A Bespoke and Highly Personal Ceremony Option

Cornish Celebrants – A Bespoke and Highly Personal Ceremony Option. 

‘Your Wedding, Your Way’ is something we firmly believe in here at Coombe Trenchard. You will see this phrase in our digital brochure and on our social media feeds; we like to be as flexible and accommodating as possible to ensure a unique and personal experience for each of our couples. We have licensed 12 different locations within our house and grounds for legal ceremonies and shy away from formal packages or standard set ups. The luxury of opening our home for a select amount of weddings each year means we can get to know each couple and ensure we help them create their perfect celebration.

Cornish Celebrants share our ethos of flexibility and allow couples to tailor make their celebration in a whole new way. We were excited to find out more and so arranged for Nicola and Denise, the lovely ladies behind this wonderful new venture, to visit Coombe Trenchard and enlighten us. 

Currently in England you need to be in a licensed area underneath a permanent structure to legally wed. This may be a Register Office, a Church or one of the beautiful locations dotted around Coombe Trenchard. The ceremony needs to contain specific phrases and if you are not getting hitched in a church you cannot have any religious content in your ceremony. The wording is very hard to personalise and music/readings will be checked for suitability. As we meet and get to know the lovely couples who choose our home for their Big Day, we realise just how varied and diverse their expectations and preferences are. 

Nicola and Denise, in their combined 29 years working for the Registration Service in Cornwall, saw the same need for bespoke options to provide a more personal and befitting ceremony and set about making that happen. Whilst the legal ceremony must still take place in a licensed area and could take place on a different day, Cornish Celebrants are on hand to conduct a separate celebratory ceremony purely of your making, with no guidelines or rules. This follows the continental model of a small ceremony at a registry office followed by a huge celebration in the setting of your choice.  

Therefore, if you want your ceremony on our bridge, within our stunning woodland, or even in the stream you can now have a tailored service conducted by friendly professionals to make your day as individual as you are.  Mix religious, spiritual and non-religious readings, rituals and hymns with words chosen only by you and your partner for that special moment. Perfect for larger celebrations after intimate elopements/destination weddings and lovebirds who do not wish to conform to the rules imposed on traditional services, we are happy to be working alongside Cornish Celebrants to offer their bespoke services to our happy couples. 

 “We loved Coombe Trenchard – such a stylish venue with such welcoming hosts. It encompasses the best of the Devon countryside with the far reaching views of Dartmoor, fabulous gardens and woodland and a beautiful Arts and Crafts house nestling in its setting.  Simply stunning and we are so looking forward to conducting ceremonies here.” – Cornish Celebrants.

For further information about the Cornish Celebrants, contact Denise or Nicola on info@cornishcelebrants.co.uk cornishcelebrants.co.uk

 

The Luxury of a Mid-Week Wedding

The Luxury of a Mid-Week Wedding

Here at Coombe Trenchard, we don’t like to see things go to waste. We have worked hard to restore our beautiful 'Arts & Crafts' country home back to its former Edwardian glory, we make use of our glorious grounds by growing seasonal blooms for blushing Brides and love to put our home-grown fruits to good use in jams for Devonshire Cream Teas.  When we see our terrace bathed in sunshine on a Thursday afternoon we can’t help but wonder if this is a wasted opportunity.

So we’ve decided to offer Mid-Week weddings, a flexible and exciting new option for your Big Day. Whilst there are the obvious financial benefits from choosing a mid-week wedding (please download our beautiful digital brochure or get in contact for pricing structures), the perks don’t stop there....

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Every Bride and Groom is aware of just how difficult it can be to find preferred suppliers that all have availability on the same day. This is especially true when trying to plan your nuptials in a shorter time frame than an average engagement of 13-18 months. If you feel you want to become Mr & Mrs as soon as possible but are concerned about rushed plans, fully booked suppliers and time to save: a mid-week wedding may be the way forward. At Coombe Trenchard we offer in-house assistance with planning and liaise with suppliers to make your wedding experience as stress free as possible. Discounts and savings offered by suppliers and Coombe Trenchard can ensure you may not need as long as you think to be financially ready to tie the knot. 

Mid-week weddings are on the rise, with a total of 21,700 couples getting married on a Thursday in the last year alone. Couples are enjoying more time to decorate their venue in a relaxed manner, more time to spend with friends and family, and the benefit of a weekend after the wedding to bask in its glow and re-live the Big Day. This can mean better deals on honeymoon flights and packages, as well as the luxury of time to enjoy a weeklong celebration! Those working within the Education system may also take advantage of Half Term and School Holiday weekdays without the concern of being at work directly before or after saying ‘I Do’. 

Couples seeking a quieter day will already be spoilt for choice with 12 different licensed locations of various sizes dotted around our home and grounds. Nestled in the Devonshire countryside with far reaching views of Dartmoor, we offer accommodation in our fully restored and luxurious bedrooms for up to 8 guests and can provide both in house catering and cut flowers fresh from the garden. Cosy log fires and original Edwardian features will ensure a spectacularly stately festive celebration, or soak up the spring sunshine and tie the knot underneath the Clock Tower overlooking our bubbling stream.  A mid-week wedding at Coombe Trenchard may be just the ticket for a relaxed, intimate and truly memorable day. 

We genuinely believe no two weddings should be the same and it’s important to us to provide a personal service to the couples who choose our beautiful home for their special day. We still have some mid-week availability for 2016 and we would love to hear from you to discuss your plans. 

Contact: sarah@coombetrenchard.co.uk

Looking ahead to the 'Home & Garden Show' 2016

By Ben Probert

Spring is an exciting time in the garden; as well as being treated to the glorious flowers of hellebores, snowdrops, primroses, daffodils and crocuses spring is the time gardeners get stuck in to planning for the year ahead.

As the days get longer and the garden at Coombe Trenchard reawakens from its winter slumber, it's time to make preparations for the coming season. Annuals are sown for the cutting garden, where flowers are grown for this year's weddings, and borders are tended as the perennials and shrubs burst into life.

Behind the scenes there's even more activity. 2016 sees another of Coombe Trenchard's fabulous summer Home And Garden Festivals, and already there is plenty of activity as bookings are taken and plans are drawn up. For anyone who hasn't been to any of the previous Home And Garden Festivals here let me describe what you can expect; dozens of stands featuring the very best in home and garden products, including top quality locally grown plants from some of the region's finest traditional nurseries, all set out on the lawns of the house.

The whole festival is deliberately planned to be a relaxed and friendly event, where you can enjoy the atmosphere of this special estate while you browse a wide range of products, many of which will have been made by the people you meet.

By welcoming traditional nurseries we aim to champion those hard working men and women who work all year round to grow top quality plants for your garden. I still don't think people really appreciate the importance of trying to source plants as locally as possible, despite such an appreciation of local food and other products.

Buying from your local traditional nursery, as opposed to buying plants shipped across Europe from factory nurseries in far-flung places, gives you the best opportunity to buy plants that have been grown in the same climate as your garden, meaning they have a much better chance of establishing and thriving. Add to that, traditional nurseries nearly always grow a more diverse range of plants than you would normally find at your local garden centre, including many old favourites and plants you might not have heard of before. Best of all, where could you get a better quality of in-depth advice about plants and gardening than from those people who dedicate their time to growing plants?!

Bringing local nurseries together in one place, especially with people who make and sell an interesting and diverse range of complimentary products for your garden and home, makes the Home And Garden Festival an excellent place to see what's on offer and buy something new, but the Festival isn't just about 'splashing cash'; enormous effort goes into making the weekend special, enthralling and unique.

There aren't many events in the South West where you can take tea on the terrace of an Edwardian 'Arts and Crafts' manor overlooking beautiful countryside before enjoying the mixed borders and the various areas of the garden, before browsing stalls selling beautiful products for your home and garden... if this sounds like the perfect use of a summer's day then join us for the Home And Garden Festival on the 4th and 5th of June, 2016!

To read more from Ben, take a look at his informative blog PenandTrowel

Meet Nikki...our 'Real Bride' Blogger

I'd like to introduce you to Nikki Ward.....I have known Nikki for a couple of years through the wedding industry, as she produces some of the most beautiful wedding stationery you can imagine. I was so delighted when Nikki and fiancé Anthony decided that Coombe Trenchard would be their perfect wedding venue, and equally thrilled when Nikki agreed to be our first 'real bride' blogger. Nikki is getting married here in May 2017, and I am really looking forward to reading how she progresses with her wedding plans.... 

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Hi I’m Nikki and I have been working in the wedding industry for the last 6 years … gosh that makes me sound like I’m standing up at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting! I am also a bride to be after getting engaged on Boxing Day to my lovely other half Anthony, who got down and proposed in front of a camel on the edge of the Sahara desert whilst we were on a tour of Morocco. It was perfect … even though we both had stinking colds and felt really ill!

When we got back from Morocco I immediately jumped into wedding planning mode … we wanted to get married in 2017 and I knew that dates at really lovely venues would fill up quickly, especially in the post engagement frenzy following Christmas & New Year.

Having run my own business as a wedding stationer, over the years I have visited some really lovely venues for photo shoots and wedding fairs etc. so I had a fair idea of some of the venues I really loved in Devon and Cornwall. Ant was happy for me to show him some of my favourites and some of the most popular venues in the area so we could narrow it down to a shortlist to visit quite quickly.

We instantly knew we didn’t want something run of the mill and, as neither of us are religious, wanted a venue where we could hold both the ceremony and reception in one place. In fact it became clear very quickly that we also really wanted somewhere which we could have exclusive use of for the whole weekend. We only moved to Devon 3 years ago so nearly all our close friends and family are based in either London, Surrey or near Birmingham. So we decided that we didn’t want our guests to feel they were having to travel all the way down to Devon for just one day. 

We both love places with history and character and so the shortlist of 4 venues we looked at over one of the first weekends in January all were very individual and full of character for different reasons. We actually made a bit of a rod for our own backs as each one was ‘so’ different it was difficult to compare them!

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Coombe Trenchard won out though in an enormous part due, not only to its beauty and historic character, but because of the flexibility that it and Sarah offered us. It is also an Arts & Crafts House which has always been one of our favourite periods of architecture and although it has a definite ‘wow’ feeling it also felt loved and relaxed and like the family home that it is. We didn’t want our day to feel in anyway stuffy or formal so Coombe Trenchard was perfect!

Sarah has been so helpful and accommodating in our booking of the venue and I’m really looking forward to organising our wedding with her.

Our plans and ideas for the day are already starting to come together and we are currently finalising evening catering and music and entertainment, which are the couple of things other than the venue which we are anxious to book well in advance to secure the date of the suppliers we really love.

Plus as Sarah has already discovered I’m a stupidly organised person and as we are also moving house this year I wanted to get on top of the wedding planning straight away!

I’m looking forward to writing future blog posts for the Coombe Trenchard blog and keeping you updated to our progress.

Nikki

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Nikki will be back again soon, keeping us up to date with here wedding plans.

To see some of Nikki's lovely stationery designs, on the Knots & Kisses logo above.

May in the gardens

This months blog from Ben Probert looks not only at how the gardens are bursting into life, but also the impact that garden sculpture has on the gardens. 

May is a month of contrasts; at the beginning of the month it is still decidedly spring, with frost a real risk, but by the end of the month it's all but summer and plants are growing at incredible speed. It's a busy month for gardeners as lawns and borders grow quickly, and it's easy for them to get out of hand it they're not monitored carefully. May brings warmer temperatures but usually lots of rain (certainly here in Devon!), so mowing goes from being an occasional job to being a regular part of a gardener's routine in a matter of a week!

May brings the highlight of the the horticultural year; the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show attracts interest from all over the world, with nurseries, designers and other garden companies come together for a horticultural extravaganza on the lawns of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Actually getting to Chelsea can prove quite expensive, so most people take in the sights and sounds by watching the BBC's coverage. Whether you can be at Chelsea in person or in spirit, Chelsea week is also the time to do a very important garden job; the 'Chelsea chop'! Certain plants might flower earlier than wanted, so these plants are sheared back during Chelsea week, causing them to regrow and then flower a few weeks later. Certain Geraniums, Salvias, Asters and several other plants are perfect for the Chelsea chop, and it's a great way to make sure that you get a big display in your borders from June onwards, instead of having a few plants flowering at a time.

 The borders at Coombe Trenchard are certainly very healthy, and I put this down to a combination of the use of the right plants and a liberal dose of 'Coombe Trenchard gold', the fantastic home-brewed compost made from manure, green-waste and woody material. Most gardeners know about composting but a surprising number don't do it. Reasons include lack of space, lack of time (because composting does take a degree of time and effort) and the convenience of being able to buy a bag or two of compost as and when it's needed. A garden like the one at Coombe Trenchard generates a large amount of organic matter, and this is definitely not wasted! By the time the manure and organic matter has composted properly it's turned into a wonderfully rich, nutritious and bulky material, and this home made compost is absolutely fantastic for getting plants growing at their very best

The borders and Wisteria bursting into life

A nice billowy mass of fresh growth and flowers is always a delight to see, but gardens are often left lacking... something. It can be hard to put your finger on it, but all too often what's needed is a man-made element to anchor and balance the exuberant planting. Installing something like a bench, a sculpture or even a bird bath can really change a garden; you put a feature into a planted area and the feature somehow manages to make the planting seem more rich and vibrant, while the planting also frames and shows off your feature. It's a strange illusion, but somehow the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.

The right choice of a garden feature is critical, and it's a decision that is best thought about before taking the plunge. What colour? What would look right? How tall? How wide...? Time and time again I've seen gardens where budget has been a constraint, but the garden has been filled (and sometimes I mean filled) with smaller, cheaper sculptures and statues that just don't suit the space, and I'm left wondering if the money had been saved and spent on something more appropriate.

Coombe Trenchard is currently hosting its sculpture exhibition, and I would strongly advise that gardeners take a look. Although the exhibits are most definitely works of art in their own right, displayed using the garden as a 'green gallery', their placement in the garden really shows the importance of 'right sculpture, right place'. Take, for example, this piece below...

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Pelham System by Julian Wild

 This sculpture is made of rusting pipes, but this is not simply a pile of rusty old metal! The shapes, scale and colour of this piece look very industrial and unashamedly man-made, but sitting in a sea of wildflowers it looks fantastic. This sculpture would, certainly to my eyes, look rather drab in surrounded by concrete or indoors, but surrounded by the wildflowers it sits comfortably in its surroundings. Although surprisingly big it's not bulky, and is in fact the perfect size and scale for this part of the garden. A smaller piece here in the woodland would simply look small and out of place, and something big and bulky would dominate the wildflowers. It's a balancing act to get the right proportions, but it's definitely something worth the effort of getting right.

We come from Heaven, I from Hell 2012 by Robert Philips

This example above works on a smaller scale; this tall sculpture acts as a perfect accent to the Cordyline australis behind, while low planting around its base acts to balance the height and wide of the piece itself. The sculpture and the planting both compliment each other perfectly. I don't want to spoil the fun of seeing these sculptures for yourself, so this is my final example. The Irish yews (Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata') in the yew avenue are tall and upright, and in the fairly long and narrow space between them a low and wide sculpture would have the wrong proportions. Take a small sculpture and put it on a nice tall plinth and you have a piece that sits comfortably in its surroundings.

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You can combine art and comfort and go for a nice garden bench.... This bench is in Coombe Trenchard's woodland garden and is certainly not the kind of thing you see in your local garden centre or DIY store! It has to be big because it's in a big space, so a smaller bench would just get lost in this part of the garden. A high back allows this bench to be seen but also makes a sitting place into a visually striking feature. There's something very appealing about this bench; it's solid but also looks incredibly inviting. Where space and budget allow, a bench with character and substance could act as your principle seating and also as an artistic focal point.

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Big Bench by Chris Amey

You can use plants themselves as sculptures; gardeners have been using plants to create topiary sculptures for centuries! You don't have to be wild and outrageous with your topiary, even something as simple as a shape made from box (Buxus sempervirens) can be the perfect sculptural element for your garden. The rule of thumb here is the same as with sculptures made of any other material; be bold! A small clipped shape in a big space will disappear as quickly as a small statue would, so plan for your masterpiece to grow to a reasonable size. You might have to plant several of one thing to get you the effect in a sensible time, and your living sculpture will need clipping and shaping regularly to keep it looking good. It's important to bear in mind that, even if you buy fairly large plants to grow and clip, creating your own topiary sculpture of any meaningful size takes time, so if you want something big and bold now you might be better finding yourself an artist...!

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These shapes look great in long grass but have taken a long time to get this big!

By Ben Probert Penandtrowel.co.uk

Sculptural15 runs until June 20th, opening from Wednesday - Saturday 11am-5pm (closed June 6th for private event)