How DIY Weddings Work

Your venue, your suppliers, your celebration — with the freedom to create a wedding that works for you, without being tied to a traditional package.

A DIY wedding venue gives you the freedom to create your celebration your way, without being tied to a fixed wedding package.

At Peak and Dale Weddings, we provide the venue, accommodation and setting, and you decide how your wedding looks, feels and comes together.

When you arrive, you collect the keys and the venue is yours for the stay. We’ll make sure everything is ready for you, including setting out any tables agreed in advance, and we’re always happy to help with practical questions and point you towards local suppliers.

What we don’t provide is an on-site wedding planner or event-management team. Once you’re here, you and your chosen suppliers manage the celebration yourselves — which is exactly what gives you the freedom to do things your own way.

What we do

We’ll help you understand how the venue works before you book and in the run-up to your wedding. We know the venues very well, so we’re always happy to help you plan around the property.

In advance we can:

• Talk you through the spaces and what works well in each one
• Agree your table requirements in advance
• Put the agreed tables in place ready for you
• Recommend local caterers and other suppliers
• Share ideas based on what works well at the venues
• Help with practical questions about the property
• Provide with the room and table dimensions you’ll need
• Point you in the right direction if you’re unsure where to start
• We include two site visits within your booking in advance of the big-day and we’ll be on hand to guide you through the property or location.

Before you arrive:

• We’ll make sure the property is prepared as we’ve agreed – the beds will be made, the properties clean, the agreed equipment is in place.

What you do

In advance of your big day – you’ll make all the decisions, book the suppliers you want and commission them directly.

Once you arrive, the wedding is yours to run.

You’ll be responsible for coordinating your suppliers, decorating the venue, setting tables, organising food and drinks and making sure everything happens when and where you want it to.

There is no Peak and Dale wedding coordinator on site during your celebration. So you don’t need to worry about us looking over your shoulder. Its just you, your family and your friends.

If you want someone managing supplier arrivals, overseeing the wedding-day schedule, styling tables, coordinating the ceremony or keeping everything running to time, you can arrange your own wedding planner or on-the-day coordinator.

For many couples, that freedom is exactly the attraction.

A DIY Wedding doesn’t mean you’re completely on your own before the wedding.

We can give you plenty of guidance during the planning stage and introduce you to people who can help.

There is simply a difference between helping you plan around our venue and planning or running your wedding for you.

We provide the place. You — and the suppliers you choose — create and manage the celebration.

There are no compulsory wedding suppliers at our venues.

You can choose the people whose style, service and pricing work for you, including:

Caterers
Private chefs
Florists
Photographers
Cake makers
Stylists
Entertainment
Hair and make-up teams
Wedding planners
On-the-day coordinators

If you’d like recommendations, we’re very happy to point you towards local businesses and suppliers who may be a good fit.

The choice remains yours.

You can provide your own drinks and we don’t charge corkage.

That gives you much more control over both the choice of drinks and your overall wedding budget.

You can decide exactly what you want to serve, buy it yourselves and organise how it will be chilled, served and managed during the celebration.

Alternatively, you can bring in a mobile bar company, so your guests can buy their own drinks during the event.

It’s another part of the flexibility of a DIY wedding — you choose the setup that works best for you and your budget.

Before your stay, we’ll agree what tables you need and, where appropriate, we’ll have those tables in place for your arrival.

After that, the styling and setup are yours.

You can arrange your own:

• Table settings
• Flowers
• Decorations
• Place cards
• Signage
• Wedding favours
• Table plans
• Other personal touches

If you want professional styling, you’re welcome to bring in a stylist or wedding planner to do it for you.

One of the biggest advantages of choosing a DIY wedding venue with accommodation is that you’re not simply hiring a function room for a few hours.

Your closest friends and family can stay together, get ready together and enjoy the time around the wedding itself.

You might have dinner together the night before, breakfast on the wedding morning and a slow brunch or countryside walk the following day.

And because you aren’t working to one of our fixed wedding packages, you decide how much help you bring in.

Some couples enjoy organising almost everything themselves.

Others choose their own suppliers but employ a professional coordinator to run the wedding day.

Both approaches work.

The important thing is that you remain in control of your wedding.

Our venues are likely to suit you if you:

• Want to choose your own suppliers
• Want more control over your wedding budget
• Don’t want a fixed venue package
• Are happy to coordinate your own wedding or employ someone to do it
• Want to bring your own drinks with no corkage
• Love the idea of having friends and family staying together
• Want your wedding to feel personal rather than prescribed
• Like the idea of creating a whole wedding weekend

A DIY venue may be less suitable if you want the venue itself to provide a wedding planner, run the day’s schedule, manage your suppliers and oversee the celebration from start to finish.

That isn’t the service we’re offering — deliberately.

We prepare the venue, hand you the keys and give you the freedom to make it yours.

Every DIY wedding is different, so the easiest way to understand what you could create is to come and see the venues.

Tell us approximately when you’d like to get married, your guest numbers and the kind of wedding you’re imagining, and we’ll help you decide which venue is the best fit.

We provide the place. You create the wedding.