South West Venues
That you should consider for your wedding
Getting married in the South West? Then you might want to consider my curated list of some of these venues that are on my list of places to consider for couples. I'm always on the look out for interesting venues, whether that be the architecture, an interesting after party area, beautiful grounds to site a marquee, or a stunning location in the countryside.
Hotel Endsleigh, Milton Abbot, Devon — for a landscape that does the decorating
Photograph courtesy of thepolizzicollection.com
A hundred acres laid out by Humphry Repton, running down to the Tamar. Follies, a grotto, champion trees, and a Shell House licensed for ceremonies. Every ground-floor room of the house is licensed too, along with the Parterre Garden, which gives you real freedom to move a day around the weather.
The Stable seats around eighty; the ground floor of the house takes about a hundred. Take it on exclusive use across two nights if you can.
Best for: couples who want the setting to carry the styling.
Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon
Photograph courtesy of gidleigh.co.uk
On the north bank of the Teign, in a hundred acres at the edge of Dartmoor, down a lane long enough that guests arrive already elsewhere. Twenty-four rooms, a maximum of sixty guests, exclusive use of the whole thing.
Ceremonies work in the oak-panelled Drawing Room, or from the Teign room straight out onto the terrace. In summer, the thatched Pavilion Cottage on the croquet lawn.
Best for: Intimate weddings for relaxed luxury
Bovey Castle, Dartmoor, Devon
Photograph courtesy of boveycastle.com
I have been known to visit Bovey to enjoy their delicious afternoon tea in their impressive Cathedral like lounges. Think sumptous surroundings, excellent customer service and attention to detail. The venue itself is imposing, with delightful grounds to explore. They have flexibility to host larger guest numbers and with a lovely spa on site, whats not to love.
Best for: A stately affair
Lympstone Manor, Devon
Photograph courtesy of lympstonemanor.co.uk
A stately luxury hotel, vineyard, and Michelin starred restaurant. With views over the Exe Estuary, hosting a marquee on the lawn in these luxuruous surroundings or hosting a smaller intimate celebration would equally be wonderful here.
Best for: an estuary sunset and a dinner people talk about for years.
The Pig at Combe, Gittisham, Devon
Photograph courtesy of thepighotel.com
A venue close to my heart as I held my wedding reception in their gorgous Folly (oh how I wish I could pick it up and place it in my garden!) A honey-coloured Elizabethan manor with walled gardens, and a kitchen that grows what it can and sources the rest within twenty-five miles. The Folly seats around forty at two long tables.
It earns its place for its philosophy more than its capacity. If your instinct is that the meal is the wedding — long table, garden produce, nothing overworked — Combe is the clearest expression of that idea in Devon. It's also possible to take the whole house exclusively which I think would be the ultimate Devon wedding venue.
Best for: relaxed chic Devon wedding with a farm to table feel.
Pirzwell Barn, Kentisbeare, Devon
Photograph courtesy of pirzwellbarn.com
A former agricultural barn in mid Devon with three-hundred-and-sixty-degree views that reach Dartmoor on a clear day. Up to a hundred and twenty guests, exclusive for the weekend. I love a blank canvas space and this venue has such amazing views and such a fab space internally that could be styled in so many ways from draping to chandeliers to floral garlands. The owners are also such fab people you'll want to pick the venue due to this fact alone.
Best for: couples who want styling flexibility and a rustic look
The Lost Music Hall, Totnes, Devon
Photograph courtesy of uniquehomestays.com
A secluded South Hams valley on the Great Ambrook estate, and an Arts and Crafts music room added at the turn of the last century by a London dandy who wanted somewhere to disappear to. There is a four-acre Italian garden and an underground cellar club.
Ceremonies in the orchard, the walled garden or the music room itself, and you can take the Georgian manor next door as well
Best for: A romantic escape in a quirky building
St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset
St Giles House across the lake. Photograph courtesy of stgileshouse.com
Set in five and a half thousand acres. Any of the principal rooms can be licensed, up to a hundred and twenty guests, with a marquee for more.
The detail I always come back to is the eighteenth-century grotto, lined with shells brought back from the Caribbean, which holds twenty for a ceremony. The Lake Lawn is the wide-open alternative, and the parish church sits at the end of the drive for a traditional service. Exclusive use includes two nights in the Riding House and Grooms Cottage, with forty-two able to stay on the estate.
Best for: a wedding with genuine grandeur
Parnham Park, Beaminster, Dorset
Photograph courtesy of parnhampark.co.uk
A beautiful ruin of a venue, achingly romantic with it's impressive architecture.
The licensed rooms are the Orangery, which holds twenty-five, and the Potting Shed, which takes a hundred — so the real conversation here is about the ground. This is parkland that makes a marquee look intentional rather than improvised.
Best for: a stunning setting
Newton Surmaville, Yeovil
Photograph courtesy of newtonsurmaville.co.uk
A Jacobean manor on the Somerset–Dorset border in sixty-three acres, with original walled gardens and old oak parkland. Nine bedrooms, four reception rooms, exclusive hire of house and grounds.
Reception capacities depend entirely on how you configure it and whether you go to a marquee, so treat the first site visit as a design conversation.
Best for: a house-party wedding across three days, with the walled garden as the ceremony.
Penn Castle, Portland, Dorset — for the Jurassic Coast at its most dramatic
Photograph courtesy of thepennestate.co.uk
Commissioned in 1797 by John Penn and built from Portland limestone, standing above the sea on the island. Around twenty-three bedrooms across the castle, Clifftops and lodges, with ceremony options indoors and in the gardens.
Portland has real character — quarried, weathered, unsentimental — and a wedding here borrows all of it. Capacities vary meaningfully between the castle alone and the full estate, and between summer and the winter months, so confirm your numbers before you fall in love with a layout.
Best for: couples who want coastline with edge rather than a pretty beach.
Boconnoc, Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Photograph courtesy of boconnoc.com
A beautiful Georgian house with four reception rooms opening onto parkland that seems to go on without end. A hundred seated in the house, up to two hundred and forty with a marquee extension, and a stable yard with festoon lighting, firepits and five rustic spaces that makes the finest wedding-eve party.
Best for: a two-day estate wedding that starts the night before.
Belcombe Court, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
Photograph courtesy of belcombe.com
Just over the Wiltshire border, a few miles from Bath, on the edge of Bradford on Avon. John Yerbury began the house in the 1720s, and in 1734 his son brought in John Wood the Elder, the architect who went on to shape Georgian Bath. The house is Grade I; the gardens are Grade II* in their own right.
Sixty acres of parkland and an eighteenth-century romantic landscape: a small lake, a round temple, a grotto, a domed pigeon house, a Gothic barn. Ceremonies can be held in the barn, in the Rotunda, or in the Summer House, where the aisle is lined with seasonal flowers and wisteria. The celebration itself belongs in a marquee on the lawn.
Best for: a summer marquee wedding with a Georgian garden to drift through, and Bath close enough for guests to make a weekend of it. If you are planning a wedding in the South West we can assist with finding the ideal venue that suits your personality and requirements. We have connections with many places that don't advertise their houses for weddings, hidden gems that only host a small number of events each year.
