If you're looking for a wedding venue where you can gather everyone together for an entire weekend, make the place your own and celebrate without being rushed out the door at midnight, Knowle Manor is well worth a look.
Set within 150 acres on Exmoor, near Dunster, Knowle Manor is an exclusive-use country house with plenty of character, beautiful grounds and, importantly, lots of flexibility. It's grand enough to feel special, but it doesn't have the slightly intimidating, overly formal feel that some manor house wedding venues can have.
I recently photographed a wedding at Knowle Manor and, having spent the day wandering around the house and grounds with my camera, I can see why it works so well for a wedding.
Why choose Knowle Manor for your wedding?
One of the biggest appeals of Knowle Manor is that you're not just hiring a venue for the day.
The house can be hired for an entire weekend, with exclusive use from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon for a standard two-night weekend. That means you can turn your wedding into more of a proper gathering, rather than trying to squeeze everything into one day.
The house sleeps up to 50 guests across 20 bedrooms, so you can have your closest family and friends staying with you too.
That makes a huge difference to the feel of a wedding weekend. There's time for everyone to arrive, settle in and catch up on the Friday evening before the wedding itself. And, rather than everyone disappearing straight after the party, you're still together the following morning.
There are also plenty of spaces within the house to make use of throughout the weekend, including several reception rooms, a bar room, games room and an indoor swimming pool.
You have plenty of freedom to make the wedding your own
Knowle Manor will particularly appeal to couples who don't want a completely packaged wedding.
The venue has a large, well-equipped semi-commercial kitchen and welcomes outside caterers, giving you more freedom when choosing the food for your wedding.
This can be especially useful if food is an important part of your wedding plans. Rather than being limited to one in-house catering team and a set menu, you can find caterers that suit you and the kind of day you're planning.
Whether that's a formal wedding breakfast, sharing food, a feast-style meal or something a bit more relaxed, having the flexibility to choose your own suppliers gives you more control over the day.
It's worth checking the venue's current wedding information when planning, but this flexibility is one of the things that makes Knowle Manor particularly attractive for couples who want to create a wedding that feels like theirs.
Indoor and outdoor ceremony options
Another really useful thing about Knowle Manor is the choice of ceremony locations.
The Manor is licensed for civil ceremonies in the Drawing Room and the Palm House, with outdoor ceremony options in the grounds too. The Gazebo and gardens can also be used for ceremonies, while couples can choose a church wedding, blessing or humanist ceremony in the grounds.
So, whether you're imagining an elegant indoor ceremony or would prefer to get married outside surrounded by the Exmoor countryside, there are options.
The Drawing Room is licensed for up to 60 guests, while the Palm House can accommodate up to 120 for a ceremony.
And, because this is England and the weather likes to keep us on our toes, having a beautiful indoor option alongside the outdoor spaces is always reassuring.
The Palm House
For larger celebrations, the Palm House is available to hire in addition to the main house.
It provides a dedicated space for the wedding celebrations and can accommodate up to 120 guests.
It's a particularly useful addition to the Manor because it gives you a larger space for the main part of the celebration, while the house itself remains somewhere guests can relax, explore and spend time together.
One of the things I liked when photographing at Knowle Manor was that the wedding didn't feel as though everything had to happen in one room.
There are different spaces for different parts of the day, which helps the day naturally move along and gives guests somewhere to go and something to explore.
A wedding weekend, rather than just a wedding day
For me, this is probably one of the biggest reasons to consider Knowle Manor.
Having the venue for the weekend gives you the opportunity to make more of the time with the people you've invited.
You could have a relaxed meal on Friday night as everyone arrives, spend the Saturday celebrating your wedding and then wake up together the following morning.
The house itself is set up for groups, with accommodation for 50 guests and enough communal space for everyone to spend time together.
This makes Knowle Manor particularly good for couples who have guests travelling from different parts of the country, or for anyone who wants their wedding to feel more like a big house party than a traditional one-day event.
Knowle Manor from a wedding photographer's perspective
I've photographed at plenty of beautiful venues, but the thing that makes a venue particularly good for photography isn't always just how impressive it looks.
It's about light, variety and how easily you can move around during the day.
Knowle Manor has all three.
The Palm House has beautiful light
One of my favourite spaces at Knowle Manor is the Palm House conservatory.
It's bright and full of natural light, which makes it a brilliant space for photographs. Whether you're using it as part of the wedding celebrations or simply wandering through it during the day, it's one of those rooms that works beautifully on camera.
Natural light makes such a difference to photographs, particularly when you're indoors, and this is definitely one of those spaces I'd be happy to spend plenty of time photographing in.
There are lots of different spaces to photograph
Knowle Manor isn't a venue where you're limited to one obvious spot for photographs.
There are the grand rooms inside the house, the lighter conservatory Palm House, the gardens and the surrounding countryside.
This variety is great from a photography point of view because it means your photographs don't all look the same.
You can have a few portraits surrounded by the grandeur of the house and then walk outside for something completely different.
It also means that if the weather isn't playing ball, there are still plenty of interesting places to photograph indoors.
The rural surroundings are perfect for couple photos
Knowle Manor is surrounded by some seriously beautiful countryside.
The estate sits within Exmoor National Park, with lakes, woodland and views towards the surrounding forests and moors. The River Avill also runs through the grounds.
For couples who don't want to spend ages posing for photographs, this is ideal.
You don't need an elaborate photoshoot. We can simply take a short walk away from everyone for ten or fifteen minutes, have a breather and make the most of the surroundings.
The grounds give you plenty of options without needing to travel anywhere, which means you're not disappearing from your own wedding for hours.
And, as the light changes later in the day, there are even more opportunities for some relaxed couple photos.
Grand, but not stuffy
This is probably the best way I can describe Knowle Manor.
It's an impressive house. There are grand rooms, beautiful grounds and plenty of history and character.
But it doesn't feel like a venue where you have to have a particularly formal wedding to fit in.
You could have a beautifully styled, elegant celebration here, but you could also fill the house with friends and family, bring in your own caterers and make it feel like a very special version of a big weekend away.
That combination is what I really like about it.
You get the grandeur of a country house wedding without feeling as though your wedding has to be overly formal or follow a particular template.
Is Knowle Manor right for your wedding?
Knowle Manor could be a brilliant choice if you're looking for:
An exclusive-use wedding venue
A wedding weekend rather than just a one-day celebration
Accommodation for your family and friends
Indoor and outdoor ceremony options
Flexibility with your wedding suppliers
The option to use your own caterers
A large country house with plenty of different spaces
Beautiful rural surroundings for photographs
A venue that feels grand but still relaxed and welcoming
It's especially suited to couples who want to spend proper time with their guests and create a wedding weekend that feels personal to them.
Planning a wedding at Knowle Manor?
I recently photographed a wedding at Knowle Manor and would love to go back.
It's a fantastic venue for natural, relaxed wedding photography, with loads of variety throughout the day — from the light-filled conservatory and characterful rooms inside to the beautiful Exmoor surroundings outside.
If you're planning your wedding at Knowle Manor and are looking for a photographer who'll capture the day as it actually happens, while making the most of all those brilliant spaces, I'd love to hear about your plans.
