Venue of the week: St Giles House, Dorset

The drive up to St Giles House in Dorset
Credit: Orange Photographie

If you're on the hunt for a one-of-a-kind backdrop for your big day, this ancestral home in the Dorset countryside is hard to beat. A labour of love, the historic landmark has been sensitively restored, breathing new life into the historic building. Be prepared for plenty of stop-stare moments from the instant you arrive and catch your first glimpse of the place.

Set in beautiful private parkland, surrounded by an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the award-winning venue sits in perfect harmony with the natural landscape. Grand, yet intimate and inviting, think sumptuous interiors, marble fireplaces and ancient leather-bound books.

The house has been in the same family since the 15th century and has evolved over the generations to the treasure it is today. Licensed for ceremonies for up to 120 guests, you can take your pick from a number of fabulous rooms, all beautifully decorated or Wimborne St.Giles Church is just next door. Celebrate afterwards and enjoy the run of all the main rooms for the reception, spill out on to the terrace and make the most of the glorious garden.

The library, with velvet-lined walls and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, is ideal for the wedding breakfast and, come the evening, you can party the night away with up to 200 friends and family in the venue's award-winning basement club, complete with state-of-the-art light and sound system.

There's luxury on-site accommodation in the 17th-century stables; perfect for staying the night before and after the wedding. What's more, as the icing on the cake, the family's 1947 DE36 Daimler car is available to hire too – how's that for a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity?

Long table dressed for a wedding at St Giles House, Dorset Credit: Taylor & Porter

You may also be interested in

New app launches to simplify one of marriage’s biggest admin headaches

New app launches to simplify one of marriage’s biggest admin headaches

Changing your name after marriage can mean updating details with countless organisations, from banks and subscriptions to official documents and employers. New app Name Change Navigator aims to make the process easier, guiding newlyweds through each step from one platform. Founded by Rebecca Dainton, Head of Product at Flutter UK & Ireland, the app was created to reduce the stress and mental load associated with name changes. It supports a range of naming journeys, including traditional surname changes, double-barrelling, blended surnames and other choices following marriage, civil partnership, divorce or personal identity changes. The launch comes as younger generations increasingly rethink traditional naming conventions, with technology offering a more streamlined approach to this often-overlooked part of newlywed life.

READ ARTICLE

Flawsome! reveals 81% of Brits say weddings don't need to be perfect to be memorable 

Flawsome! reveals 81% of Brits say weddings don't need to be perfect to be memorable 

Growing frustration with wedding perfection culture is reshaping how couples plan their big day, with sustainability, guest experience and authenticity becoming increasingly important, according to new research from Flawsome!. A national study of 2,000 UK adults found that 81% believe a wedding does not need to be perfect to be memorable, while 71% say social media has increased pressure on couples to create a "perfect" day. Sustainability is also becoming a key consideration, with 52% saying it is important when planning a wedding. Yet wedding waste remains widespread, with 41% of respondents having seen food and drink thrown away at weddings, while 32% recalled single-use decorations being discarded and more than a quarter had seen flowers go to waste.

READ ARTICLE

Something borrowed, something blue’ is out – but 1 in 4 Brits still value wedding cards

Something borrowed, something blue’ is out – but 1 in 4 Brits still value wedding cards

New research from Moonpig reveals the top wedding card writing confessions. A whopping 30% of Brits admit to defaulting to a safe "congratulations!" because they simply can't think of anything else to say. This is followed by recycling the same message for different couples (11%) and signing a card without knowing what your partner has written (8%). What's more, when stuck for words, one in 10 (8%) admit to turning to AI for inspiration - this rises to one in seven (14%) among 25–34-year-olds. Brits are not alone in facing this wedding card conundrum. More than half of Brits (55%) admit they have struggled with at least one aspect of wedding message writing. Nearly one in four find wedding cards (23%) or guest-book messages (24%) difficult, while one in five (20%) hit writer's block when preparing the all-important wedding speech.

READ ARTICLE

The YouGov Big Survey on Weddings

The YouGov Big Survey on Weddings

The journey that begins with "will you marry me" and ends with "I do" transforms a couple's lives in multiple ways, but it also involves a huge number of decisions, as planning a wedding is no mean feat. Every guest will have an opinion on what a wedding should be like: from what's classy and tacky, to which traditions should be followed and which can be discarded. To help prospective couples get a grip on what these potential guests hope to see in a wedding, YouGov's new Big Survey on Weddings examines all these key debates about what should and shouldn't feature on the big day, including looking at the decisions that brides and grooms would make themselves. The study is part a Big Surveys project: a series of in-depth surveys on British society. It was conducted between 7-9 August 2026, with a sample of 1,784 adults in the UK aged 18 and above.

READ ARTICLE

Submit your wedding to be featured in Your Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine

VISIT SITE

Subscribe to Your Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine for free

VISIT SITE

Follow Your Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine on Instagram

VISIT SITE

Follow Your Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine on Facebook

VISIT SITE