A colourful countryside celebration, beautifully planned from New Zealand.

"As we started looking for more inspiration, we were drawn to wedding images that had lots of colour including big, bold flowers, coloured tablecloths and candles. The more colour, the better! Our love of colour was helped by choosing a summer wedding date, knowing that Crockwell’s wildflowers would hopefully be out in full force."

When asked what their standout moment of the day was, Sophie and Hugh replied "for both of us, it was the ceremony. We worried it would be overly emotional for a few reasons." Sophie lost her Dad six years ago, and her Mum was walking her down the aisle. "Alongside that, we live in New Zealand – Sophie is British and Hugh is a Kiwi – so this was the first time we’d ever had all of our loved ones on the same continent, let alone in the same room.

It was incredibly special. In fact, it was our favourite part of the day. We got to say our vows and become husband and wife in front of the people who mean the world to us, many of whom we don’t get to see on a daily basis anymore. Having everyone there to share that moment with us is something we’ll never forget.

And, of course, the dance floor! After all the emotion of the ceremony and speeches, it was so much fun to let loose and have everyone dancing together. Seeing the dance floor packed with all our friends and family was pretty special too."

When the couple were asked why they chose Crockwell, they replied "when Sophie’s sister got married, her venue also hosted a night-before stay and celebrations. It meant so much to us to have that extra time together, so we weren’t even going to consider a venue that wouldn’t allow us to do the same. We wanted as long as physically possible with our families to celebrate this special time.

We also wanted to make things as easy as possible logistically, especially for those flying from the other side of the world. Everyone had somewhere to stay, we had young nieces and nephews and wanted to make life as easy as possible for those with young children, and we wanted a smooth and easy morning on the wedding day without having to move between locations while getting ready. Crockwell allows for all of this.

So while the venue is stunning, it was actually a very practical reason that made us choose it – the fact that it’s stunning just made it a very easy choice! It then made it even better that the team at Crockwell are masters at organising a wedding. We had such a calm, smooth and easy experience planning the wedding with them. I loved that we could email the Crockwell team, go to bed in New Zealand and wake up the next morning to a reply!

We also noticed from looking at other Crockwell featured weddings that you could completely transform the space however you liked. We saw everything from small, intimate weddings to rustic and monochromatic weddings, which gave us the confidence that we could make the space our own."