We want a nice setting for our wedding but to organise our own food. Most places don't seem to allow this.

Question

We are looking to get married in Yorkshire, around January/February time. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

what about an elks lodge or something similar cause they will rent you the hall and you can arrange for the food yourself . I know several ppl that have done this and it worked out just great.

Answer 2

Sadly, I think that you are going to struggle with this, most church halls, castles etc, insist that as part of the deal you must use their own specified caterers. It's one of the unfortunate things about arranging a wedding, the moment you speak to suppliers, wedding venues etc the pound signs start flashing.! They just want to make as much money out of you as possible and definitely don't want you using their facilities without paying for it. An example of this is by taking a look at their corkage charges. At my wedding as I insisted on using my champagne of choice, which my reception refused to order in, I paid the same price for corkage as I would have done for ordering the house champagne.
What you need to consider is how important it is for you to organise your own food, if it is more important than finding the perfect venue for you then I would urge you to continue your search. Otherwise, your other option is to tempt them with some money. I'm sure that if you approach them with an offer such agreeing to pay the equivalent of 50% of what the catering bill would be if they were supplying the food, and in return you were allowed to organise your own catering, they would jump at the chance. Good luck

Answer 3

I think you are going to have to think a bit wider. Venues like hotels etc make most of their money out of the catering.

A marquee in yorkshire in Jan/Feb isn't going to be much fun.

So what you need is a building or hall where you can bring in outside caterers.

Depending on your budget, there are some houses that are let out for film shoots and parties where you can do this - just search for 'large house to rent' - they are expensive but you can bring in your own caterers. At the other end you could look for a village hall, some of these are in lovely locations and are cheap but will need lots of 'dressing' to make it a nice venue on the day. Local authorities may also have halls or be willing to hire out museums for a wedding party.

You will need to carefully consider licensing, public liability and what type of entertainment you want - some places will not have a license for live music and others may curb timings on a disco due to nearby residents.

Answer 4

There's the Merchant Adventurers Hall in York, which me and my husband looked around when searching for a venue. We seriously considered it as it is such a nice building and we love York. They'll show you round for free if you go and ask. There's a room for the ceremony which has space for the meal and then downstairs is an area for dancing. You have to hire your own caterers and they give you a list of approved ones. I contacted some of them and they have a lot of different options for food so you can discuss your requirements with them. You also would need to hire a bar and dj. It looked really good though. We would have chosen it if it weren't for the fact that we thought the opposite to you and wanted the food organised by the venue as we thought it would be less hassle. We went with Ripley Castle and it was amazing. I would recommend it but Merchant Adventurers Hall looks very good if you want to organise the food yourself.

Answer 5

I'm having my wedding at a housing development's clubhouse and formal garden, and bringing in my own caterer. You don't always need to be a resident to use a development's clubhouse--just willing to pay the non-resident fee. Perhaps there's something like that where you are. Best of luck to you.

Answer 6

How about having the reception in someone's backyard? Do you know someone who has a nice home and an ample backyard for a wedding celebration? That would be beautiful in pictures, too.

Answer 7

Had this problem with my daughters wedding. It seems that if you supply your own buffet and the guest's get food poisoning then the venue owners lose business because people think it was their food that caused it.

Answer 8

Check out parish halls, halls for community organizations and service clubs.

Answer 9

if you can have it at someones house or out side or like a club house,church than usually you can do your own food but your right most places do it for you.

Answer 10

try the National Trust. They have loads of places that they rent out for the day.