Highbury Hall
Highbury Hall is famous as being the home of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain MP for Birmingham and is situated 3 miles from the City Centre. Set in a lovely secluded tranquil area Highbury can cater for as little as 12 guests, a first class large banquet of 96 guests or up to 150 guests for a standing buffet. Highbury can assure you a warm and friendly atmosphere on your wedding day.
4 Yew Tree Road, Moseley, Birmingham. B13 8QG
www.birmingham.gov.uk/highbury

Rowheath Pavilion
Rowheath Pavilion is set in the heart of Bournville within a picture parkland. It can cater for 130 seated guests or 200 standing. This venue is suitable for wheelchair access and has parking for 120 cars.
www.rowheath.org

Selly Manor
Selly Manor is a 12 century listed medieval building which can cater up to 40 guests. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Bournville the Tudor gardens look ideal for your wedding photographs.
Oaktree Lane, Bournville, Birmingham. B30 1UB

The University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham for many years has provided five unique venues to host their weddings. These different venues can cater parties between 20 – 575 guests which makes each wedding unique. The five different venues has their own exclusive wedding packages with attractive peaceful beautiful grounds which are ideal for your wedding photography and drinks receptions making your wedding a truly memorable occasion.
The Wedding Team, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston. B15 2RA
www.wedding@bham.ac.uk

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens has three suites from which to choose to hold your wedding celebrations which overlook a wonderful array of scent and colour from their Victorian gardens which would delight any bride and groom’s dream backdrop for their wedding photography.
Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B15 3TR
Tel: 0121 456 2244

Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC
The Crowne Plaza is situated in the grounds of the NEC with a lovely lakeside view. With professional wedding coordinators and facilities that are first class this wedding venue combines simple elegance with a unique contemporary style. This is a perfect venue for elegant or lavish weddings.
Pendigo Way, NEC, Birmingham. B40 1PS
www.birminghamnec.crowneplaza.com

The Clarendon Suites
The Clarendon Suites have three separate suites within a spacious building which is ideal for parties from 12 – 1200 guests and a large car park which can hold up to 300 cars. With friendly staff to take care of your needs on your wedding day so you can go ahead and just relax and enjoy your day.
2 Stirling Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B16 9SB
www.clarendon-suites.co.uk

Dormy Hotel and Restaurant
The Dormy Hotel is family run and has been established for thirty years. They pride themselves on giving a friendly efficient service. They can accommodate up to 80 guests and tailor the day for your needs such as a buffet or disco to make your day perfect.
304-306 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B17 8DJ
Tel: 0121 429 4455/ 0121 429 1236

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Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Decorating the wedding reception yourself makes the venue for your reception more personalised. This in turn allows your guests to feel included more into your special day.

Balloons
Balloons of many colours, filled with confetti can be placed around the room either on stands or hung up. This adds to the party atmosphere and creates an excellent background for photographs. Balloons can be added as centre pieces on the tables to tie in with your colour scheme or theme.  Balloons in the shape of animals could also be placed around which is fun for the young children to play with. Folding balloons held by a net above the dance floor could be released at the end of the night which builds up the excitement.

Photograph Display
Create a collage with pictures of you as a small child growing up. Include photographs of your family, you at work with your colleagues or any photos of you doing a hobby like skiing, cycling, climbing etc. It is a wonderful way to show your guests your family, close friends and colleagues.

Ice Sculptures
Ice sculptures are carved from crystal clear ice and can be arranged as a centre piece or to serve drinks from an ice fountain.

Disposable Cameras
These cameras are ideal when placed on each table for your guests to take photographs. The cameras can be collected at the end of the day so they can be processed for the Bride and Groom. These photographs let your guests contribute more to your wedding day and photo album by taking photos that might otherwise have been missed.

Named Tables
Named tables are a lot more fun than numbered tables and can go hand in hand with your wedding theme. Suggested themes include places you have visited, comedians, singers or bands you may like, movie stars, sports cars or even planets!

Bridal Favours
If you would like to give a token of appreciation to all your guests then leaving a bridal favour is ideal. Suggested favours include five almonds wrapped in lace, net or tulle, bonbonniere.

Other Suggestions
Miniature bottles of spirit with the bride and groom’s name and wedding date or boxed chocolates. An activity pack for the young children for them to draw the best picture of the bride and groom for a competition.

Image by Art Pets Photography via Flickr

If you are having a large wedding with lots of guest, check to see if there will be a microphone available at your wedding venue when the time comes for your speeches.

Traditional Speeches

Bride’s Father

The Bride’s Father will start by welcoming his new son-in-law to the family before giving his expert and humorous advise to the newly-weds.

Finally he will make a toast to the happiness and health of the Bride and Groom.

Groom

The Groom will usually responed on behalf of his wife and himself to the first speech by giving thanks to everyone for coming, for all their good wishes, cards and gifts. He’ll thank both sets of parents, Bridesmaids and the Best Man and finally anyone who helped towards organising the wedding day.

The Groom then makes a toast to the Bridesmaids, Best Man and any further attendants. The Groom will present the thank you gifts to the families and attendants.

Best Man

The Best Man speaks on behalf of the Bridesmaids and reads the cards and good luck messages. For those who cannot attend on the day, they could record a good luck message if there is a TV DVD or video player available (check with the wedding venue).   

Others

The Bride can speak at anytime if she would like to.

The Bride and Groom may want to give a speech together.

If anyone else would like to give a speech, it would be best that this is arranged first with the Bride and Groom.

General Tips

Try and make the speeches sound witty, if not, keep them brief.

Speeches should not last more than ten minutes.

Write the speeches out and practise in front of a friend to get an honest opinion.

Those giving speeches should limit their drinking until after the speeches!

Consider letting the small children play in another room so the speeches can be heard (check with the wedding venue beforehand).

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The order of the receiving line is usually:

1. Bride’s Mother
2. Bride’s Father
3. Groom’s Mother
4. Groom’s Father
5. Bride
6. Groom
7. Chief Bridesmaid
8. Other Bridesmaids
9. Best Man

The Bride and Groom would be announced into the Wedding Breakfast by a member of staff so everyone would stand and applaud until the Bride and Groom are seated.

If you have booked a Toastmaster, they will introduce each guest to the Bride and Groom as well as announcing the Bride and Groom into the Wedding Breakfast.

The Wedding Reception Timetable.

The Bridal Party arrives
The main Bridal Party stands in line to welcome the guests. This can be as the guests arrive before collecting their ‘Welcoming Drink’ or to have the Receiving Line after the ‘Welcoming Drink’ and photographs but before entering the Wedding Breakfast.
The Wedding Breakfast
Speeches and Toasts
Cutting the Wedding Cake
The Bride and Groom – First Dance
Live band or DJ music and entertainment
Throwing the Bouquet
Going Away

Remember the above is just a guideline of how a timetable would run traditionally. It is quite popular now for the speeches and the cutting of the cake to be done before the meal. Doing it this way allows the Bride, Groom and especially those making a speech, to get their pressure done earlier on, so enabling them to enjoy the meal and have a few drinks!

Providing Your Own Drinks
If you are providing your own wine then most off-licences and wine merchants will give you advice as well as sale-or-return, bulk discounts, glass hire and free delivery too.

A Toast To The Bride And Groom
Traditionally Champagne is the drink that would be served throughout the day but this will be rather expensive. Nowadays it’s quite popular to serve a well chosen sparkling wine, usually you can’t tell the difference. The sparkling white wine is then used as a ‘toast’ to the Bride and Groom and it’s also drunk in salute of ‘cutting the cake’.

The Welcoming Drink
Bucks Fizz, Pimms or Sangria are excellent choices to serve as a welcome to all the guests as they arrive at the wedding venue. Not forgetting plenty of non alcoholic drinks such as mineral water and orange juice. A good suggestion for a hot summer wedding welcoming drink is a delicious fruit punch, likewise a mulled wine can be very welcoming for a winter wedding as is especially suited around the Christmas period.

Wines In General
It is not so important nowadays to drink white wine while eating fish or chicken dishes and red wine for beef, lamb or pork dishes. It’s really better to have a mixture of red and white wines to suit each person’s palette. Your Wedding Planner or Wedding Organizer can advise you. If you are supplying your own alcohol, then your off-licence or wine merchants will give you good advice too. It’s best to try and stick to your budget allowance so you don’t overspend and don’t buy too many choices of wines…keep the choice simple and straightforward, it will save you money too.

A General Wine Guide
Doux is a sweet wine
Demi-sec is a medium-dry wine
Sec is a dry wine
Brut is a very dry wine

Generally allow 6 glasses per 70cl bottle. You would need two glasses per head of Champagne or sparkling white wine for the ‘toasts’.

For the table wine allow about half a bottle per head.

All non-alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, mineral water including tea and coffee should be on tap throughout the day.

A Pay Bar
Think about when you would like to have a pay bar. You could either set a ‘drinks limit’ in advance so the bar staff are aware when your guests have to purchase their own drinks. Alternately your invitations could state ‘Pay bar after 7pm’ this can save a lot of confusion later.

Hints And Tips About Wedding Drinks
Buy wines you can afford and keep the choice simple.
Think about how much your budget will allow or the free ‘drinks limit’.
Wedding guests can be annoyed if the drinks are overpriced so check the prices well in advance of your wedding reception bar drinks.
Find out if there are any corkage charges.
If you are using non-licenced premises, why not have a mobile bar?
Check what the last orders and bar closure times are, it’s not worth booking a live band or DJ to play until 1am if the bar loses at 11pm!

A excellent recommended book to help you plan your wedding day is:

Wise Wedding Planning:
Making The Perfect Theme Wedding Possible At  Any Price
By Brenda Westwood.

Many hotels will have a Wedding Co-ordinator which can help a lot to take the pressure off the Bride and Groom. It’s best to check as many hotels that you like by having a meal there or alternately you could meet with the Wedding Co-ordinator to discuss your plans and budget for your wedding.

They could let you look through some sample menus with the possibility of trying some food and wine tasters. Hotels will offer ‘wedding packages’ this usually includes a Master of Ceremonies, food, drink and a room especially for the Bride and Groom when they need to freshen up.

Hotels can also offer accommodation discounts to you and your guests which might include a ‘Bridal Suite’ inclusive of the price.

Remember to book well in advance as many reception venues get booked up sometimes up to eighteen months to two years in advance. The most popular time to have a wedding is on a Saturday in the summer months, though this can prove to be a rather expensive time.

Why not consider booking your wedding in the spring or autumn? If you really would like a summer wedding, think about booking a Sunday or Friday or even mid-week, you could save yourself a lot of money which in turn can help you stick to your budget.

Marquee Receptions

Marquees are very suitable if your reception venue is limited for indoor space, or if your hiring a marquee to use at your home.

There are two types of marquees, one used over a grass area with a traditional pole, or a framed structure which can be used on any surface. Indian style tent style marquees are very popular at the moment and all marquees are available in various sizes.

Marquee companies can fully deck out the interior with decorations, furniture, toilets and equipment hire including heating if your wedding is held outside of the summer months. Carpet can be laid throughout with flooring for the evening’s dancing.

Decorating the venue yourself

If your having your reception in a Church hall, pub function room, river boat or even at home, you can decorate the reception area yourself with banners, balloons, flowers, fancy table ornaments, party poppers, disposable cameras etc. this can really transform a room into a wonderful wedding theme of your choice saving you even more money!

Having your reception at home

The average home will contain about fifty people maximum. If you are considering holding your reception in your home, try and have someone who can organise where everyone should be to keep things running smoothly.

Your home can be quite busy on the day with people coming and going so having someone you can reply on can keep stress levels to a minimum. They could clean and tidy up when you leave to get married, and have drinks or canapés ready on your return.

A recommended resource to help plan your wedding

A good book to read would be  “Wise Wedding Planning: Making The Perfect Theme Wedding Possible At Any Price” by Brenda Westwood.

It can point you in the right direction and help you to plan your wedding on a budget. Your future happiness together can be relatively loan free by thinking and planning ahead.