These are the venues I work with directly, across the Garden Route and into the Overberg, with two further afield for couples whose wedding forms part of a longer stay in southern Africa. I also work in other settings where couples prefer one, and those who arrive with a place of their own in mind are just as welcome. Wherever the wedding takes place, I liaise directly with those who run it on the day's coordination.
Garden Route: for a close celebration
For couples who want their wedding kept close: family gathered, old friendships honoured, and nothing asked of the day beyond what it truly needs. Walkers Beach for its place on the water and the art within its walls; the Villa at Kurland for a private house given over to one wedding; Ashford for a working farm with a cricket oval at its heart; Hunter's for a chapel set so deep in the forest that the trees become its only frame.
Walkers Beach, Plettenberg Bay
Walkers Beach rises from a stone ridge above Central Beach, with Formosa Peak on one side and the Robberg Peninsula on the other. Built by Howard Walker to a design by the architect Wessel van Dyk, it carries a Modern Greek sensibility in its clean lines and the light that moves through it. A wedding here takes the whole property, all eleven sea-facing suites, so everyone who stays the night is family or an old friend. The art rewards a slower look: two works by William Kentridge, two sculptures by Dylan Lewis.
The Villa at Kurland is a private house rather than a hotel, with five bedrooms, a pool beneath ivy-clad walls, and the particular ease of a home borrowed for the weekend. It suits a wedding that would sooner feel like a family gathering than an occasion staged for guests. Numbers are discussed directly with Carón.
Ashford is a two-hundred-hectare macadamia farm in the hills above Robberg Beach, a short drive from the centre of Plettenberg Bay, and its clubhouse looks out over a cricket oval. A ceremony can take place in the pecan orchard before the celebration moves to the clubhouse and its northern verandah, strung with festoon lights, or out onto an extended deck beneath a marquee. Ashford is venue hire only, so the day is held by the couple's own planner, which is exactly where Carón comes in. Two self-catering cottages on the farm take guests for a minimum of two nights: Cottage of Content, with its outdoor bath beneath a coral tree, suits the couple themselves, while Frogmore Cottage, with its stoep, large lawn and cosy back verandah, offers room for family or friends. The clubhouse closes from June to September each year.
Hunter's Country House, between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay
Hunter's Country House lies some ten kilometres from the bay and twenty from Knysna, held between the Tsitsikamma mountains and the indigenous forest that gives the estate its name. Its Chapel in the Forest sets the ceremony behind floor-to-ceiling glass, looking straight into the trees. Afterwards, a choice of reception spaces follows the size and mood of the day, and thatched suites across five categories, some with their own plunge pool, keep the wedding party close.
Further along the coast, in the Overberg, three venues meet the same standard: working properties rather than private estates, each chosen for a reason of its own. Wildekrans for the farm that surrounds the wedding, old ivy and new glass side by side; Arabella for the lagoon and fynbos of the Kogelberg Biosphere; Moya's Vineyard for a small wedding among the vines of the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.
Wildekrans Wine Estate, Bot River
Wildekrans farms a thousand hectares of the Bot River valley, its vineyards giving way to hills of renosterveld, some twenty minutes from Hermanus. The older, ivy-covered buildings lend themselves to a small, close wedding, whether in the chapel, the cellar, or on the lawns above the vines. A marquee on the grounds allows the day to grow when it calls for more, and Harmonie, a newer glass-walled addition, offers a more contemporary setting again. Nine self-catering cottages keep the wedding party on the farm itself.
Arabella lies on the Bot River lagoon within the Kogelberg Biosphere, its championship golf course laid out by Peter Matkovich along the water's edge. The fynbos that surrounds it, among the most botanically diverse on earth, gives the setting its particular character, and ten venues across the hotel allow each wedding to find its own place. It is a working hotel rather than a private estate, so the grounds are shared with other guests, golfers among them.
Surrounded by vines, olive groves and lush gardens, Moya's Vineyard in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley is just a short drive from the beautiful coastal town, Hermanus. From the farmhouse veranda, the land opens towards the Babilonstoring mountains, with the coast at Hangklip in the far distance. It suits an intimate wedding: long tables in the open air, a farmhouse and a barn to stay in, and the unhurried quiet of a working vineyard.
The Cellars-Hohenort, The Marine, and The Plettenberg were each shaped by the late Liz McGrath, and between them they cover three quite different corners of the country: the Constantia winelands above Cape Town, the Overberg coast at Hermanus, and the Garden Route itself.
The Cellars-Hohenort, Constantia, Cape Town
Set in the Constantia wine valley on the slopes of Table Mountain, twenty minutes from Cape Town International, The Cellars-Hohenort holds its ceremonies beneath the Palm Arch, hidden among old trees with the mountain still in view. The reception moves to the Greenhouse. For couples arriving from abroad, it makes a natural first stop before the Garden Route. Holds One MICHELIN Key, retained in the MICHELIN Guide 2026.
The Marine stands on the cliffs above Walker Bay, so close to the water that whales pass beneath the rooms between June and December. Weddings here are small and intimate: the sheltered inner courtyard suits a close ceremony, and the rest of the day follows its lead. Forty individually decorated suites allow the wedding party to stay together under one roof. Included in the MICHELIN Guide Hotel Selection 2026.
The Plettenberg stands on its own headland in Plettenberg Bay, above Lookout Beach. Its settings range from a private wine cellar for the most intimate of ceremonies to the Blue Wing, the restaurant, and the lawn above the beach, where a marquee can be raised. For couples who would rather marry with no one present but each other, the hotel offers an elopement. Included in the MICHELIN Guide Hotel Selection 2026, and named the top hotel in South Africa in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards 2025.
For couples arriving from abroad and building a longer stay around their wedding, two further destinations carry the celebration well beyond the Garden Route.
Gorah Elephant Camp, Addo Elephant National Park
Gorah holds the only private concession in Addo Elephant National Park, a camp gathered around a colonial manor house whose verandah looks onto a waterhole where elephants come down to drink. Weddings here are small and intimate, and belong to the world of Out of Africa: the ceremony framed by the waterhole and whoever arrives to drink, the wedding party retiring afterwards to canvas suites beneath thatch. Gorah shares its ownership with Hunter's Country House, both part of Hunter Hotels, and brings to the bush the same care Hunter's brings to the forest.
Royal Chundu, Zambia's first Relais & Châteaux property, lies on a private stretch of the Zambezi, just upstream from Victoria Falls. Weddings here are small and intimate, with the river as the backdrop and a separate room set aside for the bride before the ceremony. From here, a couple's wedding opens onto a wider African journey, the Falls close at hand.
