Home-Like Wedding: Guesthouses and B and Bs in Mountains

If you'd like to be married at home but can't bear the idea of getting the place – house and garden - ready for guests, the catering and the cleaning up – you might consider having your wedding in a place like home such as a guesthouse or a “Bed and Breakfast”.. I've done some really lovely, personal and relaxed weddings in properties like this. The mountains are scattered with them. Depending how tourism describes them these properties invite you to make yourself at home with every luxury appointment at your fingertips.

Sometimes the owners are in residence and hang around in the background, but often couples I have married have hired a country cottage, complete with fireplace in autumn or newly-blooming garden in spring, and move in for the weekend. Some of these weddings have been very small and intimate – just the couple and their witnesses, and they have self-catered and settled in for a weekend getaway. In places with a number of bedrooms, couples have organized a big weekend party for family and friends, brought in caterers and even a band.

In any case, they had the run of the venue with kitchen, lounge areas, bathrooms, outdoor terraces … every comfort of home but with no preparation or cleaning up! Just the joy of breezing in as two people and out as a married couple with all their favourite people in attendance. Places such as Avonleigh, The Glenella, The Little Company Retreat, The Hideaway, Kubba Roonga, Balquhain, The Chalet are all guesthouses I conducted weddings in when I first started – and they are still going strong. Recently I've been impressed by the grace and charm of Silvermere at Wentworth Falls and the remoteness and breathtaking views of Allview Escape at Blackheath – both quite different from each other, depending on the number and taste of your guests.