I’ve been keeping a little secret from all of you over here.

Well, it was a secret (I think?).

It obviously isn’t very much of a secret now that you’ve read the title of this blogpost. Also, you probably know me in person, so this isn’t a secret for you, either.

But, well, last year (yep, a whole year ago) we got married!

Woo! Clap-Clap! And another woohoo from the back!

Yeah, we got married last August whilst in Devon.

It was a hush-hush event, with only 12 close-friends there to enjoy the day with, and no family (which is sad, but you know, these things happen) and we did it on the real (and I mean, real) cheap-side. I’ll probably talk more about this on another post, because right now, all I want to do is remember my wedding day and remember how good it felt to stand on top of Dartmoor, wind blowing through my hair, wearing my wedding dress (more on that later).

I guess you wouldn’t call what we had a ‘normal’ wedding. I mean, I’m not even sure what a ‘normal’ wedding is, but I don’t think what we had was it? There wasn’t a band, no ‘first-dance’, no speeches or videographer or caterer or florist or… woah, we didn’t really have a lot. I literally didn’t notice at all though! I’ll admit, I didn’t really think about what we needed and what was missing. Like, I was only asked a few days beforehand whether my bridesmaids would have bouquets. Do they usually have bouquets?! Crazy.

I didn’t think about what we needed because all we needed was a place to get married, right? To be legally married, that is. Anything before or after that was just for fun, so that’s how we planned our wedding – around things we found fun, and what we wanted to do. It was amazing because I just wasn’t stressed in the slightest. I had no bills looming over me, nothing that could go really, terribly wrong during the day, and because of my amazing friends and my amazing new husband, I had the best day ever, and I personally didn’t even notice that I had no caterer and no band and no florist.

That’s why elopements are amazing.

If you’re personally thinking about having a Devon wedding next year, I would 100% recommend. You’ll have the beautiful countryside as your backdrop, everyone is super-amazing and super-friendly, and it’s just the perfect place to begin your married life.  

My wedding day (which still seems surreal to say, even after a year) was like me and Brad personified. We had the walking, we had the wildlife, we had biscuits and tea and we had fun. With lots of food. And a whole camembert? Yes, please!

What would a wedding be without cheese, eh?

Our Wedding Day

So, I thought it would be quite fun to reminisce on our day a year on, and see what I remember, and just wallow in the happiness and all the photos of our day.

It probably sounds mad, but I still haven’t properly gone through all our photos. Where we didn’t have an official photographer, we had my buddy Meg who took some awesome shots and we asked everyone to take pictures and then share them in a google folder. We also had some disposable cameras thrown into the mix which I still haven’t gotten around to developing whoops!

I mean, at least I’ll have some photo-surprises to last me a good couple of years at this rate.

The Venue

We got married at Cockington Court in the small town of Cockington in Torbay, Devon.

I cannot say this enough: This place is GEORGEOUS.

We literally googled the most beautiful registry offices in Devon and this one was by far the most pretty, so we just had to get married here.

Set amongst the beautiful Cockington Court Park, which is part of the UNESCO English Riviera (this made us chuckle, too) you won’t find a registry office with such an amazing setting. It had the lush green sweeping fields, the tall, dark trees blowing lazily in the summer breeze. It had a rose-garden courtyard and a church. That’s right, an old church.

It even had a miniature graveyard which I was chuffed about.

SO BEAUTIFUL. And the staff were so amazing and friendly. For example, I said I was scared of saying the vows wrong, so they said them extra-slowly for me which was just perfect.

Just one word of warning though: you will have to drive down some seriously narrow Devon roads. Take a deep breath and you’ll get through it, but seriously, super-scary.

Lunch

After the ceremony, we had a delightful pizza lunch at The One Tun Pub, just around the corner from the registry office, and within walking distance.

We’d booked this a few days in advance, so we were able to have all the food ready for when we arrived, with a beautiful long table set-up. Once again, amazingly friendly staff that didn’t mind we were a bit loud and rambunctious. I would recommend something simple like this after the wedding as it’s just easy and relatively stress-free.

And we had pizza (and chips) on our wedding day, need I say more?

Dartmoor Walks

Now, you probably wouldn’t expect a bride on her wedding day to be completely happy getting her dress muddy. Well, this one did. And this one thoroughly enjoyed it.

After lunch, we headed to Dartmoor where we climbed, walked, and marvelled at the glorious scenery.

How could we not spend our wedding day here? We both love the wild, unkept nature of the park, and enjoyed every moment spent here.

Evening Meal

After walking the Moors and exploring and adventuring, after we had headed home for some much needed hobnobs and tea, we all met-up again at our local pub to have the BEST meal ever.

Queue the camembert, the mussels, the WINE.

We also played a very loud, and very daring game of Cards Against Humanity. I don’t think the locals very much enjoyed that (whoops).

This seriously was the best day ever. We didn’t really plan anything, just had a loose idea of what we wanted to do, and then just went with the flow. Why stress when there’s nice weather and good people and the wine is flowing?

Stress-free and fun: the perfect Devon wedding.

Let me know if you’re thinking about eloping – all I can say is be brave and just do it!

Literally, there’s nothing I would change about our wedding day, apart from maybe some more cheese.

Until tomorrow.