which kinda wedding?
A wedding timeline is how things run on the day, what time things happen. In this blog post I’m talking about our elopement timeline.
As you know we run 3 different kinds of weddings here and they each have a different timeline. Some things are set and some things aren’t and those things are different for each type of wedding.
The skinny on our 3 different types of wedding: we hold summer Saturday weddings from May to September for a maximum of 120 guests.
Next we hold midi mid-week weddings (MMW’s) which are on Wednesdays only from May to September for up to 20 day guests and extra evening guests.
And finally we’ve got our winter elopement weddings which are from October through to April on Tuesdays and Thursdays for up to 8 guests. (We also do 5 summer elopements on Wednesdays, one a month from May to September but let’s not complicate things too much).
elopement ceremony
The major difference for our elopement timeline is the ceremony time. It’s the same time whether the elopement is in the summer or the winter – it’s midday.
That gives you time to get up, have breakfast, have hair and make up done (if you’re having them, don’t forget that’s an optional extra), meet the Registrars 30 mins before the ceremony and have some getting ready photos with Clare our photographer.
We’ll be there to co-ordinate everything on the day so you don’t need to worry about a thing. We’ll help you with your dress if you need it and let you know where you need to be and when.
elopement guests
Some of our elopement couples have guests, some don’t. Lots of our elopement weddings are just the couple getting married with no guests at all. If you haven’t got guests, we take care of providing witnesses for your ceremony, it’s generally a member of staff and Clare the photographer – sorted!
If you’ve got guests at your elopement, they generally arrive about 10-15 mins before your wedding ceremony so they’ve got time to take their seats before the ceremony starts at midday.
elopement timeline
here’s a copy of our elopement timeline which you’ll find in the super handy elopement manual which all our couples get when they book their elopement wedding with us.
After the ceremony (which takes 20 mins to 30 mins), we pop the champagne corks and you get a few minutes to relax and realise YOU’RE MARRIED!! Then you go out with Clare for photos around the venue. Even if you hate having your photo taken, Clare will make it all feel super relaxed. Go with it!
When you’re back from your photos, canapés are served and you’ll sit down to your wedding breakfast (no not the bacon & eggs kinda breakfast – this is your first meal as a married couple so it’s breakfast. Make sense? No, me neither but that’s what it’s called).
After you’re done with the wedding breakfast, the staff will change over the space and set up the lounging furniture, make sure the fire’s stoked up, set you up with your mezze platter and wedding cake for evening food plus tea & coffee and your drinks. Then they leave. Yep you get the whole place to yourselves for the evening. The lovely S and I live on site so we’re here if you need us but we leave you alone and just ask you to text us when you go to the honeymoon cottage so we can go down and turn the lights off and blow out the candles when you’ve gone. Sound good? Yeah.
elopement curfew
What time does it finish on the day? With our elopement weddings (unlike the MMW and the summer Saturdays where there is a curfew), there’s no curfew for the elopement weddings. So long as we can’t hear any noise from the house after 11pm, you can stay on the terrace as long as you like. Couples usually bring music, maybe some board games and cosy up in front of the fire. You can go back to the honeymoon cottage at any time, you’ve got a woodburner there so you’ll be super cosy there too.
So that’s it, a day completely to yourselves, being looked after and then being left alone. Check out is 11am the following day so you’ve got plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast from the ingredients we leave in your fridge. Whether you’re going the whole hog of full English (or veggie version), home made muesli with berries and yoghurt or pastries and real coffee – we’ve got you covered. You can have breakfast on your private deck in the honeymoon cottage or just throw open the curtains in the bedroom and have breakfast in bed, looking out over the gardens. Perfect peace and privacy in our little corner of Dartmoor.
return trip?
And if you’ve loved your time with us, then we’d love to see you back here! We only let out the honeymoon cottage to couples getting married or who got married with us. Yep we like to keep it exclusive. And we love to welcome back our couples for an anniversary stay. We have to arrange anniversary stays around our weddings so you can see the dates are pretty limited. Ever After is a special place not just for us as our home but for all the couples who get married here and leave a little bit of their heart here.
You can see more of our real elopement weddings over on the gallery.
If you want to download our elopement brochure with all the prices, pop over to the download page.
If this elopement timeline sounds like your kinda wedding, drop me an email and let me know which year you’re looking at and I’ll let you know which dates we’ve got left. You’ll reach me at [email protected]
