Part 1 UK-based weddings in the cooler months

Introduction

The main issue that has emerged from my research into this part of the book is that just because you choose to get married in the autumn, winter or spring in the UK does not necessarily mean you’ll have worse weather than what you can get in the British summer.

The British climate being as unpredictable as it is means that cooler-month weddings can be just as beautiful as those at any other time. And there are distinct advantages.

Apart from peak socializing times like Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day, wedding celebrations booked in the ‘off-peak’ months can be significantly cheaper than in the summertime.

Whereas in the past most people chose to get married over the summer months to ensure good weather, I believe in the last four to five years people have changed their outlook and now there is not a set time of year for a wedding season. Some venues however, do offer a sliding rate card during high and low seasons (November, January, February, March) which can be a saving of between 5% and 10% but if you are flexible on the day of the week and consider a Friday and Sunday weddings you can also benefit from different costs. But be aware of the licensing laws for a Sunday in a hotel, as they are different to the other days of the week.
Sarah Ducker
Event &Wedding Planner
www.sjdevents.com

In these cooler months, too, you have a very wide range of themes, styles, colour schemes and decorations to choose from – if anything a greater choice than you have in the summer. You’re certainly not restricted to woolly clothes and roaring open fires. I hope this section of the book will set you thinking along some truly creative lines.

Choosing the location

Choosing the location is the first issue you need to consider, despite the fact that you may want to prioritise other things. Let’s take a look at a variety of wedding locations – both in terms of the ceremony and the reception – and how the cooler months of the year might affect your choices here.

Churches and other places of worship

Naturally if you want a religious wedding ceremony in the UK you will be obliged to have it in one of the country’s places of worship. Bear in mind that some of these buildings – especially some chapels and church buildings not normally cranked up for action apart from Sundays in the cooler months – are potentially draughty and damp. When planning your wedding you may want to enquire whether such a church has heating and if so, is there a charge for it to be turned on in plenty of time for your nuptials?

Nowadays the vast majority of churches, chapels and other places of worship do have heating and it will be made available for your wedding, but – especially if you’re looking at a remote church or chapel in the dim and distant countryside – make sure it’s available.

If you’re having a religious wedding, obviously the reception will be held elsewhere, which involves the bridal party and guests needing to travel. As I’ve suggested below in relation to civil weddings and partnerships, such travelling between ceremony and reception can be a damp and chilly experience in the cooler months (and even in our delightful British summer, too, if you’re unlucky.) In this case though, travelling is unavoidable, but to be kind to yourself and the rest of the bridal party and guests, it’s probably sensible to try to arrange your reception somewhere as close as possible to the ceremony venue. Many churches have attractive church halls available for hire and these can provide a helpful solution. Although a long ramble in a vintage, open-topped car along country lanes to a charming stately pile 12 miles from the church might be a romantic prospect in flaming June, it’s very unlikely to be so in November.

Having your reception at home

Unless your wedding party is going to be small, holding a reception at home is probably taking a bit of a risk. Although it’s technically possible to put up and use a marquee in the cooler months (autumn and spring, certainly) the reality isn’t so convenient. For starters, marquees are notoriously difficult – and expensive – to heat, and however much hot air you blow into them they still manage to be draughty and damp.

There are other little problems that can crop up too. Here’s a good example: a client of mine was to give an after-dinner speech at a ‘women in business’ dinner, given in a marquee in November. I went along to keep her company and set up her rostrum/microphone/lighting etc. and although through the dinner we had been comfortably warm, the heat was created by giant fan heaters that looked – and sounded – like the engines from a 1960s Comet 4B jet airliner. When my client got up to speak no one could hear her even with the speakers on full blast, so we turned off the heaters. After about five minutes, the place was freezing (fabric marquees have no insulation) so my client kindly cut her speech down from 30 minutes to 15, but even then no one enjoyed it because we were all so damned cold. That taught me once and for all to advise everyone who cares to listen against using marquees in the British autumn, winter and early spring.

Civil weddings and partnerships

Here we get into a delightfully varied and abundant choice of options, despite this being what in the UK is known as the ‘bad weather’ time of year. This involves us taking a look at the options for civil weddings or partnerships where – ostensibly at least – you could host your reception as well.

Quite apart from other considerations like cost-savings and convenience, holding your ceremony and your reception in the same location offers yet another huge advantage in our cooler months. That’s because it removes the need for you and the rest of the bridal party – plus all your guests – to bundle up, trudge through potentially wet and muddy car parks and fight your way to another venue through the rain and sleet. (I’m being particularly pessimistic here, I know!)

With ceremony and reception under one roof guests can arrive in plenty of time, check their coats in once, and then be in nice, comfortable surroundings for the whole event. And as for the bridal party, you can imagine just how much more relaxed and enjoyable the wedding will be if you don’t have even to think about what the weather’s doing apart from when you first arrive for the ceremony, and much later on when you depart for honeymoon or home.

Bear in mind there are, at the time of writing (mid-2008), around 4,000 venues licensed for civil weddings and partnerships in the UK and by the time you read this there may well be more. I haven’t included every single category as some just aren’t appropriate for cooler-month weddings (e.g. gardens with very restricted indoor space) but if you want to check out the full spread of current options, visit http://www.civilvenuesuk.com, or key ‘licensed wedding venues’ into your favourite search engine.

Abbeys

There are a few of these around the country which at the time of writing are licensed to have civil weddings. Despite offering delightfully romantic surroundings in all probability they might be on the chilly side, so think carefully here.

Airports

Not only are various airports and other aviation-linked venues available as wedding venues, but also you can even get married on Concorde, based at Manchester. In your shoes, should you choose this venue, I wouldn’t plan on a large reception … Concorde was always a tight squeeze for passengers and certainly would be for a wedding venue.

Barns

There are lots of barns around the country which are licensed as civil wedding venues, if you want to have the ceremony there as well as the reception. Needless to say they have the potential to be draughty in our cooler months, but of course most have been transformed from draughty barns into highly sophisticated barn conversions.

Bingo hall

Yes, seriously. At the time of writing (mid-2008) I’m told there is a bingo hall licensed for civil ceremonies, in Hertfordshire. So if you and/or your intended are committed players and ‘two little ducks,’ ‘two little fleas,’ ‘droopy drawers,’ ‘bull’s eye’, and ‘snakes alive’ all represent numbers to you, check it out. Could be a fascinating reception, too!

Botanical gardens, parks, etc.

At first glance your reaction to this heading might well be, ‘oh, really?’ but bear in mind that any garden, park etc. licensed for weddings has to do that indoors, and many of these venues actually have very attractive associated buildings which can make a lovely backdrop to a wedding even if the weather outdoors is less than friendly.

Breweries

Getting married in a brewery might be some grooms’ idea of sheer Heaven, but at the time of writing it seems there is only one licensed for civil ceremonies, in north Wales. Actually, many of the older brewery premises in the UK are attractive in their own right and historically very interesting. I’m sure in time more breweries will become licensed wedding venues, and at least you won’t have a problem sorting out the drinks for the reception.

Castles

Oh, this is a big one. Castles in the UK have been springing up as wedding and other function venues at an alarming rate all over the place. And where winter wedding venues are concerned, the advent of Skibo Castle – a.k.a. the Carnegie Club as I believe it’s known – up in northern Scotland really did put such weddings on the map when Madonna and Guy Ritchie tied the knot there in December 2000. Similarly, recent (2008) celebrity marriages in quaint Scottish venues have included those of Ashley Judd, Ewan McGregor, and Sam Torrance.

Clubs, cricket

A few cricket clubs around the UK are licensed for weddings, including the famous Oval in London. A cricket club might not be the ideal choice unless you and/or your beloved is a keen player or fan, especially as cricket is such an ‘outdoor’ game and isn’t played in the cold months of the year which might make the venue seem a bit bleak. For the cricket enthusiast, though, the thrill of marrying in their favourite club would be worth it all.

Clubs, football

There’s a fairly wide choice of clubs licensed for weddings around country, including Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and other famous ones. Realistically they aren’t ideal if you want surroundings with romantic architecture and grand sweeping staircases à la Gone With The Wind, but the sheer excitement (for footie fanatics, anyway) of getting married in your very own football club would more than make up for it. Most clubs have good hospitality suites and know their way around catering, too.

Clubs, golf

Numerous golf clubs around the UK are licensed for weddings and many of them are very grand and attractive venues. They also tend to be fairly large and so are suitable for larger groups. Golf, being played all year round (my son and some friends even played in the snow once on Boxing Day using orange and pink balls), makes a good backdrop for your wedding even if you aren’t a fanatic golfer yourself. Even on a chilly day as long as the light is reasonable golf courses tend to look nice outdoors for most of the year, so a few outdoor photographs will be worth a bit of a chill – provided it’s not raining or snowing.

Clubs, private

A number of famous London ‘gentlemen’s’ clubs are licensed for weddings now and you do not necessarily have to be a member to hire the venue. Many of these clubs are very attractive inside and so make a lovely backdrop for an indoor wedding; plus, they have catering facilities on site and some offer entire wedding packages including decorations, etc. They’re a little on the pricey side, though, and parking in central London is a nightmare, so you would need to think of alternative transport arrangements for your guests – especially if you’re having a large do.

Clubs, rugby

At the time of writing (mid-2008) there are only a few rugby clubs licensed for weddings, with the majority based in northern England. My limited experience of rugby clubs is that they tend to be smaller and more informal than football clubs, but that may just be my jaded view of beer-swilling, 7 foot, 20 stone rugby players! This would be very much a personal choice and of course if the groom is a keen player, it might be perfect. And the place will look quite lived-in, as rugby is a winter game.

Community Centres

See ‘Leisure Centres’ below, because most of what applies to those is relevant to Community Centres. However there might be a difference here. Community Centres tend to have contacts within their communities for things like wedding receptions and other functions, should you need to explore elsewhere for such facilities. And funnily enough, at the time of writing, a good few Community Centres around England are already licensed for civil weddings and partnerships. If you’re not too fussed about baroque/Victorian/Edwardian backdrops to your wedding but just want a comfy, warm place to do the business and have a great time, this could be the right answer for you.

Country mansions

Oh, please … in all probability there are more country mansions in the UK licensed to conduct civil marriages and partnerships than there are days in the year – no, century – so you guys have a delightful choice. Many of these places are licensed as civil wedding venues and many are also conveniently located near churches and other places of worship where a religious blessing may be carried out. In the summer months these venues often are packed out with wedding parties and although some close through the winter months, others don’t. Check it all out online via your favourite search engine. In your shoes, were I sorting out a cooler-months reception in a place like this, I would be very keen to check out the heating arrangements, as often those are something the good old-fashioned Brit culture tends to forget. A ceremony in such a place is delightful, but not if everyone’s fingers and toes are freezing.

Farms

Not what you’d call an obvious choice in chilly, damp weather, but many of the farms around the country licensed for weddings are in fact conversions from farms to proper function suites with all the trimmings. So you don’t have to get married in a barn and have your photographs done while standing in pigswill! My own feeling is that a farm location could be a bit dreary in midwinter, but the autumn or spring might well be good times. Some are fairly small, so are only suitable for smaller groups.

Hotels

It will come as no surprise to you that, at the time of writing, there are hundreds of hotels licensed for civil weddings and partnerships in the UK and by the time you read this book it’s likely there will be dozens, scores, or hundreds more. Not that this is a bad thing; hotels often offer a far more attractive setting for your ceremony than the local Registry Office and not only can you reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding by having your reception in the same place, but also you can save your guests having to put their coats on and traipse/drive to a reception somewhere else, even before and after your wedding, should they happen to book into rooms there. The potential downside of hotels in the cooler months of the year is that – perhaps because they are so convenient for such things – they do tend to get booked up well in advance. The pre-Christmas weeks are a particularly bad time to think hotels with ‘banqueting’ facilities because they will be given over to business Christmas parties. However, during the months of October, November, January (after New Year), February and March, many hotels are quiet on the function side and can be persuaded to supply a wedding package that’s pretty good value for money.

The main advantage is that couples can pretty much have the pick of venues and as it is a quieter time of year they usually offer great discounts for weddings. Hotels will also wish to fill rooms and may offer reduced rates for block bookings. Make sure you ask for out-of-season rates when viewing venues.
Emma Glen
Behind the Veil Wedding Planning Service
www.behindtheveil.co.uk

Leisure Centres

At the time of writing, there are a few leisure centres around the UK licensed for weddings and I imagine – and hope – that this number will grow. Although leisure centres tend to be modern establishments geared to sports and fitness stuff and therefore are not necessarily designed to be pretty and picturesque, many of them do offer some very good value for private functions (I used places like this for my son’s birthday parties when he was little) and increasingly they are offering more interesting packages – especially ‘out of season,’ i.e. in autumn, winter and spring months. Their prices seem to be very reasonable and if you want to have a large crowd at your wedding, they usually can provide a lot of space, albeit not necessarily with much style or panache.

Mills

Although these licensed wedding venues – of which currently there is only a handful in England – originally will have functioned as working mills, all that will tend to have been a long time ago and in the meantime they will have morphed into modern conference, banqueting and other function sites. Bear in mind that not all mills were particularly picturesque indoors, and that may still be the case, with the venues relying more on the attractiveness of their grounds. Not necessarily the best choice in our cooler months.

Mines and caverns

Yes, really. There are a few in the English West Country and Wales licensed for civil weddings and partnerships. Well, such a wedding would surely be different, but remember to tell your photographer to bring plenty of lighting. Also, good luck with getting the catering in there, and keep your guest list pretty short.