That sounds very pricey but if you can afford it and it's what you want then money should be no object. I do believe though that YOU and everything you organise (all the tiny details) will make your day though, it's not the venue that does that.

Exclusive use of our venue on a Saturday in June is £1000. A 3 course wedding breakfast for 50 people, evening buffet for 90 people. welcome drinks, toast drinks & drinks for the tables, a dance floor and 50 chair covers will come in at just over £5000. We have booked their recommended DJ which is costing us about £420ish (might add a few add-ons).

There are 23 rooms are £130 per night but we are asking our guests to pay for their own rooms if they would like to stay.

That is where it gets costly, with the Marquees you can only hire the cottages, and each cottage costs a minimum of £350 per night. as Gorgeous and secluded as they are its costly. I said to H2B I would hate that we picked somewhere for convinence rather than somewhere we loved after all it is the reason why we have chosen to marry in two years time, to help us save up and pay for it all.

yerrr wer still looking around for another that could maybe win our hearts, we dont want to go too far out for that though. I think we really need to make ourselves a budget tbh, we still event done that x

I would seriously think about getting yourself up an idea of what your budget is before you go ahead with everything. Like MrsP my OH and I sat down and worked out how much we could save on the 2yrs and 2 months run up to the wedding and if we can make over payments into the wedding account then all the better. We're paying for everything ourselves. Last pay day we actually reached our forecast budget so anything we save now is a bonus and we now know that we CAN afford what we need and now we can look at what little things we want :)

I arranged two ceremony's one in USA and one here ...to included everything apart from rings and honeymoon for 7k

We thought ours was high .... We've paid £5200 for our venue but it does include the dj, a wedding planner, all the decorating. Our food has cost around £3100 on top of this

Think ours has ended up pretty good overall considering the price of the venue, our total spend has just been a little over £15k but that includes the honeymoon to jamaica x

I think if you really love it and you have a while and definitely think you can afford it then go for it x

That is a lot of money JUST for the venue. Ours is costing £5000 but that cost includes 3 course wedding breakfast for 65 people (with choice of 2), evening buffet for 80 people, welcome drinks, canapes, toast drinks & 4 bottles of wine for the tables, chair covers and sashes included free and resident DJ. Also includes night in honeymoon suite for B&G and registrar fees.

We could have had exclusive use for an extra £1000 fee and if we could guarantee the 38 rooms on site would be booked. I dont think we would get anywhere near having them all booked out so didnt bother.

But id also be concerned with booking somewhere who use external caterers, which generally end up costing more per person than 'in house' costs.

Having said that, if you can afford to hold your wedding there without saving for it impacting on your day to day life, and you dont find anywhere that comes close, then go for it!

It doesn't hurt to keep looking, but if you really have to have it, work out a budget that saves elsewhere so you can have it.

The place we were hoping for was just too costly, worked out to be over £15000 for the venue and food, and there were stupid restrictions like "no dancing aloud" and everyone out by 21:00 and onto a nearby bar. (The Deck on London's southbank if you were wondering). It was absolutely stunning with breathtaking views, but not worth it.

We kept looking and ended finding a more beautiful venue with a reasonable (for London) package.

It worked out to be £73 pp (just under £9000 for 80 people including an under occupancy charge as they can fit 120 and charge a fee for under numbers).

This includes arrival drink, 3 course meal, center pieces and table decoration, chair covers and sashes in our choice of colour. Champagne for the toast, water on tables, tea coffee, 2 course evening buffet, bridal suite with champagne in the room, guestbook, table planner, menus and place cards, toastmaster, waiting staff, and an anniversary dinner for the B&G a year later.

We bespoked the package (was £85 pp with DJ and table wine) as we want to supply our own wine (Too snobby to accept hotel wine, I want something decent), and DJ, and the £73pp included corkage.

All of this for a Camden lock venue with views over the canal.

Good luck with the plans Nicola, hope you find what you are looking for. It's not worth making your life any more stressful than it already is and potentially getting yourselves into financial difficulty xx