How To Save On Hotel Wedding Venue

by Emma
(UK)

We would like our reception and ceremony in the same venue so a hotel would be great, but it's coming to £6,000 for food during the day and a buffet, plus room hire – which is way over our budget. Have you any ideas how we can save money on the venue? I would like to have a reception at home like yours, but our parent's houses just aren't big enough. Emma xx

Answer:

There are many licensed venues up and down the country and one of the best places to find them is on the Government's General Registry Website.

You can search by postcode or town, so you can find every venue that's licensed. This will open up lots of different venues to you that you hadn't thought of. Examples might be sports clubs (rowing clubs are often by the river so have beautiful views), local government buildings, arts centres, restaurants, museums, town/village halls etc - all of which could be suitable for you.

Don't be put off by government buildings and town halls as often they're stunning grand old buildings that are quite impressive and you can get married and have your reception in the same place quite cheaply.

We all know that hotel food is overpriced and that the bulk of your costs will come from this, so if you can find venues that allow external catering, you should be able to reduce your costs. You could also think about doing something different to the standard 3-course meal. Think about alternative foods that you could serve up - afternoon tea, luxurious fork buffet, finger buffet, carvery or fish and chips. Going for something simpler than the standard course meal will save you money.

If you're still set on a hotel wedding, then you can think about negotiating. With some thorough planning and lots of research, you could easily save quite significantly in this area. Wedding packages in hotels are easy to negotiate as well as there tends to be a lot of added extras you can for free or you can negotiate on.

I hope that helps. I'm sure the government's database of venues will help you find some little gems.