Brides-to-be left devastated after wedding venue ordered to close

COUPLES have been left in limbo after their dream wedding venue was told to stop operating due to its impact on the rural landscape in Pembrokeshire.

- JONATHON HILL Reporter

Serenity Garden at Redberth Gardens, Tenby, has been locked in a lengthy planning battle with Pembrokeshire County Council since 2024 because it began operating at the idyllic site a year earlier without the required permissions.

The setting looked ideal. It had animals including alpacas, capacity for 150 people, glamping pods, and safari tents. Business was flowing for owner Rhys Lloyd without the necessary permission of the local planning authority.

Mr Lloyd applied for permission to the county council's planning department retrospectively, having not had it to begin with, for his tipi weddings.

In spring 2024, the local authority refused that application, but Mr Lloyd decided he would continue to appeal so the weddings could continue at least for the time being.

But in March, after he appealed to the Welsh Government body Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (Pedw), it agreed the site would need to stop operating as a wedding venue.

Mr Lloyd was ordered to take down the tipis, gazebos, decking, and other permanent structures on the site within six months.

That period ends next month when, according to Pedw and the council, the venue will need to stop operating.

Mr Lloyd told the Western Mail he will be taking the case to the Court of Appeal.

Megan Rose, who was due to get married at the site, said: "We viewed Serenity Garden in 2023 after seeing posts on social media promoting it and it looked like everything we hoped for. We went down there and it was brilliant - it was exactly what we wanted.

"They hadn't finished the venue at that point. The tipi was up but they hadn't finished the outdoor wedding ceremony area. They did mention either they had a temporary licence or they were going to have a wedding licence by the time of our wedding which is actually this week. We had no red flags at all at that point."