Bride Diaries - Vol 3. - Joanne Huckstepp

Hello there lovely ladies.

We hope that you are all enjoying this sun and making the most of it as we feel it may only be here for a short amount of time. Wedding planning in the garden with this sun beaming down on you and a glass of prosecco at the side - we can't think of a better scenario! Today's bride diary entry comes from our last May bride, Joanne. Her and her fiance faced some difficulties trying to find that perfect venue but whilst trying to remain within their budget. Joanne is hoping that by sharing her experience with some of you other bride-to-be's, she may be able to help and offer some advice about how to find the perfect wedding venue. Even though she claims to be no expert, there is nothing more helpful than a first hand experience. 

Joanne was certain that her perfect venue existed as soon as she got engaged, however her fiance was more sceptical. They had previously discussed potential wedding venues and Kris (her partner) was more than happy to get married wherever Joanne wanted to, within reason of course. Lucky Joanne, Kris must be the most laidback groom ever! Thankfully, they were on the same page when it came to the wedding reception and having it as an informal affair. Joanne is a sufferer of anxiety and being the centre of attention infront of eighty guests fills her with dread, therefore they came to the agreement it would be lowkey and informal.

Kris popped the question at Arundel Castle near Brighton, which is one of their favourite places. He timed it perfectly too as it was four days after Joanne's birthday on a sunny, spring day. After saying yes, or rather screaming it, Joanne picked up a wedding magazine on their way home and was most definitely in full wedding planning mode - much to Kris' dismay. Joanne's first priorities were the dress and the venue; the wedding magazine helped with this. They decided that they were going to give themselves two years to save, however, they knew that the time would fly by and Joanne wanted to get straight into planning and Kris, well, he agreed. 

Joanne's organisational skills went into overdrive. She booked 2 venue viewings every other weekend for at least 3 months. One tip that Joanne gave was that you should mutually set a budget, as at first, they failed to do this and they were repeatedly getting dissapointed by the prices of some of the venues and ended up leaving slightly disheartened. Joanne and Kris had decided that they wanted to get married in a church and they had found the perfect one in Godmersham and the parish and the congregation are the friendliest people. So now all they had to do was to find the venue for their reception. They visited Winter Barns near Canterbury in Kent which was the perfect idyllic setting and it ticked all the boxes, but it was well over their budget by quite alot. It took Joanne a few weeks to get over the dissapointment of this and it was starting to sink in that they weren't going to get the type of wedding venue that they wanted for £5000 or less. So Joanne changed her train of thought and started to browse the web for other avenues they could go down. 

Finally, she had come to the conclusion that their venue would have to be somewhere that they could DIY. This is when she started to look into the idea of village halls. Joanne told us she must have looked at around five before finding the one for her. She knew it was THE one, as when she pulled up she felt excited. Not to mention that it had wine coolers - that would be us sold, take our money. They managed to get this venue for, get ready for it, £500 for the whole weekend. Yippee! 

Joanne finally felt excited and de-stressed (at least for a month or two anyway). She had her budget friendly venue that hasn't broke the bank, that is going to look gorgeous when they decorate it with their theme. Although, she did tell us that she never thought that she would end up with a villiage hall as her wedding reception venue as she had dreamed of that beautiful wedding venue. But then, after paying the depoist, thats when she realised... She did have that beautiful wedding venue she had dreamt of; a lovely church, gorgeous reception venue and a handsome and wonderful groom who she is sharing the big day with. 

Extatic for the big day, Joanne asked us to keep our fingers crossed for her and hope that everything goes to plan however, we don't think she is going to need us to do that! We want to thank Joanne for letting us be part of her journey and we can't wait to see her wedding pictures - and obviously her confetti moment picture! To any of you out there that are having trouble picking a venue or are currently in the dissapointment stage, use Joanne's experience to help you and act upon some of the advice that she has given to you guys. 

Happy wedding planning!