Just Engaged? How To Start Planning Your Dream Wedding

Choose A Venue!

It’s true to say that without a venue, not much else can happen! So our advice to you would be to leave all of the other decisions that need to be made (for now!), and focus on finding the venue of your dreams.

Many of Devon’s most popular wedding venues get booked up months or years in advance, all the more reason to make choosing a venue your priority.

And if you find that your preferred date isn’t available, don’t be afraid to consider other options such as Sundays or even a weekday which are becoming more and more popular due to the saving that can be made in venue hire fees.

And try to choose a venue that best reflects you as a couple. Whilst it’s so important that you have a venue that reflects your personalities, you do of course also need to keep a budget in mind when you are selecting venues to view.

Colours and Themes

Once you’ve decided on your venue, and you’ve got a date booked, it will be much easier to focus on a colour scheme, or a theme. Rustic, vintage, romantic, art deco, modern … there are so many great ideas to choose from. At Rockbeare Manor, we’ve purposefully kept our colour palette neutral, so that it works against any colour scheme or theme. We’ve hosted weddings with all sorts of colour schemes here, and they’ve all worked equally well.

Think about what suits your personality, and of course, your budget! If you’re choosing to have fresh flowers, do some research about what’s likely to be in season during the time that you’re getting married. Flowers that are in season are going to be a lot cheaper than having to import them from overseas at other times of the year.

Faux flowers are becoming evermore popular as they can be so effective, and you can create a big impact whilst still staying within budget.

The Clothes

There are some fantastic ideas for wedding dresses that really do suit all shapes and budgets. Think about what you’re likely to be comfortable in, and what fabrics and shapes you like. It’s great to be traditional, but we are seeing that more and more, couples are choosing to do things their way without perhaps the formality that used to be the norm. We often see men wearing tweed suits instead of a top hat and tails, and brides tend to look a lot more relaxed now than twenty years ago!

Whatever you end up wearing, Rockbeare Manor’s grand, sweeping staircases and velvet sofas are going to provide the perfect backdrop for your photographs!

The Food

We’ve written about this in previous blogs, mainly because we love to showcase the skills of our brilliant Head Chef, Ben. We really do love our food here, and we genuinely enjoy working with couples to create a menu that will suit their guests’ taste buds!

Work out what your budget is, and let your Chef guide you as to what works with parties of your size. It’s best to find out if your guests have any dietary requirements, and we’ve found that most of our couples tend to do this when they send their invitations out. We source as much of the menu as possible from Devon itself, so you can be sure that the food will be of the best possibly quality.

Our beautiful wedding venue in the Devon countryside can be exclusively yours too. Contact us for a viewing of Rockbeare Manorand talk to our friendly and knowledgeable team about your very special day.