ethicalweddings.com

The search for a green venue began not long after I popped the question to my unsuspecting boyfriend on Leap Year’s Day (29 February).

For those of you who are thinking ‘but you’re the bride’; on a Leap Year girls can propose to boys. And since I didn’t want to wait another four years, I thought, ‘well why not’ and luckily he said yes!

For legend has it that if he says no then he must pay a fine or buy me a dress. Both aren’t completely unattractive options for a cash-strapped lass who likes a new dress, but at the same time I was relieved when he said yes.

In fact I think I was as surprised as he was when I actually asked him, as I hadn’t planned it at all. So very much a spontaneous decision. My immediate thoughts after are captured on my other blog.

So after we decided that we pretty much wanted to be together and do this, we had no idea what came next. Shamefully, we had to google a few phrases just to figure out where to start with stuff like ‘asking my dad’s permission’ and looking for rings.

What I did know was that I wanted our wedding to be as green and ethically sound as possible. For in my work and business, I harp on about green things all the time, so it would seem wrong not to continue these sentiments into what is generally believed to be the most happiest day of one’s life. Which led me to Ethical Weddings of course.

More about the ring later, one of the things that’s keeping me busy is finding a venue for our wedding and reception. We decided to hold our wedding in Suffolk since this is where the majority of my family live and being of Catholic stock I have many more people in my family than my fiance. Plus we want to keep those carbon emissions as low as possible, so no flights to Barbados to tie the knot!

So after trawling through page after page on the internet we found a few possible venues in Suffolk to look at. We want to have a simple, Suffolk-themed wedding, so it seemed only natural to use a barn.

The first barn we looked at was Preston Priory Barn near to Sudbury. Coming in at between £2000 and £3000, it wasn’t the cheapest option for an old farm building (which incidently was nicely renovated - but still basic).

So we decided to compare the barn to a manor house at Bawdsey. It was huge and had loads of maze-like corridors with rooms where guests could stay and enjoy some marvellous views out to sea. Bawdsey Manor was about £2500 to hire or there were also weekend packages which were a tempting option to turn the wedding into a 3 day party. This seemed better value than the barn although the downside was that it was a long journey to get there and would involve lots of cars travelling in the same direction.

Just as we were about to despair, over our Easter dinner, Grandad casually drops into conversation, ‘have you tried the Tithe Barn at Sproughton?’ My ears suddenly prick up and I wonder where and what this barn could be like. Just a few words on a webpage told us that the barn caters for weddings, and bingo! I think we’ve found a possibility!

It’s close to Ipswich so easy to get to and also near to a beautiful old mill on the River Gipping. Owned and run by the Parish Council (who are launching their own green campaign), it’s a bargain to hire at just £500 for the weekend.

We just have to pop by and check it out in more detail, but I think Grandad has come up with a gem - thanks Grandad! Just goes to show how far a bit of local knowledge goes.