Over the Easter holiday Craig and I viewed seven (7!) wedding venues in the Scottish county of Ayrshire. In this first installment is our impressions of the first four with Craig as a guest-co-blogger!
Moorpark House
Miyon: As you can see, Moorpark is a historic stately home. I didn't take pictures of the interior decor, but you can see that from their website. The picture on the upper right is where civil ceremonies and the reception would take place. There's a conservatory and bar lounge on either side of it. This was a major drawback to us as we felt it would divide up the guests. I wasn't a fan of having dining booths in the ceremony area either. There also wasn't enough rooms to be convenient for our guests, but they do have a shuttle service deal with another hotel about 20 minutes away.
Craig: The drive up to this one was through the Scottish countryside, past a wind farm and a sign saying 'free manure'. For our American guests you probably couldn't get more sterotypically Sottish. The drive up to the venue itself features a fairly long drive with three flag poles at the end of it. I suggested asking if we could get a Scottish, an American and a Korean flag flying on the day. As Miyon says the venue is an old stately home so it has that historic feel about it that we have been considering as a possible element to our wedding.
We spoke to the owner of the place as his wedding coordinator was busy setting up for another wedding. He gave us the history of his time in charge of the place and how he is trying to push into the wedding market.
The small number of rooms meant that we would pretty much be guaranteed to have the place to ourselves, which would be kinda cool. One interesting thing - he told us that he's heavily pushing weddings and that he wasn't really taking bookings for meals anymore. He then told us that if we wanted 'exclusivity' then it would be an extra 800 quid! (Americans note: quid=pounds) I'm not sure why we'd pay all that if we already had all the rooms in the place booked out.
In general I think this venue might be a possible if we had a smaller party, but with a wedding of 100+ guests I don't see it working for us.
Verdict: Pass
Lodge on Loch Lomond
Miyon: The Lodge was better laid out for a wedding. They had large rooms to use for the reception and ceremony as well as another room for guests while the main room is turned around. The huge windows overlooked the lake and although it was bit grey when we viewed it, I'm sure it's quite impressive on a nice day (and since it's in Scotland, that would be a lucky day indeed!). Although the rooms were very neutral, which could be a positive thing as it would let you do whatever you wanted with it, I personally thought they were a bit cold and drab, kinda like meeting rooms. The wedding coordinator was very friendly and professional, however they did mention that they have another function room so there could be two weddings on site on the same day... I was not a fan of that.
Craig: Loch Lomond is a really scenic part of South West Scotland. Its the furthest away from my home town of the venues that we visited on this trip but due to the number of out of town guests we'll have we had to consider our options there. To give a bit of perspective to the American readers - furthest away from my home town means a 45 minute drive through some nice countryside.
The Lodge is a completely different venue to Moorpark. It has a log cabin feel in the main part of the hotel and it was nice to be able to contrast two different styles in our first two venues.
My best man is pictured with me above and while we were going through some albums of previous weddings there and talking to the wedding coordinator his brother Stuart phoned. Stuart is a drummer in a band and plays a lot of wedding venues. The part of the conversation I heard was "Yes, we are looking at wedding venues... we need to check out the Lodge on the Loch? That's exactly where we are!" I checked in with Stuart afterwards to find out why he liked it and its because the door into the reception room makes it easy to load and unload the band's kit.
On the second pass through the wedding albums I realised that one of them was from the wedding of a family from my home town. Who said everyone in Scotland knows each other?
As far as the wedding area goes, its all about the views over the loch (loch=lake). They have huge windows to take advantage of that and as Miyon says the decor apart from that it a bit bland. In that respect they sort of reminded me of a crematorium.
Verdict: Pass
The Gailes Hotel
Miyon: This place was MADE for weddings. It's incredibly well laid out and flexible. They have a nice conservatory for civil ceremonies (upper left) and it's attached to a rooftop terrace (lower left). Their platinum package includes usage of the bridal suite which is like a 2 bedroom apartment (including kitchen, jacuzzi and sauna!) the lounge is right next to the conservatory separated by a one way mirror so you can watch your guests arrive as you get ready. I don't think their website gives it justice. The hotel itself is family owned with plenty of rooms and their wedding coordinator came off very well, really nice and energetic. I'm not surprised it won Best Wedding Venue last year.
Craig: Gailes is a fairly new hotel in my hometown. It was built 7 years ago while I was working in the golf shop next door. I know a lot of people who have been or are planning to get married here. For those reasons I wasn't expecting to like it. Even when I was getting my ear bent in the pub at 11pm the night before that I'd really like it I wasn't convinced.
The wedding coordinator did a good job in selling the 'we are a family business and every wedding is unique even if we have 4 in a weekend' line. On the tour I was impressed by the decor and how well everything was geared up to making the wedding run smoothly. Things like the bride's dressing room with private bathroom just off the main reception area are nice touches.
The roof terrace wedding area is very nice, with views across the golf courses and (on a good day) across the bay to Arran. To me that's what Ayrshire looks like.
The hotel has a good number of rooms for the out of town guests and it's in my home town for the in town guests, so its well placed in that respect.
Verdict: Definite maybe!
Lochside
Miyon: We had a gorgeous day greeting us when we went to this venue, which is good because the views are fantastic. The ceremony room (top two pics) overlook a lake (with swans!) and outside are rolling green hills. The reception room was a good size for about 100 guests, with the top table on a platform. What I liked best about the hotel was the art deco details, like the tiling in the reception room on the bottom right picture. It's not as conveniently located but it did have an adequate number of rooms and cottages. It doesn't have all the luxurious conveniences of The Gailes but despite that the venue is obviously very popular as think they said they only had a handful of Thursdays and Sundays left and mostly in September! Yes, this is for 2010!
Craig: Apparently this venue used to be a friend of my family's grandmother's house. And there was a guy who used to sit in front of me in the school band leaving from the wedding the night before when we arrived. Who says everyone in Scotland knows each other?
This is another venue that's out in the countryside, surrounded by grass, sheep and a loch. It's a really nice setting and as you might be able to tell from the picture above it was my mum's favourite.
The ceremony room is designed to have a church-like feel and the reception room is a good size without being too big. There are also some nice outdoor areas which would be great if the sun is shining.
Verdict: Definite maybe!
Tomorrow, Ayrshire venues the second!
