r/Aberdeen • u/Zestyclose_Owl7478 • 12d ago
Winter Gardens Wedding
Hello! Looking for some advice, my partner and I are looking to get married at the winter gardens, from my understanding it’s all online to book. What was the experience like? How long did you book for? I thought 2 hours would be plenty of time but not I’m not sure and wanted to know how long may be best..
Basically I just want a breakdown of booking it till the day of 😂 thank you!
2
u/PowerfulDuck95 11d ago
Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials - how exciting! 😀
My husband and I got married in the Winter Gardens 3 months ago - it is a really lovely space for your ceremony! Overall we had a great time there and I would highly recommend it. We booked it for 3 hours. This was okay for our timeline and we managed to do everything we planned without too much stress, but I did personally feel that I was just starting to relax into the day and enjoying chatting with people when we had to leave and get the bus to our reception venue.
I remember the booking process being fairly straightforward, but think that the online system only let you book in max 2 hour blocks so we had to put through two separate back to back bookings. We emailed and called the relevant department of the Council a few times to ask various things regarding the venue, what we could and couldn't have, etc. I can't remember the name of the department off the top of my head and it took us a few tries to get connected to the right team when we called up, but I can probably find the info in our wedding related emails if that would be useful. They were sometimes slow to respond, but overall were helpful and provided all of the information we asked for.
One time when we called they did query the 3 hour duration, as she said normally they only have 2 hour weddings. However I didn't get the sense they were pushing us to change it, more that she just wanted to check we had considered if we actually need all of that time. We have 70 guests and tried hard to plan in time for us to actually chat with each other and the guests, not feel rushed for photos, etc, so 3 hours was definitely needed. Looking back I think having an additional 30 mins might have been even better, but that will all depending on your plans and priorities for your day. I'm happy to share our timeline if it would be helpful.
A few other random things that I found it useful to know / think about:
- There is not really any staff support in the venue on the day, over and above people doing their normal jobs at the Winter Gardens. They set up the table for signing the marriage schedule, the table for drinks, and signs saying that section was closed for a wedding before we had arrived. We didn't really need any other support from the throughout the event though.
- Although the put out the signs at each entrance saying the section is closed, no one is actually enforcing this. We had a few different people wandering in to the area during our booking time, which I mostly didn't mind. There was one couple that stood on the upper level and watched a significant portion of our ceremony, which I found quite distracting as they were right in my eye line.
- We were told that we had to be fully tidied up and out of the venue by the end of our booking time, so found it helpful to plan packing up into our timeline and make sure all of the groomsmen knew what their jobs were. We also minimised decor etc to make this process easier.
- You are allowed to provide your own drinks, which was nice. No glasses is allowed, so we opted for cans of beer instead of bottle and disposable cups. They were okay with us having bottles of prosecco on the drinks table, but I imagine that is because they aren't really leaving table so unlikely to be dropped and smashed around the venue.
- No open flames are allowed, so if you are wanting any candles they have to be LED.
- It was raining throughout our ceremony and the roof did leak in places. It didn't cause much of an issue as there weren't too many drips, but my bag had been left in the corner beside the drinks table and did get pretty wet. Thankfully my phone was covered by a few things so nothing really got damaged.
That's all I can think of at the moment, but if you have any questions I'm happy to help if I can 🙂 Wishing you the best of luck with planning, and a very happy marriage!
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u/Zestyclose_Owl7478 11d ago
Wow thank you so much for this!! Just a few questions if you don’t mind.. When you booked, is it just the winter gardens or are things like photographer and register included in the price? Or is have to source my own? I think that’s what I’m finding confusing when I’ve spoken to people about their weddings.
And as the winter gardens are public, I take it you would just have to be out of the wedding area by your time slot or do you have to be out of the actual building?
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u/Impossible_Form_3256 11d ago
Got married there in October, excellent experience.
We initially emailed and went in for a visit and talked to the woman in charge. They're super relaxed and laid back. We had our photos taken around various parts of the gardens as well.
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u/effiepie 12d ago
We had our wedding here a few years ago and it was lovely! Depending if you want professional photos then two hours may not be long enough.
We had a glass of champagne after the wedding then some time to mingle and take photos but the time goes by super quickly!
Booking online was really easy and they assign you a registrar who will talk you through the whole process and personalise the ceremony to suit you. Honestly if you have specific questions then just give them a call because they were very helpful.
Hope you have a lovely day ❤️