The venue..

The venue…
I’m not going to lie when I want something, I usually get it or work very hard to get it! Needless to say the moment Carl asked me to marry him my mind went on overdrive, we immediately went out & bought magazines and the planning commenced! 
 I’ve dreamt of getting married for years, that is why when I actually got engaged I had years of ideas behind me and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, the next step was to share those ideas with Carl and come to agreements & start planning! The first major thing to think about for me is the venue, this would be why we got engaged on Friday 5th June, and we were viewing our first potential venue on Saturday 13th June. Wasting no time at all! We had 2 potential venues in mind, both for different reasons, this was our first potential venue, Salterns Harbourside Hotel, Poole, Dorset.

  
  
  

This hotel is very sentimental for us, and holds some beautiful memories. Carl bought me here on our first date, this is the place where I just knew.. I fell head over heels and we spent the most amazing evening eating & drinking at this beautiful hotel. Since then we’ve popped in for dinner & drinks regularly. Carl also surprised me last year with booking dinner & a room at the hotel, no celebration, he just decided to treat me. Obviously we’d never viewed it with a wedding in mind. The venue is lovely, and it has the potential to marry outside that looks over the harbour. (If the weather holds out..) The venue looks amazing, and the price is very reasonable. The only negative I would say is everything is set, and I think it will be difficult to personalise your wedding and make it your own. My head was definitely telling me to go for this venue, due to the price, the sentiment and the potential to get married outside (however, we are in England it is difficult to avoid the rain no matter what month you choose!)

The next venue we viewed is Sopley Mill, Christchurch, Dorset.

   
   
This venue has been my ‘dream venue’ for the last 2 years after seeing photos online, it is an 18th century water mill and has been converted for it to be solely a wedding venue, it’s very rustic and still has many outstanding features of the mill. Carl & I walked into Sopley Mill and honestly words couldn’t describe the feeling it was just beautiful, perfect and we could totally see our big day happening here. However, the price was a lot more, due to the mill being solely exclusive to your wedding day, and you hire the whole of the building out. You also have to piece together every bit of the wedding as Sopley Mill is a total blank canvas, only offering the venue. More money, and a lot more work – it was a matter of shall we go with our hearts or our heads? 
Our hearts won.. Sopley Mill is just the most beautiful place we’d ever stepped into, let alone one day get married there. We both immediately said yes to the venue whilst looking around, we both fell head over heels in love with the venue and it is definitely the perfect venue for us. I am so thrilled that I have the opportunity to piece together our wedding, it’s going to take a lot of work & dedication but I have been dreaming of this day for so so long that it needs to be the best day possible.

We’ve chosen Thursday 8th September 2016 for our big day at Sopley Mill, this is when I will have the honour to be Mrs Maxwell.. It’s all go from here!