Cheap Wedding Venue in Berkshire - Croquet!

by Clare
(Bracknell)

I've been engaged for 3 months now and have been searching for cheap wedding venues in the Berkshire area. My one problem is that I want to get married somewhere pretty! We will also have a lot of guests - I'm so jealous of people who have gardens big enough to fit a whole wedding party in!

I want a late afternoon wedding, then afternoon tea (sandwiches and cake) somewhere preferably with a marquee and croquet lawn to play silly games on. We will be having a civil ceremony rather than a religious one, so trying to factor that into the budget and practicalities just seems impossible!

Any ideas?


Answer:

Most venues that offer that kind of thing you're after won't be cheap as they're set up for weddings and are quite particular about how they do things.

Saying that, I do think it's achievable if you have your ceremony and reception separately. For example, since you're keen on an afternoon wedding, you could 'officially' tie the knot in a registry office in the morning and then have a Humanist ceremony with your guests in your reception venue in the afternoon.

For the official registry office ceremony, you only need your witnesses and so later on your guests wouldn't even know that you're actually already married.

You could then look for a venue that offers space for a marquee and a lawn area for your games. This will be much easier to find since you won't need a licensed venue!

You could consider hiring a large country cottage for the weekend and then getting a marquee company to erect a marquee in the garden. You'd obviously need one with a large garden and one that accepts marquees, but they do exist. You've just got to search around. (I have spoken to marquee companies that have done this, so it's definitely possible!)

One little place I did find was The Firs, Brimpton Berkshire (01189 713812) where they hire out their land and you do the rest yourself. So you could get a marquee put up there and then bring in external caterers or do it yourself. They’ve got plenty of mowed lawns for your croquet too! You'd need to see it though, so give them a call.

Other venues that you could consider are farms, conference centres, sports clubhouses, village halls with fields or large grounds attached, schools or pubs with large gardens.

Hopefully that will give you some food for thought.