Clevedon Hall

The Orangery at Clevedon Hall has glass overhead and tall windows down both sides, which makes it an easy room to work in. The ceremony runs on soft even light, and a grey Somerset afternoon costs you nothing. Walk through into the panelled library for dinner and it’s the opposite: dark wood, bookshelves, warm and close, which gives your speeches a completely different feel to the vows. We’d spend the time outside. The lawns roll away with the house behind you, there’s a lake with a small island and a white ornamental bridge over it for the quiet couple frames, a wildflower meadow by the willows, and a rope swing tucked under the trees that couples always end up on. The main entrance and its stone columns hold every guest with the building framing them. Mornings are unhurried in big classic bedrooms with plenty of daylight. Then go back out after sunset, because the front floodlights and the arched windows glow, and the two of you against that is worth the ten minutes it costs.