Wedding Venue UK Hire Costs Explained | Dry Hire vs Inclusive Venue Charges | The Barn at Cott Farm

Wedding Venue UK Hire Costs Explained: Part of the Questions to Ask your Potential Wedding Venues Series

If you’re looking at dry hire venues, or a DIY marquee wedding, you’ll need a catering tent and kitchen equipment, carpet (or flooring) and lighting as a minimum. You’ll also need tables and chairs, a bar and decor. The beauty of a DIY wedding is you can style your wedding exactly the way you want it, but it does mean costs will creep up. Many marquee hire companies offer packages that include furniture and equipment – these usually work out more cost-effective than trying to source everything yourselves.

For permanent and inclusive venues, you’ll usually find everything above is included as a minimum, but it’s worth checking if there are any additional costs on top of the venue hire fee to get the basics in place.

So once you’ve got the price for the fundamentals, find out what else is included or available.

You should really think in detail about how you’d like your big day to run to check you’ll have everything you need. For example, our venue hire costs include everything you’ll need for your wedding cake: a cake table, cake stand and knife, and we don’t charge for cutting up your cake to serve to guests. But it’s worth checking if these are available and included, or whether you’ll need to budget separately for these details.

Also find out if the venue fee includes a bar, outdoor furniture; toilet facilities; heating; and decorations. You’ll need all of these things so, if they’re not included, you’ll need to budget for them.

We work really hard to make sure our brochure and price list covers everything you might need before you even visit us, so do check out the information your venue sends to you so that you can work out a total price.