Awesome Wedding Top-Tips for Booking your perfect Wedding Venue from Jo of Brunswick House
Welcome to the wedding supplier Q&A series where every Wednesday & Sunday afternoon we’ll be speaking to a London based wedding supplier and uncovering information to make planning your wedding easier. Each supplier has been hand picked because of their awesome personality, love they have for their couples and knowledge of their industry. I’ve also tried to find suppliers that are unique to give you a taste of what’s possible.
This Sunday we’re talking with Jo from the unique central London wedding venue Brunswick House. Located in Vauxhall, surrounded by new buildings, this historic mansion certainly has a sense of discovery. Being both an antique shop and a wedding venue each room is brimming with character. For couples looking for a unique venue for their wedding reception the staff at Brunswick House seemed the perfect source for some tips.
I’ve also written an article on why Brunswick House is one of my favour London Wedding Venues, if you’d like to learn more.
1. Tell us a bit about the story behind Brunswick House & why you became a wedding venue?
Brunswick house was home to the Duke of Brunswick . Back in those days this was aGeorgian mansion with gardens that went all the way down to the Thames. Now the surrounding area looks very different. Surrounded by huge towers and constructions, including those for the new American Embassy. Luckily the building is listed so we aren’t going anywhere. Lassco has 40 years experience in selling antiques. The company bought this place 11 years ago and refurbished the building. Previously it had been squatted in and home to a gentleman’s railway club. The railwayman’s working club managed to preserve a lot of the building.
We started off just selling LASSCO stock and then opened up a café, selling tea and coffee in the space at the front. The café quickly exploded into a restaurant, run by Jackson Boxer and within weeks was being reviewed nationally. We started to have some people, fans of Lassco, saying “well you’ve got the restaurant so can we have private events in here?” After hosting initial, smaller parties we realised we could grow this into a wedding venue along side the antiques. We’ve been doing that for 4.5 years now. Pretty much all of our advertising has been organic, word of mouth which is really nice.
We made our own furniture specifically for weddings, which compliments the antiques. We invite guests to enjoy a drinks reception on the ground floor, dine upstairs (capacity of 100) and then descend into the cellar for dancing. This way they get to experience the whole house.
2. What are your Top-Tips for a couple booking a wedding venue?
- Think about logistics. The feedback that I get from many of our guests is that they really love to find a venue where there is a restaurant in situ. This allows you, the guest to book the venue, choose your menu and your wines and we’ll take care of the rest. I believe that takes a large amount of stress out of organising your big day.
- Let the big stuff be done by the experts. For example flowers. I had one bride who got up at 4am on the morning before the day of her wedding to get her flowers from the market and lay them out. We had to give her a shot of tequila at 11am because she was so stressed. That sort of thing should really be left to the experts. It’s just not worth the stress. Put your lovely,personal touches on things like table plans and name cards, which you can relax and enjoy creating.
- On your day make sure you are relaxed and enjoy it. We advise that the couple has one go to person on the day who we can run any questions by, so that the couple can just focus on having an amazing time.
3. I love quotes, do you have any favourites?
“Don’t explain your philosophy, embody it.” – Epictetus (Greek Philosopher)
On a personal level I think it’s good to embrace what you believe in. Be in harmony with what you are doing.
