Planning a wedding comes with a lot of decisions about where to spend your budget. There are plenty of things you can live without, but there are also a few investments that can genuinely make a difference to how your wedding day feels.

From choosing an exclusive use wedding venue to having someone take care of the running order on the day, here are five things we think are well worth the investment, and good news is they’re all possible at Larmer Tree!

1. Exclusivity

When you’re choosing a wedding venue, having the place exclusively to yourselves can make a huge difference.

On your wedding day, you want to feel like you, your partner and your guests have your own private space, without other weddings taking place alongside you or venue visitors wandering through your celebrations.

An exclusive use wedding venue gives you the freedom and privacy to enjoy the day your way. At Larmer Tree, exclusive use means the gardens, buildings and wedding spaces are yours for your celebration, allowing you and your guests to settle in and truly make the place your own.

2. An On-the-Day Wedding Coordinator

You can plan your wedding down to the very last detail, but when the day arrives, there is still a lot happening behind the scenes.

An on-the-day wedding coordinator is there to make sure everything happens when it should, from coordinating suppliers and keeping the wedding timeline on track to ensuring your reception space is ready and dealing with those little unexpected moments that inevitably crop up.

Most importantly, they mean you don’t have to.

At Larmer Tree, an experienced wedding coordinator is included as standard, so you can hand over the logistics and spend your day enjoying it with your guests.

3. Live Music

If there’s one thing guaranteed to change the atmosphere of a wedding, it’s live music.

A string quartet during your ceremony, an acoustic singer during the drinks reception, a saxophonist during cocktail hour or a live band filling the dance floor in the evening can completely transform the feel of your celebration.

At Larmer Tree, you can have live music throughout your wedding day, from ceremony to evening party. With no venue-imposed noise restrictions, there’s plenty of scope to make music a big part of your celebrations.

It’s one of those details your guests are likely to remember long after the last dance.

4. Cocktails

There’s often a little lull between the wedding breakfast and evening reception. Everyone has finished eating, the evening guests haven’t quite arrived and the dance floor isn’t quite ready for action.

So why not make a feature of it?

A cocktail hour is a brilliant way to bridge the gap between dinner and dancing, giving everyone something to do while the room gets ready for the evening celebrations.

Think Espresso Martinis, Margaritas, a signature cocktail created especially for you and, if you really want to get the party started, a live saxophonist alongside it.

At Larmer Tree, we love a cocktail hour. It’s a small addition that can make the transition into the evening feel much more like part of the party.

5. Turn Your Wedding Into A Wedding Weekend

If you’re already travelling to a beautiful Wiltshire wedding venue, why rush home the next morning?

Adding accommodation for your closest friends and family can turn your wedding into more than one day of celebrations.

At Larmer Tree, you can book King John’s House, our historic house just a short distance from the gardens and make a few days of it.

The night before your wedding could be spent having dinner with your nearest and dearest or heading to the local pub. On the wedding morning, there’s plenty of space to get ready, relax and spend time with your wedding party before heading into the gardens.

And once the dancing is over, you don’t necessarily have to call it a night. Stay for a third night and make the most of the following day with a lazy brunch, lunch with your wedding party, a soak in the hot tub or simply some time to debrief after an unforgettable day.

It’s an investment, but having those extra days together can be one of the most memorable parts of the whole experience.

Spend On The Things You’ll Remember

Ultimately, your wedding budget is completely personal. You don’t need to spend money on everything, and the things that matter most will be different for every couple.

But if you’re looking for ways to make your wedding day more relaxed, memorable and completely your own, these are five places we’d happily put the budget.

All photos within this blog post by Ben Goode Photography

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