A wedding planner is hailing a permanent law change allowing couples to have outdoor ceremonies.
Before last summer, civil ceremonies at licensed wedding venues in England and Wales had to take place indoors or within a permanent outdoor structure.
But temporary measures brought about during the Covid pandemic by the government allowed couples to have their whole ceremony outside in a venue’s grounds.
This has been made permanent and Charlene Goldsmith, who set up Bowthorpe-based Goldsmith's Weddings and Events, in 2018, said the move is being welcomed by venues and couples.
Mrs Goldsmith, 39, from Felthorpe, said: "It opens a lot of doors for venues that have outside space. We have been locked up for so long and people feel outside space is good.
"Lots of venue owners are saying they are excited by the law change."
She added since January, the number of couples coming to her to arrange their special days, was the most since she started her business and said: "I can put a smile on my face this year."
The mother-of-one, who runs the wedding planning firm with her husband Mark, said seven out of 10 couples which had come to her for her expertise recently were seeking an outdoor wedding ceremony.
"A lot of people are going for the outdoor/indoor look. They want greenery and natural look. Decorating for outdoor weddings is lovely and the pictures you get from them are phenomenal," Mrs Goldsmith added.
She said, since Covid people wanted to arrange weddings in shorter periods of time compared to before the lockdown, and many couples were not too worried about the weather.
Rosanna Elliott, 27, from Norwich, who is engaged to Oliver Hichisson, 27, welcomed the change.
Miss Elliott, who is due to marry at the Assembly House on June 27 this year in front of 14 guests, said: "The more choice for couples the better.
"We are past the point of traditional church weddings. It is good that people can pick something that suits their needs. It is really good to make use of outdoor space."
She believed Covid had made people realise that weddings offered the chance for friends and family to get together and ceremonies could become more relaxed.
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