A Saturday wedding was also going to be out of the question owing to the fact that the Jewish Sabbath is a Friday evening to Saturday evening and a lot of H2b's family wouldn't be able to come because of it.
We had a few requirements when hunting out a venue for our wedding:
- must be able to hold both a civil ceremony and reception at the same place
- ideally allow us to have our own caterers, and if not, be flexible
- be less that 45 minutes away from our guests (who were mainly from London and Essex)
- must have somewhere for the bride (me!) to get ready
- must be of a reasonable cost
Having found 20 or 30 (yes, you read correctly, 20 or 30!) venues that we "liked" the look of. I say liked, what I mean is, they were in Essex and were less than 45 minutes away (O_O；)
We then found our way to their websites (if they had one - any that didn't got deleted from our list!) and sent off for brochures if they didn't have a brochure download on their site, and started to make a spreadsheet with all the financial info we needed - cost of venue, price per head, extra costs plus what additional "stuff" they offered.
(All this searching, by the way, did happen over a few weeks!)
We then narrowed our choices down further, mainly based on cost (!) and arranged to view the venues. I can't remember what order we viewed them in now, but I'm going to list them all here for you so you can take a look at where we looked...
Orsett Hall
A very nice place - we went to a wedding fair here and this was where we found many of our vendors - dress maker, florist, suit man and videographer! However, they have several different rooms, and sadly the room which was the correct size for our guest numbers had burned down in a fire and was in the process of being rebuilt - not due for completion till March 2009 - a bit too late for us view as we wanted to get our venue sorted as soon as possible, and didn't want to risk us not liking it....
Braxted Park
This was venue that was outside of the 45 minute distance rule, however, we were in the locality, and there was a wedding fair on that day - this is where we had the teeny tiny burgers that I spoke about in the post about our caterers! Way out of our league price wise!
Stock Brook Country Club
We didn't actually view this place, as once we found our venue (more on that later) we stopped looking at places - and this was one of the two or three that were due "after" the venue we picked! We hear it is a popular place though for weddings!
Leez Priory
Because this venue looked like a castle (and fulfilling my childhood wedding dream of a medieval type wedding!) I was in love with this place before we even went to see it - despite the huge cost (H2b said he'd have re-mortgaged the house so we could have it!), but having learned that some of the rooms in the place were only got to by going up/down dodgy flights of stairs, it was out - have to think of those who can't manage them (my nan). Also, they had this weird ceremony set up where the guests sat outside and you were inside (in the UK we can't get married outside *boo hiss*) Again, we didn't actually go and see this as the appointment was scheduled for after the venue we picked.
Blakes Golf Club
I must have misread the literature that came with this venue as when we went to view it, they didn't have a licence to hold civil ceremonies - they have since been granted this though. It was a nice place, very contemporary but didn't do anything for me as far as having our wedding their was concerned.
Greenwoods Hotel Spa & Retreat
Too small - next....
The Barn at Blake Hall
I really liked this venue, it was exactly as it says on the tin - a big ol' barn - lovely and rustic inside, I had visions of a medieval feast in there with its timber beams. Thoughts of guests on the lawn playing giant chess... but the ceremony and the reception would have to be held in the same room, and I didn't like the idea of that...
Gaynes Park Barn
This venue was totally gorgeous - I love, love, loved it - it was pricey, very pricey compared to our chosen venue - but it had everything going for it.... a beautiful ceremony location in The Orangery, this outdoor barn for people to mingle in, rustic interior, chevari chairs (lush - not those rank bog standard banquetting chairs), picturesque gardens and the Apple Loft bridal suite... if we hadn't gone for our venue and had unlimited cash, I would so have pushed this one through... shame... just writing this and looking at their website makes me wonder...but anyways - onward...
The Room in the Rodings
This venue is actually the sister venue to our venue (what a mouthful - too many "venues"!), I had misread (again?!) the amount of people it held in the sister venue and we went and saw this instead - I was sold on the outdoor ceremony - arriving in horse and carriage (my theme was starting to turn towards olde English Country Style) I know I said in the UK you can't get married outdoors - but as long as it's on a fixed floor and covered, you can... go figure... And we could have our own catering and bring our own alcohol without a corkage charge!! But.....we didn't like the actual reception room though - was a bit "meh", and the bar was kinda round the corner and the dancefloor was kinda long and weird... I don't know - it didn't do it for me either!
So we re-read the brochure and realising that the sister venue would be big enough for our guest numbers we decided to go and visit The Reid Rooms...
TTFN xx
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