Supplier Spotlight: Cornish Eco Wedding Venue Treseren

We love to celebrate businesses that are big on style, creativity and sustainable practices within the world of weddings. Today we introduce an eco wedding venue that ticks all the boxes and more when it comes to providing the best of the best for couples looking to plan an eco wedding without compromising on style. Nestled in the heart of Cornwall’s enchanting countryside, Treseren stands as a hidden gem for couples seeking a wedding venue that boasts the perfect blend of historic charm and contemporary elegance. Whether you’re planning a romantic garden ceremony or an intimate indoor celebration this eco wedding venue has it all. We catch up with the team at Treseren who share more about this magical venue that works tirelessly to marry sustainability with weddings that are personalised to perfection.

James Frost Photography

“Hidden away in a secret corner of Cornwall, Treseren is not your typical wedding venue. Specialising in small weddings that are big on style, couples choose this special location to say ‘I do’ in the company of their very closest loved ones and immerse themselves in a bespoke wedding experience, enjoying fine dining, bespoke cocktails, and luxury accommodation all under the magic of a Cornish sky.

Treseren is a place to celebrate living, to marry the one you love. A place for family and friends, making memories and sharing good times. Just a 10-minute drive from some of North Cornwall’s most iconic beaches, Treseren offers an idyllic destination wedding venue, without the need to board a plane. Couples can choose a venue that not only makes a statement in style but also in their commitment to celebrate with sustainability in mind. With a background in tv, film and running five-star bed and breakfasts, owners Emma and Paul’s clear vision and wealth of experience have seen them create an award-winning wedding venue that offers beauty, romance and a real sense of occasion.

At the heart of Treseren is a Georgian gem with beautiful light and proportions, a former Mine Captain’s residence, rich in history and architectural features.
Whilst celebrating the history at Treseren, we also look to the future with celebrations that‘ light tomorrow with today’. Since hosting the first small wedding, sustainability has been at Treseren’s core. From reclaiming materials for Treseren’s signs to sourcing vintage furniture and a sustainably grown wooden playground, we have been on our sustainability journey from the start. At Treseren, local and seasonal produce is central to special food created throughout wedding stays. Sustainable Supply Chain winners at the Sustainable Wedding Awards, Treseren celebrates wonderful local, artisanal small businesses that are treading more lightly on the planet.

Weddings for up to 22 at Treseren include a two- or three-night stay so that the happy couple and their closest loved ones can enjoy quality time together. Guests are greeted with homemade cake and tea, and later in the evening, a locally sourced welcome meal, setting the tone for the weekend ahead with a unique blend of five-star service in a home-from-home atmosphere. A carefully curated ‘Little Black Book’ of Cornwall’s finest wedding professionals is used to build a wedding day dream team. From breath-taking floral arch“

Supplier Spotlight: Cornish Eco Wedding Venue Treseren

Lyra and Moth Photography

Who is your typical couple?

“Individuality is celebrated at Treseren, and we so enjoy creating magical weddings which are unique as each couple. For some, their vision includes all of the special details throughout the wedding day, from staircase florals to bespoke cocktails and personalised wedding favours. Some value a paired-back, relaxed approach throughout their wedding stay, enjoying the gorgeous house and surroundings. Our expert Coordinators work with each couple throughout their wedding planning, to create their vision during a relaxed planning journey. The magic of Treseren is the bringing together of loved ones to celebrate the most special of occasions, and this is at the heart of every couple’s wedding.”

Sofie Michelle Photography

How important is being sustainable?

“Since hosting our very first small wedding, sustainability has been at Treseren’s core. From reclaiming materials for Treseren’s signs to sourcing vintage furniture and a sustainably grown wooden playground, we have been on a sustainability journey from the start. Towards the end of a busy summer of weddings last year, Treseren appointed their Sustainability Coordinator, Nellie, to dedicate time and fresh energy to continuing our progress in creating weddings which tread lightly on the environment and being a sustainable business.

Our approach is to reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible. We have always recycled cardboard, paper, plastic and tin packaging, and introduced a new recycling system at the start of this year to make this as easy for the team and guests as possible. There are inevitably leftover materials after each wedding and we carefully reuse, rehome or recycle these, with specific systems in place. For example, we save all of our leftover candle wax which Dean from Chef in My Home collects and reuses.

This year we have introduced a Bokashi composting system for recycling kitchen waste on site in the grounds of Treseren, preventing our organic waste from going to landfill. The environmental benefits include producing nutrient-rich by-products, which act as fertiliser. Compared to normal composting, a wider array of kitchen waste products can be fermented before adding to soil, including meat, dairy and citrus, all of which make up a substantial proportion of our food waste.

Supporting a rich, biodiverse environment is an important goal at Treseren. Paul keeps bees in the grounds, which thrive on the verbena and ivy, and we are thrilled to use their honey in our bespoke cocktail menu. We plan to rewild on site at Treseren, supporting wildflowers and in turn bees and other insects. We have begun researching tree-planting to supplement the healthy trees and habitat surrounding Treseren, all with the aim of supporting habitats and biodiversity.

We are really aware of the importance of reducing our energy usage in the venue and office and are carefully researching achievable goals that can be met within the restrictions of a Grade II listed building. The action we have already taken includes installing an EV charger, LED lightbulbs, and smart meters, and replacing older appliances with more energy-efficient technology. We are excited by the prospect of using more renewable energy in future, and we are continually working towards this.

Good food is at the heart of small weddings at Treseren, from the welcome feast when guests arrive to home-cooked breakfasts throughout their stay. We believe that sustainability starts at the very local and produce which comes from Treseren’s own gardens and kitchen is the most sustainable way of sourcing, eliminating transport emissions and plastic packaging. We have always served homemade granola and jams made by Emma’s dad for breakfast. This year, we have planted a bed with edible flowers and mint for use in our cocktail bar, replacing plastic-packaged flowers, grown in Norfolk. Another very exciting project, last autumn we produced 120 bottles of apple juice from our orchard, creating a regenerative cycle and preventing waste. We found a fantastic Cornish business, who have pressed and bottled the juice. With each autumn harvest to come, Emma will travel in her electric car, taking crates of apples and the glass bottles to be refilled.

We feel very lucky to have lots of lovely farms and small businesses nearby who supply local produce. From coffee beans and meat which come just from our local village, to Cornish spirits in our bar, we love to celebrate the Cornish treats on our doorstep. It’s not just food that comes under our radar. Everything from flowers to candles and the gorgeous handmade aromatherapy products we stock all come under our commitment to work with talented Cornish businesses and keep transport miles to an absolute minimum.

Artisanal suppliers include Chocolarder who, based only 22 miles from us, use ingredients local to their Falmouth base wherever possible. Repurposing an antique hazelnut roaster, they became the only bean to bar chocolate maker in Cornwall. In a similar vein, Gorse Bakery is another fantastic supplier involved in creating our lunch platter offerings. Baked just a mile down the road, their sourdough could not be a better choice in terms of sustainability and celebrating our neighbouring small businesses. Keynvor Candles is a new addition joining a group of suppliers in our village, or closer. We are so pleased to support this creative, plastic-free company by commissioning Brad’s hand-poured candles.

Very excitingly, with the introduction of new Cornish suppliers to our bar, we now make our bespoke cocktails solely with Cornish spirits. Our new vodka supplier, Colwith Farm Distillery is powered by solar energy, turning ‘wonky’ potatoes from the farm into vodka. They re-purpose the silage waste to irrigate the local crops or as animal feed, ensuring nothing goes to waste. Another new addition to our line-up of Cornish drinks, we are moving away from an Australian supplier of coffee liqueur, bringing its production in-house. We already make the sugar and ginger cocktail syrups in Treseren’s kitchen and now will be making coffee saccharum from our spent coffee grounds. We are thrilled to drastically cut carbon emissions from one supplier and repurpose a waste product.”

Lyra and Moth Photography

What are you most proud of so far?

“We are so proud of the team which makes Treseren special. From the start of a couple’s journey with Treseren to the final farewell, our team craft celebrations filled with love, joy, and cherished memories. We take pride in our attention to detail, ensuring that every aspect of a wedding stay is exquisite, whilst guests can enjoy relaxed time, spent together with loved ones. Our team’s dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to exceeding expectations are what make us so proud to be a part of couples’ journeys.

A real celebration of the wonderful team at Treseren, we are thrilled to have won the Historic Building Wedding Venue of the Year at The National Wedding Industry Awards in London. This is a lovely reflection of Treseren and the team who work so hard to create magical wedding experiences for each and every one of our couples. The judging was decided by a panel of wedding industry experts, and our amazing couples who took the time to vote for us and share their Treseren story. Lovely feedback from happy guests never ceases to make us proud.

Recently, we enjoyed a fantastic day yesterday celebrating commitment to sustainability in the wedding industry, at the Sustainable Wedding Summit. We felt it was rather momentous to be in a room full of industry professionals from cake makers to florists to venues, all passionate about creating beautiful weddings which tread more lightly on the environment. Our goal to be as sustainable as possible is always ongoing, and this day was a great opportunity to pause and celebrate where we have come so far. A real recognition of our supplier family whose care for our environment and community shines through their businesses, we were thrilled to win the Sustainable Supply Chain Award.”

James Frost Photography

What is next for you and your company?

“Our Sustainability Coordinator, Nellie, researched sustainable practices as part of an audit she carried out, reviewing sustainability at Treseren and planning for some projects. Towards the end of last year, we got together as a team to discuss and plan our sustainability journey going forward. With the goal to grow as much produce as possible at Treseren, we have a couple of larger projects in the pipeline. Including, building a new herb garden with glass closhes, to allow us to grow a wider variety of herbs in Treseren’s gardens. This winter we also plan to install a greenhouse to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil and coriander; non-hardy herbs which we heavily rely on our local fruit and vegetable supplier to import. This will mean that a wider variety of herbs which we use in cooking our welcome meals will come from just steps away from the kitchen, totally plastic-free. We feel that growing our own produce is the absolute goal in terms of sustainability and our longer-term aspiration is to have a polytunnel to grow other staples of our menus on site.”