Sunday 3 June 2012

Two Down, Two to Go!

Breaking news: this entry was written by Ben!

    Hi, this is Ben filling in for Miki!

    The past couple of days have been pretty interesting; we’ve been to see two potential venues: Old Thorns Hotel and Elvetham Hotel. The two places are quite starkly different and have given us a much clearer idea of what we want from our ceremony and the following events. Miki has discovered that actually a big, traditional wedding might not be such a horrible thing after all! We have also decided that, as we will also have a ceremony in Shanghai, while in England we will make our wedding as English as we can.

    The first venue, Old Thorns, is probably the most convenient that we could ask for. As well as being a hotel that can easily accommodate our guests it is also in between my house and Liphook Church. Unfortunately, besides the convenience, we didn’t feel that it was a particularly good venue. As a golf course they tried to sell it through the ornate gardens which would definitely not look as good in December, while the buildings and rooms used are functional but plain, overall we weren’t convinced. Added to this the prices they asked for were very steep indeed unless we avoided using the best room they had, we would be left in a conservatory with little space and almost certainly not enough heat.

the forest which leads to Old Thorns ^^

the main building of Old Thorns

a short video taken at Old Thorns

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    The next day we visited Elvetham Hall with my mum, the contrast was shocking. Set in acres of historic woodland and brimming with Victorian grandeur, Elvetham is a spectacular venue for any occasion. Our first impression was a very good one and walking through the house we couldn’t help but be impressed. The downsides were that the area of the place was not very large, depending on guest numbers (which remains a slightly unclear figure) it could be hard to fit in and, more critically, our ideal date of December 28th was unavailable! This venue is still on our list for consideration but we hope to find something even better next week.

the building of Elvetham

more views

    (Miki’s turn: we went to Chinatown later. It was weird to see the Queen’s picture on a Chinese archway…)

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    Our next stops will be Rhinefield House Hotel in the New Forest and Loseley Park in Guildford. With any luck they’ll meet our expectations and we can move on to the next step of planning!


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outside the church, hi Ben~

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