Monday 28 February 2011

The Venue!

Soon after our engagement and finding the ring (the next day in fact!) we began the search for somewhere to get married.  We decided we really wanted to get married the following summer, mainly due to the fact that Nik is currently a medical student and graduating next summer so will be working from August with very little holiday allowance and we want an amazing honeymoon!
We had already decided we wanted to get married here in Glasgow as this is the first place we have lived together, we love it here and it's just easier all round!  After doing some basic research online, we booked an appointment to go and see Pollok House in Pollok Park.  We also considered the Barony, St. Andrews in the Square and Glasgow University along with House for an Art Lover (immediately ruled out as the Rennie Mackintosh style - although beautiful - limited us too much theme-wise) and Pollokshields Burgh Hall.


By the time we went along to our appointment we had decided we wanted an Indian Feast for our Wedding Breakfast and not the traditional style of wedding fare.  This immediately limited our choices as the majority of places insist you use their own catering and we have had a few bad experiences of poorly made Indian food even in Indian restaurants.  As these wedding venues generally do not offer that type of food, we felt they would most likely not do the best job of it.   This then ruled out everywhere on our short list except Pollokshields Burgh Hall.  We went along to our appointment anyway to get an idea what else was available and prices.  The house is beautiful  and offered many good photo opportunities but unfortunately was unable to accommodate our estimate of 110 guests without hiring a marquee for a ridiculous fee!  This also kinda defeats the purpose of hiring the house if you ask me.

Pollokshields Burgh Hall is 0.6 miles from our flat and is situated in Maxwell Park which we have often had lovely walks in.  On our way back, on the off chance we popped into the Burgh Hall to have a look and were shown around by the lovely and very helpful George (one of the caretakers).  It had just been set up for a wedding that afternoon and as soon as we walked in, we both thought wow!  It has a beautiful entrance archway with old ornate doors and a tiled floor.



Entrance and Turret


The main hall, Maxwell Hall has stunning stained glass windows so is as pretty inside as a church without being religious - something we didn't want as Nik is technically Hindu and I technically Christian but neither of us are particularly religious in any way.   From the outside it looks like a miniature romantic castle made from red sandstone.

Maxwell Hall Stage

The Loggia downstairs is equally lovely with big glass windows/doors to the private outdoor area at the back, a slate floor and a huge mirror on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, perfect for setting up the table with champagne (and peach bellinis in our case!  Yum!) in front.

Loggia 

It also has a smaller hall upstairs called the Stirling room with a gorgeous big fireplace which is an ideal room for setting up the bar and an extra large hall downstairs for overflow during the champagne reception if the Glasgow weather isn't kind enough to let our guests mingle outside in the private garden area bordering Maxwell Park.

Stirling Hall

Not only does it provide all of the above and exclusive use of the whole building, but it is also a bargain price and allows you to bring in all of your own suppliers including the caterer and the bar!  All in all, we were pretty much hooked!  We called immediately to speak to the boss lady (who is just lovely) and provisionally reserved one of the few remaining weekend dates left next summer (now this summer, eek!).  We nabbed the last Sunday left after Nik was finished his course but long enough before he started work to enable a nice long honeymoon ( most likely our last chance for a long holiday for a looong time!)  So Sunday the 3rd of July it was.  We didn't even visit any more venues!
The first thing we did was to contact the Humanist Celebrant (please see future post) we hoped to have perform our ceremony and our Photographer friends we had in mind from the start to photograph our special day to check their availability along with our parents of course to make sure they hadn't any holidays or other engagements booked!  Everyone was free!  We had 2 weeks to check other important people/details we wanted were also available and confirmed the following week!

Not only have we hired a stunning venue close to our home in our favourite local park, but they are so lovely we even received a Christmas Card from them with a snowy picture of the venue on the front!  Totally cheered me up during the awful snowy December we had!

PBH Christmas Card

Post Wedding Update:

We loved our venue, it was perfect for our day and would definitely choose it again!  The only sad thing was that all the flower beds in the park were empty that summer so our photos in the park weren't as pretty and colourful as we hoped.


Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films


Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films

Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films


Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films

Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films
Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films





No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

TOTS100

TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100