Thank you to everyone who has sent us congratulations. We've had so many cards, emails, IMs, Twitters, messages via IRC, Second Life and carrier pigeon. Ok, I made that last one up, but still, thank you all. I have so many emails to reply to, it's quite overwhelming, but in a nice way.
Overwhelming in not such a nice way is the search for a suitable venue. I just can't believe how much some of these places are charging Рit's extortionate. When Kevin blogged about the wedding industrial complex he was talking about the US Рhere we seem to have the wedding rip-off instead. A piece on BBCi about a church guide to cutting the cost of weddings says that the average cost of a wedding is £17,000, whilst the hellish You and Your Wedding puts it at £20k. Jeeze. We could put a deposit down on a house with that sort of money.
The trouble is, being 35 I've had a lot of time to sit and think about what my ideal wedding would be. I always thought that I would want something simple – have the ceremony and the reception in the same place, and just have some nice food and lots of dancing. (Not a disco, though. Over my cold, dead body does a DJ get into my wedding. No, I'm thinking more like medieval dancing or maybe a barn dance.) My venue would be something with exposed beams, possibly an actual barn, and I'd have lots of friends and it would all be lovely and romantic and fun and memorable.
Trouble is, any venue that's got even the merest hint of character costs an arm and a leg. And a kidney. With an option on your firstborn too. I must have looked at dozens of websites by now, and I just can't believe how much some of these places want to charge.
One place we're considering, although I don't yet know the cost, is Canford School, but their Saturdays are booked up until December 2008, meaning we'd have to have a Friday wedding instead. I don't mind the thought of a Friday wedding, but everyone would have to have the day off work. Another place that looked promising until I saw the cost of catering was Larmer Farm Gardens, but they have a minimum charge of £2500 for catering, which frankly is a bit much. Another potential venue is Sopley Mill, although reports coming back via the grapevine are that, whilst they are cheap, their catering is not up to scratch.
It's enough to make you want to elope.
(Note to Mum: It's ok. We're not going to elope. At least, not without telling you where we're going first.)
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