are cool and I’m hoping will be a bit more low key and less ‘packagey’ than mansion weddings.

You could try to Google 'private dining' for small beautiful rooms to hire for groups. Likely to be cheaper than full on wedding venues.

Our 'registry office' is a glorious Gothic style town hall building with a few absolutely STUNNING rooms for relatively affordable ceremonies.

Have a look in a few nearby towns to see if there are any nice ones near you.

Where are you based?

Sorry ignore the where are you question!

Check your local council website for a list of licensed wedding venues - we used the drawing room of a local Georgian house that the council hired out, then went to a local hotel round the corner for the reception. The ceremony venue was a little more expensive than the register office, but much prettier and a more convenient location.

As an example https://www.leeds.gov.uk/births-deaths-and-marriages/ceremonies/ceremonies-at-licensed-venues I just googled ‘west Yorkshire licensed wedding venue’ and this popped up.

I agree with booking a back room of a restaurant instead of a specific wedding venue. How many is a 'small wedding' to you? Where in the UK could you travel to? If you give us a clue- we can help.

My advice is to give yourself some time to enjoy being engaged before you start planning. Doesn't have to be long, but maybe a month to do some research and think about what you want before you dive into it and start booking things.

Heads up, you might find your converted mills are expensive. We're having a relaxed rustic barn wedding and it's generally more expensive than hotels or country houses (which most people don't expect). Lots of venues also have minimum numbers too so traditional wedding venues might not accept a party of 12. It's not about getting 'sucked into' packages, it's about their business too and whether it's worth them providing the service.

Also it's really normal for wedding suppliers and venues not to advertise prices. It feels strange at first but you just need to put in multiple enquiries to find the prices out. It doesn't always mean they're more expensive than the ones who are transparent.

Bridebook is a good place to start, they have lists of venues and suppliers and a checklist of things you need to do. There are Facebook groups too, if you can find a local one you'll likely find lots of recommendations on there.

I just want to thank all of your for your responses, they’ve all been really helpful.

I’ve found a couple of gorgeous, ornate town halls in towns surrounding us so I think they could be a good idea. They’re in the 100s of pounds for a ceremony too which is amazing. Then perhaps go on somewhere else eg restaurant for the reception.

Just had to share this with you all. Our town’s registry office is pretty nice. Old house surrounded by fields. Considered there but there were a couple of bad reviews saying staff rude and unprofessional and one complaining a civil servant was wearing a tatty sweaty t shirt 😂. That tickled me.

Not sure whereabouts in west yorks you are but we’re Kirklees and they have a list on the website of wedding venues they do civil ceremonies on there. We used that to find our wedding venue then are having a meal in a private room in a restaurant.

Congratulations! There's a lovely hotel on the shore of Windermere which advertises weddings for 2-200 people. A lot of hotels and venues will probably be happy to work with you to build a bespoke package if you ask them. Ours did and it was amazing - exactly what we wanted and no big fuss (our second weddings and we didn't want the whole big white frock thing and accompanying circus).

congrats! Registry office (grand old building, already had flowers 😃) with a nice restaurant after is what we did for ours with the same number of guests. One tip, choose an unpopular month (feb, oct, nov) for example and you’ll likely find it easier to get restaurants to give you a separate room etc without going all in for separate packages or them wanting to save them for bigger do’s. I don’t think we mentioned we were a wedding party to the restaurant we went to,m to stop it becoming a big thing or costing more. Low key for us was lovely - Hope you enjoy your day whatever you choose.

We wanted something simple and ended up having a really lovely small gathering in a hotel meeting room that we decorated ourselves. If you're open to different locations and want to get ideas outside your area to compare prices or styles, you can check out business hotel Singapore options—they often have good-sized spaces you can book for smaller events, and some do offer wedding packages that aren’t hugely expensive.

I've just had a wedding with exactly 12 of us too! We did the register office and then a really nice restaurant - it was perfect. The benefit of having a restaurant instead of a more traditional catered thing was that everyone could have exactly what they fancied off the menu instead of a set meal.

That said, we considered eloping, but were surprised by how many 'elopment' packages were actually just small weddings and would often include a handful of guests - might be worh a search?