Did you know that the average cost of a UK wedding has now topped more than £18,500!! And a rate rise from the Church of England will see 40% added to the cost of church weddings from Janaury next year. Because of this, it seems that more and more couples are opting for destination weddings - in fact according to a recent study more than a third of couples have booked a wedding abroad this year. That means that 80,000 Brits will shun the UK in favour of a foreign wedding. We think we have some amazing UK venues here on the site but if you are tempted to take flight you might like to know that Italy is the most popular destination!  We've got two 

Last week we told you about Villa Cernobbio, and this is another beautiful venue from Class Venues Service. This offers you the historic beauty of a private villa but with the services offered by a small hotel.  There are 32 rooms that could accomodate up to 75 of your wedding guests - image the weekend you have!! Like Villa Cernobbio, the terraces offer panormaic views of the lake and you can have a civil ceremony on one of them, or alternatively there is a little church only 200 metres from the villa. If the weather is fine (which of course it mostly is!) you can have the whole ceremony outside.  In case of bad weather there are two really elegant internal halls.

We are so excited about this new addition to our venue portfolio! Villa Cernobbio is an amazing private villa dating from the 16th century, sitting on the shores of Lake Como - and we cannot imagine a more romantic place to have a wedding.  The villa is situated directly on the lakeshore with a panoramic view, and also offers several different terraces which you could use for both a romantic symbolic ceremony and your reception.  As well as the lake the villa has its own beautiful garden with baroque fountains.  This venue is part of Class Venues Service, based in Italy, 

Here's another lovely image of Holly and Chris at their Italian wedding in Castellabate.  Images by Tony at http://www.docuwedding.co.uk/ or call 07828 608 869