"Run Away With Me........"

Elopement weddings at Coombe Trenchard

To me, elopements instantly conjure the notion of wild, Romeo & Juliet style romance. To share an experience so intimate and so specifically for the two of you, whether in secret or not, has always held an enchanting fascination. These days, 'elopement' is the colloquial term given to weddings of a very small nature, either just the happy couple or a few close friends or family members also in attendance. These ceremonies carry the same legal requirements and standing as a traditional day, just on a much smaller and more intimate scale.

Nestled on the edge of Dartmoor, Coombe Trenchard is a newly discovered Arts & Crafts gem that has been lovingly restored in recent years. Privately owned, full of original features and more than a little sprinkling of mystery, we feel our home is the perfect setting to fulfil your wildest elopement dreams.

In stark contrast to planning a traditional wedding, elopements can be arranged and performed with minimal fuss, stress and cost. Coombe Trenchard prides itself on not conforming to traditional wedding packages and so encourages you to make your day as unique as you are. We have twelve licensed locations dotted around our house and grounds and work closely with a number of trusted suppliers to ensure your celebration runs smoothly, whatever the size. Stay in our luxurious Bridal Suite, complete with roll top bath, and truly relax in your own wedding bubble. We also grow flowers in our cutting garden and bake delicious treats in our country kitchen; ensuring no air miles and the most authentic Devonshire experience to remember for years to come.

With the average cost of a wedding in the UK now at a whopping £20,500, couples are increasingly looking for cheaper, more unique options to personalise their day. You may choose to have an elopement then a laid back party at a different time or simply skip the planning, saving, legwork and debates by heading off to become hitched in the simplest and most secluded way. Age old family pressures can cause tension, along with loved ones expectations that can vary greatly from your own. Guest list dramas can be avoided and decisions can be made to simply suit you and your other half when choosing to strip your wedding back to its purest form: two people becoming committed for life.

Dartmoor is know for its rugged beauty, desolate vistas and ancient woodland. In the summer months plan a lazy picnic, splash in the streams and enjoy total, warm tranquillity. When the nights draw in and autumn raises its beautiful rusty head its time to gather around our fireplace with a glass of mulled wine after a blustery welly walk. Elopements can be easily arranged at any time of the year, especially if you are planning a week day celebration. Coombe Trenchard can provide accommodation for up to nine guests, so if you are bringing a smattering of guests you could enjoy the wonders of this unique part of the world in your own country home. Well behaved canine companions are also welcome, although sadly cannot acts as witnesses!

If this relaxed and cost effective way of getting hitched appeals to you and your partner, here's a handy check list to assist you in planning an elopement.

Coombe Trenchard's Elopement Check List

The Legal Bit – Elopements still have the same legal requirements as larger weddings; you will need to contact your local Registrar's office to book your ceremony and give Notice of Marriage. You can find all of the relevant information by following this link to the governments website.

Photographer – No matter the size of your wedding, you will always want photos of your Big Day to look back on and show loved ones. We have a list of recommended photographers here at Coombe Trenchard that you can peruse by clicking here.

Witnesses – You will need two witnesses to legally marry. If you are inviting a small amount of guests you will need to select two to perform this duty, if it's just you and your partner you may wish to ask the photographer or ourselves at Coombe Trenchard.

Announcement – Decide who you will tell (if anyone) beforehand and how you will be announcing your special news afterwards.

Inspiration – We are long time fans of Love My Dress, a wonderful bridal blog which features beautiful elopements. You may wish to take a peek through their elopement archives for a dash of inspiration.

Contact Coombe Trenchard on 01566 783179 or via sarah@coombetrenchard.co.uk for more information and a chat, we would love to hear your ideas!

The Home & Garden Show 2016

In early June, our normally quiet and serene gardens became a hive of activity. Delightful assortments of plants and flowers were unloaded and carried down to their stalls, stretching out like delicate little rainbows across the lawns. Kettles were boiled, cakes baked and Big Pan Parties delicious creations filled the air with appetite inducing deliciousness. Highly talented local artists, food producers and green fingered folk unpacked their wares and the gates were opened: Coombe Trenchard’s Home & Garden Show 2016 was in full swing.  

Thankfully the weather was humid but dry, warranting one (or two!) trips to the Icicle Ice Cream Tricycle to cool down. Picnic blankets were unrolled and wallets unfurled as the visitors kept on coming. We welcomed over 2,000 people during the whole weekend; an amazing amount of friendly faces, happy smiles and wagging tails keen to discover new additions to their home and gardens.

Coombe Trenchard itself came to life, revelling in so many welcome guests and showcasing just how much our beautiful home has to offer. We overheard innumerable snippets of conversation enthralled with picturing wedding celebrations on the terrace and bridal gowns in the woodland. The atmosphere was happy and content; no doubt in part owing to such a delicious array of treats to savour (we had the best brownie of our lives from Column Bakehouse). Children swooned over The Ark Man’s divine hand carved animals while their mothers sampled The Lavender Lady’s natural treats. Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Visit Dartmoor educated lovely visitors on our precious part of Devon. After picking up advice from our friendly plant suppliers, legs were rested and much needed cups of tea enjoyed. 

Children’s Hospice Southwest were delighted with the funds raised from their tent on the croquet lawn, and received many pledges of support for their Silver Anniversary Tea Party Celebrations. You can find out more and get involved by following this link. 

As 5pm approached, visitors followed the woodland path back to their cars, laden with armfuls of new favourite things. Exhibitors dispersed (with much lighter loads than when they arrived) and we cracked open a well-earned bottle of wine.  

You can watch a slideshow of some images of our wonderful weekend below. 

A huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone that came together to put on such a glorious weekend; exhibitors, staff, guests and their canine companions! There are too many exhibitors to name, but you were all fabulous; your hard work and huge effort is much appreciated.  We’re already looking forward to our next Home & Garden Show, and hope that you can all join us once more.

If you would like to be kept in touch with details of events at Coombe Trenchard please do join our mailing list here

Sarah xx

Let Them Eat Cake.....

Let Them Eat Cake – A Look at Our Recommended Cake Suppliers

What an enjoyable Blog post subject! Over the coming months we will be exploring the different categories of recommended suppliers here at Coombe Trenchard, giving an insight into the handpicked selection of talented folk that we trust to bring our couples wedding dreams to life. The obvious place to start was Cake. 

Currently we recommend two cake makers, both possessing enviable skills and enviable access to their delicious creations. 

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For starters: the delightful Laura at Sugar Mama’s Cakery. Breathing life into world of cake making, Laura channels retro charm and vintage glamour and boasts a flavour menu to tantalise all taste buds. Rising to the challenge to make ‘deliciously different’ cakes, Laura’s creations are bold, unique and stand out from the crowd. Happily, she will be celebrating her own wedding at Coombe Trenchard in September and we are already excited to see her celebratory cake extravaganza! You may remember that we hosted a stunning Spring shoot for Wed Magazine back in April, Sugar Mama’s Bakery was asked to design a cake that fit the fresh, whimsical Spring brief by the lovely ladies at Blue Fizz. It’s no exaggeration to say that the whole team were blown away by the intricate, towering and highly impressive cake that Laura brought along. You will be able to see the full set of images from the shoot in the summer issue of Wed Devon, but for now here’s a sneak preview of Sugar Mama’s talent:

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Kate Burt designs and makes exquisite cakes. Elegant and stylish, these cakes showcase the depth of Kate’s passion and experience.   Relishing creating such an important component of a wedding (and life!), Kate’s favourite cake is always the one she is making at the time. We highly recommend booking as far in advance as possible for one of Kates marvellous creations; she is a lady very much in demand! We are always hugely excited to see a Kate Burt cake here at Coombe Trenchard, she is both lovely and wonderfully talented. 

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Kate Burt cake

image by Lucy Wallace photography

I think it’s time for a cup of tea and a slice of cake; these pictures are making me awfully hungry!

Taking time to appreciate Trees

It's a sad fact that in our fast paced modern world we have little appreciation for a slower pace of life. Granted we might take a holiday to relax for a week or two, but then life takes over again and we rush about at 100mph trying to balance a dozen important things at a time. Compared to our hectic world the life of a tree is incredibly slow and, dare I say, a bit dull. Trees live their years in cycles; in spring new growth is made and often flowers appear, summer is all about making as much food in their leaves as possible (and about ripening their fruits), and then in autumn the leaves are dropped in preparation for winter dormancy. Each year this cycle continues relentlessly.

In early photographs of the garden here at Coombe Trenchard you can clearly see many of the trees that now survive in the woodland garden. They're much smaller, but are already big enough to be classed as a semi-mature woodland. Come forward around 100 years and these trees are the beautiful mature specimens that give the woodland garden its sense of wild, but what have those trees seen? Let's be conservative here and say that they're now 150 years old; when they were saplings rural Devon was predominantly a county of small communities involved in agriculture. Not much will have happened for the first 40-50 years, but then the trees looked on as the ground was made ready for the building of Coombe Trenchard, and then as the house was built and the Sperling family moved in. For generations the trees have quietly looked on over the happy and sad times in the history of the house and the local area, including over the men of the parish going to war not once but twice. From the early motor cars to the first man on the moon, from Edwardian society to the modern world, these trees have been constant.

It's easy to ignore them when you visit the estate, they easily become a backdrop to events etc., and yet when you take a moment to appreciate how long they've been growing you suddenly realise that the environment around the house contributes to the sense of place often commented on at Coombe Trenchard; the house and garden would feel very different without its trees! During the renovation of the woodland many trees had to come down (due to weakness or disease), but it's now hoped that the remaining trees will continue to be an integral part of the history of Coombe Trenchard for generations to come.

Under the trees grows an impressive range of native wildflowers; these are encouraged to thrive as part of the garden rather than being banished in favour of non-native ornamental species. One of the greatest delights of spring is the carpet of pure white 'Wood Anemones' (Anemone nemorosa) that flowers prolifically each March and April, seemingly oblivious to weather! Wood Anemones are often seen in shades of blue (and if you wanted to buy a blue selection I would recommend Anemone nemorosa 'Buckland', a popular Devon selection), but in this part of Devon you often see white ones growing in hedges. We have no way of knowing if the carpet of white Anemones in the woodland garden arrived naturally or was dug from a hedgerow, but they have happily naturalised and become a delightful highlight of the gardening year. (Please note that it is now a criminal offence to remove wildflowers, no matter how prolific they might be, from hedgerows and other 'wild' places!)

Balancing nature with a cultivated garden can be quite a demanding job, as Coombe Trenchard's gardeners will tell you! Given half a chance nature will take control, and the wildflowers in the woodland garden will get swamped by more aggressive species such as brambles, as well as saplings from the trees. The wildflowers themselves can also become weeds if they travel too far and get into the cultivated borders, so a balance is constantly struck between allowing nature to thrive but also keeping a degree of control! Happily the garden and 'wild wood' thrive side by side and blend seamlessly around the stream the runs through the estate.

To read more from Ben, have a look at Pen & Trowel

May blog from Nikki, our 'Real Wedding Blogger'

Gosh I can’t believe its May already! People are always telling me that even though we’re not getting married till next year the time will fly by … and they’re not wrong!.

I’m happy to say though that we have got so much done since my last blog post and since we booked Coombe Trenchard back in January. 

As I mentioned before I was conscious that because we were getting married on a bank holiday that in order to secure the suppliers we really wanted that we should get things organised quickly … especially as we were moving house as well this year.

So since we last spoke we have booked our photographer, our catering, entertainment, florist and cake designer. 

One of the most fun parts so far has been picking out entertainment! Me and Ant met at a festival so music was always going to be an important part of the day. We got a recommendation from a fellow wedding stationer for a band down in Plymouth so headed down there in February to see them at a gig. We were planning on seeing a few other bands before making a decision but they totally blew us away! They were absolutely perfect for our wedding with lots of Indie / Rock classics which I know are going to have at least me and Ant up dancing … if perhaps not some of the older guests! But our feeling is this is our wedding and we just can’t stand the thought of music we hate being played just so we cater to everyone.

The other exciting thing was sending out our Save the Dates! As a wedding stationer designing something for myself turned out to be pretty nerve wracking … although also massive fun! I sort of treated it as though it was a brief from a bespoke client and tried to encapsulate our characters and liked in the style of the stationery.

We decided fairly early on of a colour scheme of Navy, Blush, Dark Pink and Ivory – with hints of dark green foliage. I also find it best to not just pick one or two colours for a colour scheme as it can start to look a bit too ‘matchy’ and quite dated – so a range of colours which blend well together was always the aim. We’re both love Navy ( our new lounge is being painted this colour! ) but I also love florals and ferns so wanted to include a botanical element.

We also want the wedding to be fun and light hearted and really wanted to incorporate some of our geekier side so the wording of the Save the Date cards relates to how we met and our love of Star Wars and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – and I couldn’t help myself but include some very small Stormtrooper helmets in with the floral motifs on the pink envelope liner!

Sending out the Save the Dates I was really nervous but everyone seemed to like them – even though not everyone got the geeky references! I’ve already started to think about the design of the invitations so that will keep me occupied for a while!

In the meantime we’ve just moved house in to a bit of a renovation project so I’m really glad that we have all the big things booked for the wedding and we can relax and concentrate on the house for a few months and look forward to our Engagement Shoot with our photographer Clare Kinchin later in May.

Nikki x