Issue 59

FUNCTION VENUES
wedding. Now we only offer
elopement weddings, and this year
we've closed completely in what
previously were our busiest months,
June, July and August.
Tell us about your location
and site
The main house (where we live) was
built in 1760 and sits on 46 acres on
the edge of Dartmoor National Park,
mainly woodland protected by SSSI
(site of special scientific interest)
with landscaped lawns and gardens
on the banks of the river Walkham.
It's a special place, and we feel
blessed to live here.
As the house isn't used for
weddings, keeping the business
and personal separate has been
relatively easy. The downside of
operating a business from home is
that it's only saleable if you sell your
home, which we're not willing to
consider.
What facilities for outdoor
functions do you offer?
We used to have a tailor-made
marquee (15m x 9m) for the bigger
weddings, but since we stopped
doing those, we've sold that. We
now have our large glass-covered
terrace with a canvas canopy and
our oak-framed wedding barn for
ceremonies, drinks receptions and
wedding breakfasts.
A separate stone cottage is used
as the honeymoon cottage for
couples staying on-site for two
nights. We also have a separate
annexe for two additional guests to
stay in.
The venue is very flexible. We're
set up for the great British weather
and can quickly move indoors to
outdoors for any part of the day.
There are open wood fires on the
terrace, the patio, the Riverwalk
and in the main house as well as
the wood burner in the honeymoon
cottage, which are a big attraction.
What services do you offer?
We offer exclusive-use, mid-week,
two-night elopement packages for
wedding couples looking for laidback
luxury either alone or with up
to six guests (10 in warmer months).
We handle accommodation,
photography, flowers, styling,
champagne, canapes, wedding
breakfast, wedding cake and
evening food. Devon County
Council fully licenses us for wedding
and civil partnership ceremonies.
Since the outdoor ceremony
changes brought in for Covid
became permanent, we now
have outdoor ceremony options
in the gardens and on the banks
of the river. If the weather isn't
cooperating, the ceremony can
take place in our oak-framed barn
and in the winter, there's an indoor
ceremony option in the main house.
Describe how you researched and
sourced your structures
When we started, we quickly
learned that Tectonics was the
market leader in marquees. We
already had our permanent glasscovered
terrace built before we
considered hosting weddings.
Tectonics supplied the bespoke
canopy we needed to bridge our
glass roofs and a modular marquee
“EACH COUPLE
WORKS
DIRECTLY
WITH OUR
FLORIST AND
CAKE MAKER
IN THE THREE
MONTHS
BEFORE THEIR
WEDDING,
AND WE GO
THROUGH
THEIR STYLING
IDEAS IN
DETAIL”
(15m x 9m) attached to the canopy
with a customised canvas bridge.
After nine years, the canopy canvas
needed replacing, but the original
aluminium structure is still in good
order, so we just purchased a new
canvas.
How do you work with your
customers to make their event
unique?
A big part of our attraction is that
our weddings look so different from
one another. We have a shed load
(literally) of wedding décor items,
so whether the couple is looking
for monochrome contemporary, a
woodland vibe, blush pink or all the
rainbow colours, we've got it in our
stockroom.
Each couple works directly with
our florist and cake maker in the
three months before their wedding,
and we go through their styling
ideas in detail. Some couples know
exactly what they want and will let
you know. Others love how we do
18 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM