Venue Hunting and Date Setting-part 1

Right, so once the question (and a few bottles of bubbly) has been popped, you're going to want to get down to business. Unless you're one of those girls (or guys) who's been dreaming of your wedding day since you were five years old and know EXACTLY what you want for everything, there's going to be a lot of decisions to make.

my gorge engagement ring

The first thing everybody wants to know is "when?" Luckily, we did have a date in mind-our 10 year anniversary falls on a Saturday in May and we loved the idea of tying the knot that day. So what we needed was a venue.
A few google searches and we found somewhere that seemed perfect for the laid back, festival-vibed wedding we imagined.
Wise Wedding Venue near Tonbridge, in Kent is a totally amazing woodland site. After foolishly following our sat nav (pro tip-never do this) several wrong turns, a few phone calls with helpful owner Sam, and a friendly local, we eventually found it. It was worth the wait.  From the awesome light installations, to the treehouse, the swinging armchairs-did I mention the treehouse?! This place is magical. We fell in love instantly. Sadly, Sam was already booked on our date, but we thought we could be flexible on this for a dream venue. Then we did the number crunching.

Wise Wedding Venue

The basic cost of hire was for just the land alone. When you added in the price of the marquee (British summer time people!), toilets, treehouse (an absolute must once you've seen it), catering, bar or corkage, tables and chairs, not to mention an additional ceremony as Wise isn't licenced for the legal ceremony, only a blessing...it was just miles out of our price range. Devestated.

Wise Wedding Venue

We were disappointed to not be able to afford our dream venue, but we decided rather than wait another year or two and save up, we'd rather get married sooner-after all, what's really important about a wedding? The venue or the person you're spending the rest of your life with? So, having come to terms with the fact we might not get the date we wanted, and widening our search for venues we looked at some more, and found some gems!

If you've got your heart set on an outdoor-festival inspired day (and who can blame you?!) check out these other venues in Kent: Allstar Catering run this lovely venue near Sevenoaks, with hire including a marquee and a glamping bell tent for the happy couple. As they are a catering company first and foremost though, be aware of the price of the catering on top-though they don't charge corkage which is a bonus! The fab wedding blog Festival Brides have a secret woodland venue in Kent, as well as others around the country-check their page for the one closest to you. The one we enquired after had several different prices dependant on how long you booked the venue for-ceremony only, until 8pm or over night.
In the rest of the UK check out Camp Katur in Yorkshire, The Haymeadow near Taunton, The Country Wedding Company in Bucks (great rates for dry hire if you can get discounts on everything else from other sources!) and The Keeper and The Dell in Norwich. Some of these venues would be too pricy for a tight a budget as ours is, but they are great inspiration for a festival themed occasion!