Hosting your wedding at home

[Juneisgreen]

Would you do it - Yes or no?

I can't find the 'right' venue and now think staying at home might be the perfect solution. We have a nice garden and a lovely view so could have a marquee and seating Outside. I've seen a place that will come and do catering and drinks.

Am I mad in thinking this is a good way to do it?

That sounds fantastic, I love the idea of a street food van for the evening party food around 10pm!

Thank you 😊

You're right, while I think the majority will have kids with them and will be happy to head away around 11pm, there will be some that will want to stay later. I'm not a big drinker so was probably only thinking of it from the family point of view.

Depends how many people and the size of your house. 80 people with a small garden and two toilets, no that would be a disaster. But 40 with a bigger garden, a few toilets and a big enough space inside in case of awful weather then yes.

Fish and chips
Wood fired pizza
Ice cream can
Candy floss bicycle

Those are a few I’ve seen but a lot of the vans you see around local events are open to private gigs too.

One of our local butchers will also do a hog roast and that’s always so popular! And the local Indian set up in someone’s barn with vats of curry and rice!!

You have so much freedom at home.

We had a church wedding with reception on a marquee on my in laws' land. We had around 100 adults.

It was amazing, and felt so so personal and lovely. I've been to a few receptions on parents' farms / marquees and they do feel very different and much warmer and cosier compared to the standard barn / country house reception.

But I don't think it saves you any money once you take into account the cost of marquee hire, outdoor loo hire (get nice loos, they're so worth it!), catering kitchen hire, cutlery and crockery, etc etc. You save money on drinks for sure we did sale or return from Majestic and you get the caterers that you want. But there's a lot of organisation and hassle involved. I would recommend it, but go into it with your eyes wide open.

We did exactly this and it was great.

Yes I would. Get loos in the garden so not everyone is going in and out of house.

We did this. Married at the registry office then party at home. We bought an event tent and some hay-bales for seating. A relative who is a chef did the catering. I hired cutlery but bought plates and bowls etc from charity shops (redonated them afterwards). I hired some waiting staff and the family decorated. We hired one portaloo and otherwise used our house bathrooms. We had 80 guests! Tbh it was a lot of work but it was a fantastic day and went really well.

Should add, we had to hire some catering equipment and fridges, and we bought all booze from majestic.

Don't get portaloos, get a proper mobile toilet block, with running water. My friend had one plumbed in to her water and drained to her septic tank (the firm that supplied it did it all). Had nice soap, handtowels etc even vases of flowers.

Thanks. I agree on the cost but its fine because we aren't thinking of this as a way of saving money, it's just because nowhere else seems to be the right location.

In which case you should absolutely go for it!!! It was the same for us and the best decision we could have made. All the best!

Sounds lovely!
I’ve been to a few garden weddings and they were great. We got married in a friends field, friends brought gazebos in case of rain.
one I went to we were asked to bring folding chairs ! Was lots of fun.

Sounds perfect! Just make sure you have a good clean up crew...otherwise you'll wake up to an almighty tidy up job!

But otherwise, it honestly sounds lovely.

We had our wedding reception in a marquee at home.

I opened the front of the house so they could use the toilets inside the front door and at the top of the stairs.

I borrowed some child gates to out across the hallways to stop guests going anywhere else in the house. Worked much better than portaloos.

Also, do you know teenagers locally who could waiter, clean up etc for cash?
my mum had her wedding in her garden.
she bought loads of M&S pizzas and a couple of neighbours teens cooked and served them, she borrowed a fridge and we got massive vats of coleslaw etc, leaf salads, was informal but worked really well.