DIY Weddings - Venues! Post 3 in this series

 So when you are looking for a wedding venue what is important? Location? Cost ? Having it fit in with the style you are dreaming of? How many people it will accommodate?

We knew we wanted a fun festival theme for our wedding and so we were looking at farms/barns that offered weddings.

We also wanted to get married in Devon as thats where we are both from. However we live in Bristol and that caused some worries, for example we knew that lots of our guests would need to travel down for the wedding. Also having the venue so far away and myself and my now husband being extremly busy we knew getting to the venue to talk to the organizers and to sort out the decor etc wouldn't be so easy.

I scoured the internet for suitable venues.There were many....That I loved.... However Wedding venues are pricey (some are super duper pricey)! We thought about hiring a field, marquee and some posh loos etc but in fact that added up to the same as some of the cheaper venues we looked at anyway.

Two places caught our eye as they seemed to tick the majority of the boxes..

One was close to home 'Manor farm' at Upton Cheyney near Bristol.
You can visit their Facebook Page here.

They are also the home of 'Upton Cheyney Chilli Farm' and run Glamping in their fields throughout the spring and summer. Ben and I stumbled across the farm shop and farm as it was all set up for an event one day and it did look stunning.However the Stone barn is very small and hiring a marquee as an extra room would be a must, unless you really were having a tiny wedding!

For us adding on the extra marquee costs just made the whole place too expensive, plus the location would have been tricky for all of our family and friends in Devon.

The other place and the location we decided to go with was 'West town Farm' in Ide, Devon.
Visit the Facebook page here

Website here

I already knew this place well having completed a number of community art projects here as a university student (fresco on the barn wall and some environmental art bits and bobs!) I also have a good friend living on site.

West Town is very well set up for offering weddings, they have a lot of indoor and outdoor space and a variety of options available for weddings. You can let them do it all and choose from a variety of packages.Or you can hire the venue and then organise everything else yourself as we did. Harriet the then events planner at the farm was very helpful and put us in touch with Sound Events who hire out tables/chairs/cutlery/ table clothes/sound systems etc etc...!

(Above photos from West Town Farm's website)

We really enjoyed putting our own stamp on the farm for our big day. It was really exciting to see the whole place transformed! I made miles of bunting and garlands and had help from family and friends to make the most amazing decorative items. More about the decor later though....

I'll be back soon for 'DIY Weddings part 4' where we will talk decorations. :)