Finding The ONE

Nope, I’m not talking about h2b. I’m talking about the venue. Yesterday I finally booked the registrar and confirmed our chosen location.

But before I tell you where (cos I can tell you’re all jonesing to know) let me tell you a bit about what we were looking for.

My boyfriend’s not much of a one for public speaking. He loves to be the centre of attention in small groups but put him in front of people he doesn’t know very well – even for something nice, like winning an award – and he gets very nervous.

So top of the list on the criteria for venues was somewhere he’d feel relaxed – and somewhere we could do things the way we wanted.

Fortunately, the budget didn’t allow for anywhere terribly grand (we need to keep it to four figures). But I also wanted somewhere that would look great in pictures and that we could rely to serve really good food. I So after a mammoth and fairly depressing trawl of the internet for places that were in the price range, we went to visit three.

First was the Langton Arms in Tarrant Monkton – a beautiful thatched country pub near Blandford Forum. The food is fabulous. The pub is gorgeous and the landlady, Barbara, is a gem. (Hopefully she’ll be guest blogging for us in the future, so you’ll get to see what I mean!) So we came away envisaging a village wedding – but with a slight fear the space wouldn’t be big enough for us.

Next on the list was boutique hotel Stanwell House in Lymington. We were immediately impressed with the “we’ll do it whatever way you like” attitude, the fact there were 27 rooms on site and the style of the rooms on offer. (And daft as it sounds, but I LOVED the fact that the room numbers were written as words not numbers.)

That left one more to see, a spectacular gardens in Somerset. A beautiful orangery and some stunning formal gardens; follies dotted around the landscaped gardens, ponds and millwheels – it certainly had the backdrop. The photographs would have been stunning.

No accommodation on site but plenty within a five minute drive. H2b though it might all be a bit overwhelming for him, but hadn’t ruled it out because it was so pretty.

But then came the negotiations over food. Now I know weddings are big business. But if you’re having a cake of cheese, instead of a cake of cake, surely the serving of the cheese should be the same as the serving of the cake?

Apparently not. If we wanted the cheese served, later in the evening, it would cost £600 (that’s revised downwards from the original quote of £1000). The lady who showed us round was, of course, only doing her job. But the cheese (alongside some other minor “no, we do it like this” moments) convinced us.

So I’m delighted to say that we’ll be getting wedded in Lymington, at the lovely Stanwell House. I’ve lost my sweeping backdrop for photos (which will mean a bit more of a challenge for our photographer if we’re going to do outside shots!) but in the end – a bit like when we were hunting for a house – there’s something about Stanwell that just felt like us. It’s stylish, relaxed, and they don’t mind us doing things our way. Oh, and the food’s great too. What more could I ask for?