Venue for wedding party- looking to bring own drinks

[Sunnybaker]

Really struggling to find a venue for our wedding and would love your help.
For various reasons, we will do a registry office service with four close friends in the days before the wedding party. The venue doesn’t need to be licensed for weddings.

We love hosting parties and see this being a party with our friends and family. Our jobs are in hospitality so we can sort catering and drinks ourselves.

we are looking for:

• a venue that will host 100/120 people
• at least two rooms available for us to use
• accessible for those with mobility restrictions
• allows us to bring our own drinks (non negotiable)
• allows us to arrange our own catering (we would drop this if every other requirement was met)
• based in the West Midlands/warwickshire area.

I think we need a party venue, rather than a wedding venue and this is where I’m struggling.

has anyone got any ideas of venues, or even ways to go about finding this type of venue please?

we are really flexible on dates, just wanting to throw a great party for our friends and family.

thank you x

Places ive know outside bars:
Village halls
Community centres
Posh private schools

Have you tried a Facebook group just to scope ideas? I’m not in your area but am on a couple of those. They can be a bit mad but are mostly pretty sensible. Dry venues are definitely a thing.

I think you need to look at this from a business perspective.

Why would any business want to book out their space to someone who just wants to pay corkage fees and the basic hire costs of the room

It’s not in the businesses interest to book out a space to someone who wants the space for a minimum fee when they can fill it with an event where the client will be buying the whole package

Their wage bill, business rates, energy costs, water, rubbish removal and general wear and tear on the venue is still their

If you want to host a party where you cater for everything then either have it at home or hire a church hall and get an agency to supply staff to set up and serve and then to clean and clear everything after the event.

My daughter hired a tithe barn which was basically the (very lovely) barn with water and electricity and outside space and use of toilets. Everything else was entirely down to what the hirer wanted, so we had a marquee, caterers, lighting and decorators, luxury loos, but other people who use the venue go completely diy and spend not much at all on top of the barn hire.

Cricket or rugby clubs, church halls.

It’s not in the right area for you I think, more Reading way, but this is a gorgeous wedding venue and has no corkage fees, bring your own drinks. There is an evening bar, not quite sure how that works. But thought I’d mention it anyway. We went there last year and it was lovely.
https://www.uftonweddings.co.uk/

Have you looked at YHA “Hire a Hostel”? There are some lovely buildings. The Stratford upon Avon hostel is on the list, it’s a lovely Georgian Manor House.

You won't find a 'nice' venue that will let you bring your own alcohol, that is where they make their money. Even if you do, they'll charge you a corkage which will be worse for you financially.

Why is it a non negotiable for you? Is it cost related?

The one I linked to a couple of posts earlier is an extremely nice venue, and they allow people to bring their own alcohol with no corkage.

(Maybe they make up for it in costs elsewhere!)

Not true at all, dry hire of lovely venues is definitely possible https://www.stanwayfountain.co.uk/weddings-at-stanway.html

They appear to have upgraded their marketing since we used it for DD and probably the prices have gone up, but it’s stunning.

Look at venues that host Asian weddings and parties because they usually allow you to bring in catering and drinks. Cricket clubs are a good starting point

By the way, most of the wedding venues here (Somerset) allow you to bring in your own catering but do insist that you have public liability insurance if you are self catering (or your caterer has insurance if using one)

Currie graham

School halls? That’s what my daughter did for her post wedding party.