Finding a reception venue - part 2

The church centre at Aston was suggested as a reception venue pretty early on, and is an ideal space for a ceilidh, but because we had thought we wanted a sit down three course meal for the wedding breakfast, we weren't sure if it would work. The church centre is not the prettiest venue either, being a fairly typical 1980s hall with painted walls, a textured ceiling and strip fluorescent lights.

However, after deciding against Penns Hall we came back to the idea of the church centre, especially when Mom and Dad mentioned that there was a lady at the church who could decorate it beautifully so that it looked like we were in a marquee.

The idea had so many plus points - why go somewhere else when there's a venue right next to the church?; people who aren't local won't have to find another venue; we can have more people there so people who have travelled won't have to worry about finding somewhere to kick their heels for three hours before the evening do; even though the centre isn't licensed, people are welcome to bring in their own drinks; the cost was much less even if it meant hiring in a separate caterer and having to do a bit more work; and there's lots of outdoor space at the centre for kids to run around.

We still haven't been able to find very good pictures of the marquee-like setup, but we're quite happy with the idea of the church centre now, and even with having to find a caterer, it's still worked out cheaper (and catered for more people) than going to a hotel or restaurant for a wedding breakfast.

Finding a reception venue - part 1

When we were looking around for a reception venue we knew we wanted somewhere where ideally we could have a ceilidh in the evening, and it had to be somewhere that would cater for vegetarians, because my dad is a veggie.

While we were deliberating, darling beardy man's parents booked their hotel rooms for the wedding weekend at Penns Hall Hotel. (It's technically Ramada Sutton Coldfield now, but it's also been known as Crossroads Motel for those of you who remember the 1970s...) His mum made enquiries about the hotel's wedding reception facilities.

My dad then went to investigate and was shown the suggested room for 70 people, with tables laid out, chair covers, subtle lighting and catering available for a three course lunch. Dad said it looked nice, it sounded pretty good and the menus looked tasty, with veggie options available.

We did have slight reservations because we really wanted a hog roast and ceilidh in the evening, and we weren't sure if the hotel would be able to cater a hog roast, or if the room would be okay for a ceilidh with more than 70 people there - our guest list was quite long! There was also the added problem that quite a lot of our guests would be travelling some distance to get to the wedding. We wouldn't neccessarily want them at the breakfast but would want them at the evening, but they might want to travel back home earlier because they'd have the distance to travel.

The problem was resolved when we went to see the room that Penns Hall was offering. It had its own entrance straight off the car park, which immediately caused a few worries. We're going to have quite a lot of children at the reception and so ideally we wanted somewhere where they could go and run around and burn off some energy. The car park isn't an ideal place for them to do that, and there wasn't any other outdoor space for them to go.

Another issue was that while the room was well-lit and did just about have the space we wanted, there was no natural light at all, aside from a fire exit which led out into a tiny courtyard.

Given the cost of the package (over £2,000), the space restriction and the worries about children, we decided that Penns Hall probably wasn't going to be a suitable venue.

As an aside, although the function room wasn't particularly suitable, we have booked a bridal suite at the hotel overlooking the lake, and that looks absoluttely lovely.

Ramada Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield
Penns Lane, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, B76 1LH
e: enquiries@ramadasuttonhotel.co.uk
t: 0121 351 3111
w: www.ramadasuttonhotel.co.uk

A better flower option

After the shock of florists' pricings of bridal bouquets I thought I'd look into other places to get flowers from.

One of the first places I looked at was Marks & Spencer, which does some lovely bouquets that can be delivered. The range is lovely and the prices aren't too bad. Some of my favourites were:

Fairtrade Rose & Alstroemeria Bouquet, Serene Bouquet, Classic White Roses Bouquet and Autograph Avalanche Roses, all £35

Setting The Scene Bouquet in white, £45, Centre Stage Bouquet, £50,  Setting The Scene Arrangement in white, £35

All of the above are available from Marks & Spencer's website.

Of course, the large bouquets would be too big for me to carry, but they could be split down into smaller bouquets for me and my bridgesmaids and tied up with ribbon to match the colour scheme. When you compare one bouquet for £75 to four for £35, it's obvious which the better option is!

After I'd done my reasearch, and feeling a lot more positive about flowers, I popped to the supermarket for some bits and pieces, and what should I see when I walked through the door but some beautiful bouquets.

Various bouquets from Sainsbury's, ranging from £3 to £12.50

I've mentioned before that I don't mind what flowers I have, so now I'm thinking that perhaps going to the supermarket the day before and getting some really nice flowers from there would be the best option. Sister-in-law has done bits of flower arranging before and has offered to help create bouquets if I'd like her to, and this does seem like a much better option than paying extortionate amounts for something that will only last a week.

How expensive are flowers?!

My sister-in-law offered to help with any bits of research I wanted doing for the wedding - venues, hair stylists, and so on. So I decided to take advantage of her offer and ask her to find out what sort of flowers will be in season (and so comparatively cheap) in November.

I'm really not too fussed about the type of flowers I have in a bouquet. When I was first thinking about the wedding, before we had a date, I was imagining a spring wedding and thinking a wildflower bouquet would be nice. I'm not really into the very formal arrangements, and I wanted something simple but pretty, and fitting in with the colour scheme which is mostly dark green. That, I thought, would make it simple because any flowers would go with the colour scheme!

Sister-in-law came back with a list of flowers which would be in season - (top row) narcissus, bouvardia, (bottom row) agapanthus and september, which I believe is a type of aster.

Because she went to a florist to make enquiries, she thought it would be rude not to get a quote as well. The reply - £75. When she told me I was flabberghasted (which is a fabulous word that's not used often enough). I couldn't believe that a simple bunch of flowers would cost so much. It reinforced something that darling beardy man (aka fiancé) has been saying all along - as soon as you mention the word 'wedding', whoever you're talking to will double the price at least.

So having discovered how shockingly overpriced the flowers are, I'm not seriously considering doing them myself.