T minus 6 months: Visiting the venue again.

We booked our wedding venue in February 2010. We went to view it, chatted with the wedding coordinator and loved it (and the prices!) so much that we booked it and sent the deposit that same day.

That was a year ago (doesn't time fly?!) and, although it might sound strange considering how obsessed I am with this wedding planning business, we have had no contact with the venue over the last year. None at all, since they sent us the receipt for the deposit, back in February 2010.

I will admit, when I realised that it had been a year since we had spoken to the venue, it worried me a little. I mean, what if they had forgotten about us? What it the woman who took our booking had made a mistake, or forgotten to put our names in the book, or quit her job and not told anyone that we had actually made a booking? What if the prices had gone up dramatically and we couldn't afford it now? What if the venue said that all our ideas wouldn't work and we couldn't have them? What if the celebration garden, which hadn't even been built last time we were there, wasn't nice? What if the whole place had been burned down in a horrible kitchen accident and no-one had told me?

As you can see - I'm a worrier. You're probably wondering why, if I was so worried, I hadn't been in touch with the venue over the last year. I'll tell you - because I was worried they would think I was bothering them, being a bridezilla, or just a bit too OTT. You see, I didn't actually need to speak to them about anything over the last year, so what would have been the point in contacting them?

Anyway, since 6th February this year was exactly 6 months until our wedding, I decided to email our venue to find out when we could arrange things like food tastings and just general chats to iron out all the details. The coordinator got called us up and invited us to come in to have a chat with and another look round the venue. So that's what we did today!

We met with the lovely Carrie, who wasn't working at Pryors Hayes when we originally booked. She was so nice and extremely helpful - she answered almost every question I had written down, without me even having to ask them! We chatted about all the little details so she can get a full price quote emailed out to us soon and explained that we had booked at a good time because a few months after we did, they started charging for the use of the marquee. We still get it for free because we that's what was agreed when we booked - lucky us!

So many things have changed since we were there last - but all for the better! The menu's have been changed to be made simpler, but what we wanted was still on there, and they are willing to make us a different dessert just because that's what Karl wanted.

When we pulled into the car park, this was our view:

 

You can just about see the top of the gazebo where we will be married! Whoop! I was so distracted trying to see the celebration garden that I almost didn't notice the other big change...

Hang on a minute! That huge, white marquee looks much bigger than it did last time we were here! In fact, it looks like a different marquee altogether! Well, that's because it is! It is a much more solid structure, which walls and actual doors instead of just tent flaps and it is about 4 times bigger than it used to be!

 

To put it into perspective, last time we were there, we were told that the marquee could hold about 40 people for the meal, meaning we would have to have our meal in the club house. No big deal, the club house is still lovely, and we could use the marquee for the DJ and dance floor. However, withe new giant marquee, it can fit 150 people for the meal, meaning that we can have all of our tables set up in there, plus the DJ and dance floor! Hurray! This makes me very happy - the marquee is so lovely and it will be nice to have the whole wedding in there as opposed to dancing in one part and sitting in another. I also got very excited when Carrie started talking about the marquee being finished - it will be carpeted (dark grey) and have the white swag style curtains all around the walls. It sounds like it will be gorgeous, and here's the best part: the ceiling will have a star cloth! I might have even gasped when she told me that part - I love the look of star cloths! 

Star cloth example (source)

Amazing, right? 

We talked about the photo booth, and the various places it could go, about the timing of the ceremony and meal etc, the food we wanted, the drinks we wanted, the decorations we wanted, the music we wanted - everything! 

Then we went to look at the celebration garden. Remember, when we booked the venue, it hadn't actually been built yet. I've been drooling over the photos of it for months, but we never actually got around the driving up there to see it in person. 

 

It's a shame the weather was to rubbish, as it looks much nicer in the sunshine! But it's still lovely - smaller than I thought it was, but that's a good thing as it makes it more intimate and we don't have to worry about people not being able to see or hear us. 

Here is Carrie showing my mum the gazebo where we will stand to get married. It has lights in the roof so it will be lit up in the evening, and the speakers inside it will play our music, plus project our voices to out guests during the ceremony. 

Inside the gazebo will be just the registrars, our 2 witnesses and us. I'm quite excited about this because I think it will feel quite intimate, being slightly separated from our guests - I will be bale to pretend that we are alone! lol 

We discussed the seating for the ceremony - the chairs are gold with pink cushions, so we will be having white chair covers on them. Carrie suggested buying some purple and green ribbon and tying the together around the backs of the chairs along the aisle, which is an idea that I love! She showed me a photo of the covered chairs set up outside and it looked stunning! The chairs for inside the marquee are silver with black cushions, so we will probably cheap them as they are without the covers. I think if they were covered, it would be a bit too much white inside the marquee! 

We also discussed our photos, and Carrie told us about the pond they have out on the golf course. They will drive us over to the pond on golf buggies to have our private photos taken, which is something I am really looking forward to! Not only will it be loads of fun to ride around in a golf buggy, but it will be nice to have a few minutes away from all the noise etc, just us (and a photographer!). 

The pond is over there, somewhere...

Golf buggies!

I am so glad we went to visit Pryors Hayes again - it has renewed my excitement and put my mind at ease. The most exciting thing was finding out about the new, bigger marquee and that we can have our meal and reception in there. This also means that, since we are not taking up the golfers club house, we can set up the marquee the day before the wedding. I know that as much as I trust the staff at Pryors Hayes, I would be worrying all morning about whether everything was set up as I wanted it, and had already made plans to send a friend there early to move things around if needed. If we can set up the day before then I will be able to relax, knowing everything is perfect! 

There is a wedding fayre at Pryors Hayes on 6th March, and I will probably go along just to bask in the loveliness of our venue again. If you're int he area, you should definitely pop in to see it for yourself!

Twilight Dancing

I've just checked our venue's website and it has all been revamped. They now have a seperate Weddings & Events site and I found this picture of our ceremony site:

from www.pryorshayes.com

How gorgeous does that look?? It makes my tummy do flips!

When we first saw the veune, they mentioned that we could possibly have our first dance in the gazebo, under the fairy lights. I think they said that it would be hooked up with speakers so the music we had playing inside could also be played in the gazebo. I love that idea - it makes me think of the dance scene in Twilight, lol.

Twilight scene

But I'm not sure how the logisitcs of that would work. Mainly because we want everyone to join us on the dance floor after our frist dance, so if we did it outside, we'd then have to walk back inside with everyone in order to all dance together. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would a bit of a pain and it might spoil the atmosphere a little.

It will probably be easier to have our first dance inside, but I will definitely make Karl dance with me under the gazebo at some point. And I promise to only pretend he is Edward for a minute!

If we can, I will definitely have the music playing in the gazebo, so that our guests can go out into the garden for some fresh air, but their will still be a great atmosphere. And so that everyone else can have their Twilight moment too!

Wedding Signage

Recently I've been thinking that it might be nice to have a sign outside our venue, showing guests which way to go. Not that it's difficult or anything, but I want to be sure that they know that they don't have to walk around to the front, and through the reception room in order to get to the ceremony garden. Plus, I found some really cute signage inspiration:

Our "motto" , so to speak, for the wedding is "Eat, drink and be married" so I love the sign above, but I think I might prefer a nice, simple "Wedding this way" or "Karl and Kayleighs wedding this way" with an arrow.

I do love the look of the wooden, hand painted signs though. I think we could make one of these really easily and for  next to nothing - I bet we could find an old piece of wood in the shed somewhere! I wouldn't make it look vintage and worn, like moast of these examples though. And I would try to use the same fonts that we are using on the invtations, rather than the fancier, swirly script in the above photos.

I think this would be areally nice first impression to give the guests when they arrive for the ceremony.

Eeeeeeek!

I am very excited right now!

Remember our venue? We love it so much, but the celebration garden, where our ceremony will take place wasn't actually built when we last saw the venue. We saw the plans for it and the sketches etc, and we really liked them, but I have been dying to see our actual ceremony site. How am I supposed to imagine walking down the aisle, when I don't know what it looks like??

Anyway, today I went onto the venue's website and found these pictures of the celebration garden, fully built!

The pavillion where we will stand during the ceremony

Our ceremony site

How gorgeous does that look?!

The stone path down the middle will be the aisle that we walk down, and then chairs will be set up on the grass areas for guest seating.

Obviously by next year all the plants and bushes will be bigger and fuller. I am so excited to finally get a look at our ceremony site! We are going to try and visit the venue tomorrow afternoon to check it out in the flesh, so to speak. I really want to see how long the aisle is - and maybe have a little go at walking down it!

[all photos are from the Pryors Hayes website]

The Venue

We found our venue in Febuary after looking at what felt like every other venue in a 50 mile radius! We had a pretty long list of things we wanted, which included:

• big enough for 100 people
• lovely gardens or outside area
• late license for the bar/music
• bar in the same room as the meal/disco 
• disabled access
• not too far from where we (and most of our guests) live
• civil ceremony at the same place as reception

There was much, much more on the list, but I wont bore you with all that. Neither of us are religious, so we knew it would be a civil ceremony and wanted everything at the same place. We visited a place called Willington Hall, which is gorgeous and has a license to get married outdoors. We were so excited about this idea, but Willington Hall turned out to be slightly more expensive than we were hoping to spend. Round the corner from there, is a golf course called Pryors Hayes, which has recently started holding weddings and also has an outdoor wedding license. We went to visit and it was so perfect! It is right in the countryside, near Chester, about half an hours drive from us and it has amazing views! It has the clubhouse to have the meal in, a marquee to have the disco in and the outside pavillion to get married in.

Now when we went, the pavillion wasnt built yet, but Jane, the co-ordinator showed us the deisgn and I'm sure it's going to be gorgeous!

We'd already seent he prices of the meals and they were very reasonable, so we sat down with Jane and meekly asked how much for the room hire charge...? Here response? FREE! Can you believe that? We then asked about ceremony charge...? NO CHARGE! Amazing! We tried to hide our excitement (and failed) as Jane explained that as long as you had the food from them, there was no room hire charge!

Needless to say, that sealed the deal for us! We booked it for our date, with ceremony at 4pm. We had already decided we wanted a 4pm ceremony as we thought this would mean we didnt need to provide a meal and a buffet, cutting another cost. Luckicly, Pryors Hayes only has ceremonies at 4pm, since they are open as a golf club during the day anyway. See, it's fate!

This is the pavillion where our ceremony will take place

The pavillion and garden will be built on the grass near the white marquee

The front entrance

The deck where we will have drinks after the ceremony

The gorgeous view over the gold course.

I love Pryors Hayes so much, and the fact that it is such a bargain just makes me happier! Jane also said that we could have the bar and music until what ever time we wanted. We can have some really lovely photos taken around the golf course (and maybe even a golf buggy to drive aorund in!). I can't wait to go back when the garden has been built and see it properly.
The only thing that worries me, is that we have our heart set on an outdoor wedding and in this country, there is a big chance it will rain. The weather on 6th August this year was awful! I will be so disappointed if it rains and we have to move everything inside, so fingers crossed!