Sleepless nights and 100 emails

After my last post our happy wedding planning has promptly been turned on its head. Our wedding venue decided that they no longer want to hold weddings and will be conducting the last ones in April next year.

So feeling like we had exhausted the options in Clarens. We had to go back to the drawing board. I am still quite keen on the idea of a destination wedding and having seen Joburg prices, thought I would look in the Midlands.

Midlands premier venue

Hartford House is a truly spectacular place. Wonderful gardens, rooms, food, atmosphere.... everything really.

So imagine my surprise when their venue hire came in at R20 000 (for weddings between 50 and 80) guests. R22 000 including the use of the chapel. Unlike many other venues this included tables and chairs (you would think that would be a no brainer but apparently not), staff, linens, cutlery, candelabras and on the day co-ordination! What an incredible deal :) The chef, who is consistently in the best chefs in the country was accommodating and lovely. The problem here comes in with the need to take all 15 suites for the Friday and Saturday night. At a cost of around R5 000 per couple this is out of the reach of many of our guests and with only 50 adults expected almost every guest would need to take a room. If 4 or 5 rooms stay empty though this makes the venue unaffordable for us.

Closer to home

To do a full recon I investigated venues in Gauteng. Being the ever so slighty fussy person I am, we have a few criteria that are really important to us. Nice plated meal, chapel, single wedding venue. Having only 50-60 guests we thought this would be achievable. Not that easy!!!

I looked through every list of wedding venues I could find. I ruled out any venues we didn't like the connotations around (ex friend, ex partner etc). Then I checked the minimum and maximum number of guests they would accommodate. This removed about 70% of the venues. Then I checked for multiple weddings, this removed an additional 10%. Then I checked for the possibility to do plated meals, another 10% down. The last 10% which met our needs I checked availability (for a booking 14 months in advance). I am left with 4 potential venues, none of which I am sure about availability as they have not yet responded to my emails and only half have chapels (not a super idea with Jhb summer thunderstorms).

The Joburg contenders then are The Herford Country Hotel, De Hoek, Morrells and Vivere. Venue hire varies in price (lowest De Hoek at R16 000, highest Morrells at R34 000) but with different pricing and options for food and what's included in that price.

So now what to do?

The temptation to extend our honeymoon and just get married on a beach in the Maldives is awfully tempting....

But ultimately, I want to have a day to spend with my family and closest friends and celebrate the start of our marriage.

Tough decisions to make on our side....... Who said planning a wedding was easy?