Ideal for the quintessential wedding in the Great British countryside.
Your wedding day is one you want to remember forever, a day of joy and good cheer which you hope goes down in the history books of your life. Unless, of course, the marriage ends in acrimony, but that should be the last thing on your mind at the moment. For now, everything about it has to be memorable, from the flower arrangements to your bridal dress, the best man’s speech and your dad’s questionable dancing.
Though it’s all these finer details which make the bigger, beautiful whole picture, it’s the frame which really defines the day. That is why picking the best venue should be at the top of your priority list when it comes to wedding planning. Thankfully there are plenty of incredible places in the United Kingdom that can offer you the perfect Instagram-worthy wedding venue on your special day.
Whether you live in the area or fancy somewhere spectacularly rural for your big day, here are 4 historic wedding venues in South West England, IDEAL for the quintessential wedding in the Great British countryside.
ST AUDRIES PARK
This is the perfect wedding venue if you are looking for a natural aesthetic for your special day. Get hitched here and you will be surrounded by the splendour of Somerset’s Quantock Hills (an Area of Outstanding Beauty) and the manor house’s 100 acres of land. You may even see some deer grazing the grass; St. Audries is, first and foremost, a deer park. Perhaps this presents the perfect reason to enjoy some venison on your wedding breakfast menu? Just sayin’. As if that wasn’t enough, the venue also boasts sea views over the Bristol Channel.
Should you choose to house your wedding ceremony in the Georgian Orangery and you can make use of their grand banquet hall, which seats up to 130 guests for the party element of your wedding. If you book this venue you can get the entire house to yourself and up to 250 guests. There are also 41 bedrooms to choose from if you want to give your guests the option to crash after the ceremony.
CLEVEDON HALL
There are many reasons why this wedding venue should be on your shortlist. Firstly, this manor is massive, hosting 25 bedrooms for your guests if they want to stay the night after the festivities. Clevedon Hall also comes with a team of event management experts who can not only help plan your wedding, but can also provide catering. Hey, who said this wedding planning thing was stressful? Not here!
With this option, you also get the entire house to yourself for you and your guests, which means the whole focus will fall on you. The hall comes equipped with a chef who has trained at Michelin level, so you can rest assured that your guests will be eating sophisticated, memory-making food. Surrounded by two and a half acres of land from all sides with a perfectly manicured garden, this is the perfect frame for a fairytale wedding.
KNOWLE MANOR
This is a beautiful manor inside Exmoor National Park, which straddles West Somerset and North Devon. Defined by moorland, woodland, rivers and coast, you truly couldn’t get any more scenic if you tried.
The manor itself is surrounded by 120 acres of lakes, trees, forests and the moors, perfect for strolling the morning after the night before, should your guests need to rid themselves of sore heads (we expect they might).
Up to 50 of your wedding guests can sleep in the manor and there are 20 different bedrooms to choose from. What’s more, if you’re planning a particularly expansive affair, Knowle Manor is licensed for up to 60 guests in its Drawing Room, typically used for the ceremony, but if you are needing more space, you can also include the Palm House in your booking, which can host up to 120 guests.
Do remember that right now, there are severe restrictions on the number of guests permitted at weddings, due to COVID-19 safety measures. Currently, the number stands at just 15, but you were planning this wedding for after a vaccine is rolled out, right?
HESTERCOMBE GARDENS
This gorgeous wedding venue in the splendour of the Somerset countryside sits amid over 50 acres of land. Book Hestercombe, and you get exclusive access to the venue and its surroundings on your wedding day. Hestercombe’s natural landscapes alone should be enough to convince you; lakes, cascades, temples, rills, sunny pathways and never-ending lawns will be the backdrop for your happily ever afters, and who wouldn’t want that?
Hestercombe Gardens is licenced for civil ceremonies.