Perhaps you’re picturing your closest friends and family around one long table, with a toast before dinner. Or maybe you’d like a wedding breakfast in the restaurant, followed by drinks and a pizza buffet when your evening guests arrive.
At San Fairie Ann, our wonderfully quirky restaurant and private hire venue on Alexandra Street in Southend-on-Sea, you can build your wedding reception around the parts of the day that matter to you. Venue hire is priced by the hour, and food and drinks are priced per guest, so you can see where your budget is going as you put your plans together.
Choose your wedding reception space
The Basement is our private speakeasy with its own bar. It’s ideal for an intimate wedding breakfast around a long table or an evening reception where guests can mingle over drinks. It accommodates up to 25 seated or 50 standing.
The Restaurant gives you more room to celebrate beneath the chandeliers. It accommodates up to 55 seated or 90 standing, making it a good fit for a larger wedding breakfast or an evening reception.
Whole Venue Hire gives you both floors exclusively. You could have your wedding breakfast in the restaurant and use the basement as a separate space for drinks later in the day.
How much does wedding venue hire cost?
Venue hire is half the Thursday to Sunday rate when you book Monday to Wednesday. The starting prices for food and drinks are the same across both options.
Monday to Wednesday
The Basement - £25 Per Hour
The Restaurant - £50 Per Hour
Whole Venue - £75 Per Hour
Thursday to Sunday
The Basement - £50 Per Hour
The Restaurant - £100 Per Hour
Whole Venue - £150 Per Hour
For example, seven hours of restaurant hire is £350 on a Tuesday or £700 on a Saturday, before food and drinks. If you’re flexible on your date, that’s £350 you could put towards another part of the celebration.
Build your wedding breakfast, drinks and evening food
Your wedding breakfast is the meal you share with your guests after the ceremony, whatever time you sit down. You can choose a two-course or three-course meal, then decide what you’d like to serve as guests arrive, during the meal and later in the evening.
Food and Drinks Options:
Two-course wedding breakfast: From £45 per guest
Three-course wedding breakfast: From £53 per guest
Welcome drink: From £7 per guest
Toast drink: From £7 per guest
Half a bottle of wine: From £12 per guest
Evening pizza buffet: From £11 per guest
A welcome drink gives guests something to enjoy while everyone arrives. If you’re planning speeches, you can add a separate toast drink, and if your reception carries on into the evening, a pizza buffet is an easy way to feed guests without another sit-down meal. You can start with our house drinks and pizza buffet or ask us about upgrades.
What could a wedding reception for 40 guests cost?
Say you’re planning a Tuesday reception for 40 guests, with seven hours in the restaurant. You’d like a three-course wedding breakfast, a welcome drink, half a bottle of wine and a toast drink for each guest, followed by a pizza buffet for all 40.
Item & Example Cost
Seven hours of restaurant hire: £350
Three-course wedding breakfast: £2,120
Welcome drinks: £280
Half a bottle of wine per guest: £480
Toast drinks: £280
Evening pizza buffet: £440
Illustrative total: £3,950
This example uses our starting prices. Your quote will depend on your chosen date, hire hours, guest numbers and food and drink selections. If you’re inviting extra guests for the evening, give us separate daytime and evening numbers so we can price the food and drinks for each part of the reception.
Come and see the spaces for yourself
If you’re looking for a wedding reception venue in Southend with a little personality, we’d love to show you around. Bring a rough guest list and a few ideas, even if all you know so far is that you’d like good food, a toast and your favourite people in one room.
Explore our private hire spaces or email hello@sanfairieann.co.uk with your preferred date and approximate guest numbers to request a quote or arrange a viewing.