Can city folk find suppliers in for their wedding in the southwest? Absolutely! Here are 8 southwest wedding venues I love

Couples often ask me if they can find wedding suppliers in the southwest of England which reflects their values, vibes and expectations as city living and loving folk.  My answer is a resounding and affirmative yes! In this user friendly guide I will be introducing you to eight of my favourite southwest wedding venues, all of which I love, and have worked with over the years as a wedding celebrant.

Destination weddings will always remain fashionable, popular, and alluring and the southwest has a particular enticing pull for many city wedding couples looking for options for their wedding or wedding weekend! Frequently couples are looking for a venue where they can spread their wedding over the weekend or with accommodation on site for their guests? Equally they are inspired to find quirky, funky or stylish wedding venues a cut above the norm from the local city ones around them.

In this first instalment of my suppliers master list, I list the 8 southwest wedding venues I love returning to frequently as a wedding celebrant.

Whether or not you have holidayed there in the past, studied at one of the many brilliant universities and colleges, or simply yearn for the space and exquisite scenery the southwest provides, there is literally a southwest wedding venue for every couple. From art deco theatres overlooking the sea to subtropical gardens, if you are planning to get married outside the cities, there are so many exquisite, fun, exclusive wedding venues for you to choose from that you’ll be spoilt for choice!

The Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis Dorset

Southwest wedding venues with style and razzamatazz

Katherine Newman Photography      

Marine Theatre, Dorset firm favourite for a destination wedding venue in the southwest, the Marine Theatre is an original art deco building overlooking the sweeping coastline of the world famous UNESCO Jurassic Coast. This wedding venue ticks all the boxes if you are looking for a wedding venue seeped in entertainment history where you can put on the show party of your lives.

A working and highly acclaimed theatre, if you hire the Marine, you have automatically hired the whole venue, complete with lights, staff, the best outside bar and terrace overlooking the sea imaginable and dressing rooms with views to swoon over. The best bit though is the stage and auditorium, just perfect for your celebrant wedding ceremony and party afterwards. Or you can choose to have your ceremony over looking the sea on the front terrace. With options to dress and decorate it how you want, this southwest wedding venue will always be a popular choice for city folks wanting something extraordinary outside London.

And its also five minutes from my home, so I always jump at any opportunity to be a celebrant there for your wedding ceremony!

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Pennard House  Somerset

Southwest wedding venues with charm and film star appeal

This quintessential British country house wedding venue is a much loved choice for couples looking for a dreamy, highly photogenic, and intimate wedding day.  The achingly beautiful house is charmingly and authentically decorated to immediately make you and your guests feel at home, with rooms available in the  main house to stay in before the wedding and host a pre wedding dinner. The gardens are an oasis of simple British flowering beauty with a hidden pergola, crying out to be draped and decorated for your outdoor wedding ceremony.

The achingly beautiful house is charmingly and authentically decorated to immediately make you and your guests feel at home, with rooms available in the  main house to stay in before the wedding and host a pre wedding dinner. The gardens are an oasis of simple British flowering beauty with a hidden pergola, crying out to be draped and decorated for your outdoor wedding ceremony.

Couples fly to the UK from all around the world, just to find a wedding venue like Pennard House  and it’s easy to see why as it has the instant feel of the most romantic of films you may ever have seen. A Richard Curtis film set in waiting, just ready for you to book for your own starring roles.

And in the evening or for your meal, tucked and hidden away is the surprise element, converted stables with funky seating areas and a bar ready to provide the perfect spot for a juicy party. What more could you want?

Hareston Manor – Devon

Southwest wedding venues with oodles of character

Imagine getting ready for your wedding in a 16th century Devon manor house and then having your ceremony in front of the ancient porch watched by all your nearest and dearest? Then mingle on the courtyard for drinks and canapés and feel totally and utterly as if you were at a dear, old friends home. Then afterwards, for your reception and party, slip around the corner into the fabulous grounds and garden and find out those wonderful people have erected an awesome and open tipi for you, set up a trailer bar outside with locally sourced drinks and vintage furniture dotted around for you to relax on?

With the amazing owners living here and sharing it with you as if you’d just casually called up a friend to ask if you could have your wedding in the southwest at their place, honestly this venue has all the right feels. Professional, super friendly and oozing charm and style. Hareston Manor is one of the hidden and secret gems available in the southwest.

Watermouth Cove – Ilfracombe -Devon.

Imagine you are in the tropics with all your family and favourite people? Now also imagine that you are able to all stay together in one place for your wedding and your hosts are the kindest most accommodating people you could meet? Well then you are at Watermouth Cove, yet you haven’t had to endure the hours and cost of travel abroad but simply shimmied down to the southwest of England to encounter the friendliest wedding venue in an outstanding setting overlooking the north Devon coast. Plus it even has it’s own private beach!

Southwest wedding venues, with accommodation for all your guests!

Watermouth Cove has everything you would ever dream of for a destination wedding venue in the southwest. Accommodation on site, either camping or lodges, a swimming pool, bars, private beach ( I need to say that twice!) and two stunning and picture perfect wedding ceremony spaces, either at a pergola overlooking the coast or a barn with snuggly warm and inviting vibes overlooking the grounds.

The owners are your hosts for your wedding day and will go over and above to ensure that you have the most easy comfortable and fun time. A perfect southwest wedding venue for everyone to join you for the party of a lifetime.

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens a surprising southwest wedding venue

“How long is Forever?” Is a wonderful quote form CS Lewis’ Alice in Wonderland, and a wedding day at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens can gently drift on like a never ending story throughout the day which you’ll never want to finish.

Botanical and Subtropical gardens do not only exist within cities in the UK and these lush gardens on the Jurassic coast in Abbotsbury are a perfect venue for your wedding if you want to be surrounded by exquisite and rare plants, sculpture and water features.  A section of the garden is put aside for your wedding guests beside a marquee, so you have all the feeling of a private garden wedding yet a garden like no other you have ever seen.

Mapperton – Dorset –

Southwest wedding venues – luxurious high end

Luxurious and stylish, intimate and yet open, Mapperton Weddings is undoubtedly one of the premier stately home wedding venues in the southwest. Privately owned by Viscount and Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, Mapperton seamlessly offers a truly unique, luxurious location whilst still maintaining the feel that it is a much loved family home.

Behind the scenes a smooth and efficient team work to ensure that your wedding day is perfect and are on hand to offer suggestions for the best locations for photographs, ceremony, catering. Luxury should not be flashy, rather classic, occasionally quirky and worn in like an old cashmere shawl. And that is what you are guaranteed to find if you choose your southwest wedding venue at Mapperton. Timeless elegance, style and breathtakingly beautiful surroundings..

Higher Holcombe –  Ottery St Mary – Devon

Southwest wedding venues, ecologically sound and sustainable

This unique and breathtakingly beautiful outdoor wedding venue is the ultimate destination for couples who truly want to ensure that their values are aligned with their wedding venue. Joanne and her husband, who own and run Higher Holcombe in Devon had a vision to create on their land a wedding venue totally aligned to our natural world.  Over the years, they have planted thousands of trees and grown the most beautiful local flowers on their land, creating an unrivalled woodland wonderland.

Camping and glamping is available ensuring a your guests will be nearby, with firepits and outdoor spaces to carry the party on throughout the evening whilst enjoying the stars.

A first in the UK, they planted a grew an outdoor cathedral made of willow trees for your wedding ceremony or an aisle of trees to walk down to a secret location. If you choose not to be outside their barn space is open and airy and epitomises the idea of bringing the outside in.

Local wedding suppliers, like myself, adore working at Higher Holcombe for the creativity, love and beautiful wilderness the venue has to offer.

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River Cottage HQ

This rustic, bohemian, superbly appointed, and always sustainably driven, country cottage cookery school owned by the celebrity chef Hugh Fernley Whittington, nestles in the  lush countryside of East Devon.

One of the ultimate southwest wedding venues

This absolutely stunning corner of paradise is perfect, not only for foodie loving couples, but also for anybody who dreams of their wedding day being in a bucolic cottage garden setting with adjacent spaces which shout out to be photographed and dressed for your perfect relaxed, yet also so chic, wedding setting.

Your ceremony space is divine, with a choice of an archway of flowering beauties in the garden, a snug tipi with a  wood burner and country styling or inside the main farm house.

Hugh’s chefs will discuss and plan your wedding feast working on what is available locally and in season. With a superb, enthusiastic and knowledgeable wedding team, The River Cottage is a perfect choice of southwest wedding venues which welcome celebrant weddings and go all out to highlight the beauty and

I’d love to hear from you and chat about your perfect southwest wedding! I have wonderful creative friends who work as suppliers and we are all  happy to chat about how you can find the perfect wedding suppliers locally.

Contact Me to find out more reasons to book me as your celebrant