Set on the hillside above Sidmouth seafront, the gardens overlook the town and the sea, with beautiful views along the Jurassic Coast. You’re surrounded by lawns, mature planting and colourful gardens, but just beyond them is the sea.
And that’s what makes Connaught Gardens such an unusual wedding setting.
A wedding ceremony in the gardens
Connaught Gardens is managed by East Devon District Council, which hosts a limited number of wedding ceremonies here each year.
It’s not a conventional wedding venue that you have exclusively for the whole day. Instead, a designated area of the gardens is used for the ceremony, while the rest of Connaught Gardens remains open to the public.
The Sunken Garden has been used for wedding ceremonies, creating a beautiful natural setting surrounded by the gardens and with the coast just beyond.
East Devon’s events team manages the weddings, including setting up the ceremony area and making sure everything runs smoothly on the day. The council currently limits the number of weddings held here each year, which makes it a fairly special opportunity.
And there is something rather charming about getting married somewhere where your guests aren’t necessarily the only people watching.
Yes, people really do stop and watch!
When I conducted Lisa and James’ wedding at Connaught Gardens, I spent quite a lot of time chatting to members of the public who wanted to know what was going on.
It’s hardly surprising.
You’re sitting in one of Sidmouth’s most beautiful public gardens and suddenly there’s a flurry of activity happening in front of you.
The council’s own reports describe how members of the public watched previous weddings from the surrounding gardens, with some even stopping to take photographs.
If you don’t mind sharing your special moment with a few curious onlookers, Connaught Gardens has a wonderfully open and relaxed atmosphere.
And then there’s the view
The gardens themselves make a gorgeous backdrop for photographs.
I’ve made my own children pose for far too many photos here on family days out, so I know the gardens pretty well!
But walk just a few steps beyond the gardens and you get those sweeping views across Sidmouth and the Jurassic Coast.
For wedding photographs, it’s hard to beat having colourful gardens, the Regency seaside town and the sea all within a few minutes’ walk of each other.
Getting married in Sidmouth
Connaught Gardens sits just above Sidmouth seafront in East Devon, making it an excellent choice if you want a wedding with a strong sense of place.
Sidmouth itself gives you plenty of options for accommodation, restaurants and places for guests to explore, while Exeter, Honiton, Exmouth and Seaton are all within easy reach.
It’s particularly lovely for a wedding where you want guests to make a weekend of it rather than simply arrive, attend the ceremony and disappear home.
A few things to know
Because Connaught Gardens is a public garden rather than a private wedding venue, there are some important differences to a traditional wedding venue.
The weddings are ceremonies rather than full wedding receptions, and the council manages the event to minimise disruption to other visitors. Its current arrangements include staff on site and restrictions on things such as amplified music.
That means you’ll need to think about where your reception will take place afterwards – but it also gives you the freedom to have your ceremony somewhere genuinely beautiful and then continue your celebrations elsewhere in Sidmouth.
And personally, I rather like the idea of that.
A beautiful seaside ceremony, photographs around the gardens and along the seafront, followed by lunch, dinner or a party somewhere else in town.
Connaught Gardens is one of those locations where you don’t need to manufacture atmosphere.
The gardens, the sea, the views and the fact that you’re getting married in the middle of Sidmouth all do quite a lot of the work for you.
