We've all been there. The place looks and sounds spectacular on paper, but when you arrive to check the place out, you are either delighted, or mortified beyond belief. What venues have you visited that you highly recommend, or ones that you were disappointed in? (Try not to be TOO harsh on the flops. They do have businesses to run. Haha.)

For me I highly recommend Cressbrook Hall in Derbyshire. It's a gorgeous hall that was built in the reign of William IV and it has some spectacular views, a gorgeous garden that they restored back to how it would have been in 1850 and incredibly friendly staff. The package they offered me included accommodation for my guests in the rooms and cottages on site which is a HUGE help, as a lot will be traveling quite a distance. The food choices are also spot on with various options for those who enjoy fancy and also for those that don't. They also offer a hog roast in summer.

Another place to recommend (If you can afford it) is Chatsworth House. If you don't mind sharing the place with tourists (As they are still milling about in different areas) then this is a dream venue. It is a little steep on price, but the quality is very good.

One place I wasn't so keen on was the New Bath Hotel in Matlock Bath. Matlock Bath is one of my all time favourite places to visit. It's only a short drive from where I live and it is so beautiful. But, the venue was not up to scratch. The staff were very friendly and accommodating, but the place seemed as if it was stuck in a time period it really shouldn't have been. The carpets were bright and gaudy, the outside had peeling paint and the place just wasn't as grand and comfortable as expected. It would be ideal for business conferences, but for a wedding? Not for me.

What about yourselves? Got any tales of woe? Or maybe you found several dream venues?

I fell in love with the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, but if I remember rightly they wanted £15k just for hire, so that was well out of the question! I still look at pictures now and feel gutted that I cant have it!

I cant say I visited anywhere too awful but my other half was quite keen on a village-hall-type place near him which had gaudy pink walls, clashing red curtains and windows we werent allowed to open (we were looking at a summer wedding at the time). That got jogged on pretty quickly!

We wanted Thornton Manor, not too far from Liverpool. We went to look at the biggest marquee they had, at first glance it was lovely, but the prices they were asking were outrageous, especially when we looked at the toilets that would be available to us at the outside marquee...they were not nice. I would have accepted them if the place had been cheap, but at £15k for the whole package? Hells no.

We love Didsbury House which is our venue, they are not too highly priced and very nice. A bit loopy wedding planner, but if you can deal with it it's really good.

i would highly recommened the Nailcote Hall hotel marquee for an evening reception, stunning grounds and plenty of space. for the wedding i wouldnt as its right next to the swimming pool.

I agree with nicsquared! Cadbury house hotel was defo the worst in terms of what we wanted!
We have gone for priston mill but also liked egypt mill apart from low ceilings (h2b is over 6 ft as are most of the men in his family) and distance from church was just too far. Also loved the outside of chewton place but not so keen on inside ( and according to recent reports think this has closed as well)

Saw so many venues, and could see plus and minus sides to all of them, there were only a few that got ruled out immediately, one of them was an utterly spectacular old estate house on the outside, really stunning, but inside it just looked like it had been painted white about 15 years ago, all very bland and neglected, which is a shame, had worked at a wedding there and was impressed at the time! Think it was more disappointing because it was obvious that at one time it had been utterly spectacular! Other one I found some photos online and fell in love with the homliness of the ceremony room and the cottage-style gardens, but when we actually got there, all the backstage areas (toilets, kitchen, walkways etc) were just like at a youth hostel, definitely not right for us. We also ruled out Wortley Hall straight away, I don't feel bad about naming them though, because our reasoning isn't a slight on the venue, and if you're looking for a grand old building near Sheffield it's gorgeous and very reasonably priced! But it's owned by the unions, to the point where all the suites and rooms are named after high-profile members of the socialist movement, the evening do room has a big UNITE logo on the door, and when we visited, it was in the middle of an exibition of miners strike art! H2B not a fan of the unions, and would probably have melted if we'd got married in the AEU lounge!

My parents used to stay at Kenwood Hall we they came up to visit me at uni, and it had gorgeous gardens and a nice breakfast, so that was reason enough to go and look. Was completely bowled over by the old part of the building I'd never seen. What suprised me was all the rooms, I've never been to a wedding that was essentially a house party layout, I definitely had reservations about that! But h2b is really happy with the idea of being able to keep the different sides of his family in seperate rooms at all times, and when I adjusted to the idea of not just having a big room, I fell in love!

We have looked at west India house in Somerset for a reception the photos of the place are stunning yet the actual reality is nothing like the photos altho the staff are friendly and very welcoming and it is extremely reasonably priced I think looking at the photos made us get excited so when seeing the actual venue as we had excepted one thing it was a bigger disappointment altho we were reluctant in looking at local rugby club how ever the room is beautiful and light so I think we shouldn't rely so much on websites and photos and get out there and look

We didn't have much luck when it came to venues.

When we originally got engaged we looked at both Spain and Coventry weddings, we got brochures from a local hotel which was nice and quite cheap at £2k, we only had time for a quick chat with their co-ordinator but they were very friendly and helpful. Then I emailed a couple of Spanish hotels near where the future inlaws live to ask for quotes and was completely ignored by all of them, so we settled on Coventry.

I asked around a few local venues - one wine bar seemed to not understand the concept of a function or hire or any kind of event hosting, so that was out (it was a long shot but I figured that asking couldn't hurt) and the only other venue I liked was Coventry Cathedral, which we got quotes for and their events co-ordinator was friendly and replied to emails quickly. We probably would have gone for that IF not that it was around this time that I got fed up of trying to juggle caterers, florists, venues, all that jazz in England and started thinking about Spain again. So we asked h2b's parents if we could use their villa, they said yes and it's been easy since then.

I looked at one place that could have been really lovely - quite expensive though - except the main attraction and selling point which was the terrace outside where you could have the ceremony was horrible. When I and MIL went to view it we were so unimpressed!There was a bizarre model of a bear, chained up to a tree!? And a random model horse's head stuck in the ground.

I know someone on here is getting married there though so you know, each to her own. (Have checked and she's not been on for months, think i'm safe!)

i had one venue who was experiencing problems with their internet and no one could view the brouchure online so asked for it posting out to me. they didn't pay the postage in full so i got a letter asking for the rest and postal chargers on top. lets just say they didn't get choosen lol