When it comes to getting married, the place you choose to do it is just as important as the dress, your guest list and even the rings you choose. As well as being the backdrop to all of your photographs, the venue of the ceremony should represent you and your partner’s personalities.
If your getting married in a church then you need to book your wedding date first, give the church a call and make an appointment. Normally a year in advance is good and you will hopefully get the date you want. If you are planning on getting married at the venue then you need to contact the local registry office where your venue is situated and get a date, sometimes trying to get both the date and the venue can be tricky but usually they are pretty good at fitting you in on your chosen date, although the your chosen time may be different if they already have another wedding booked in on the same date. These registrars are busy people you know! I know I wanted a 12pm wedding but they couldn't fit us in til 1pm, it wasn't much of a problem to us, gave me more time to get ready!
Also remember that your venue must be approved by the local council, you will find a list of approved venues on www.gov.uk
I've done both a church wedding and venue, I can tell you the venue wedding is a lot easier to arrange because everything is in one place and so there's no travelling around, it's a lot more relaxed and I think you can enjoy your day more.
I stayed over at my venue the night before my wedding day, it was so lovely waking up and not being in a panic worrying about everything as the venue had everything in place, I had a lovely and extremely helpful wedding coordinator who was rushing around making sure everything was just so. The venue that you choose will normally give you contacts for local room dress hire, catering companies, florists etc.... If you need them. I had arranged for a local hairdresser & beautician to come to venue on the morning so again that was another huge stress relief gone. I must say I felt like a film star the day of my wedding, nothing was too much trouble for anyone, I was made to feel really special and that I will not forget.
Look online and search for your perfect venue, it doesn't have to be close to home, if there's a venue you really like the look of and it's 50 miles away then go for it! You have to find the right place for both of you.
Maybe it's a castle or a country estate or maybe your local football or Rugby club, what ever is special to you both, that's what really matters.
