Family to turn castle into site for fairytale weddings
LLANSTEFFAN Castle’s panoramic views across the River Towy estuary and Carmarthen Bay are central to many a romantic tale, and one local couple is committed to making sure it is part of many more love stories for years to come.
Marian and Rob Evans bought the Plas Farm estate, that happens to include the castle and a woodland, a few years ago with the plan for wedding ceremonies at the castle being just one part of their vision.
In a new six-part television series on S4C that airs on Thursday, Teulu’r Castell (The Castle Family) sees cameras follow Marian and Rob as they set about renovating the rest of the sprawling estate and developing Marian’s mentoring business.
Their vision is to offer picture perfect wedding ceremonies at the 900-year-old Norman castle, but will Marian and Rob fulfil the ambitious dream? Will they be able to offer everything needed for a special day from the remote location, while keeping a family, work and their other businesses going during the challenges and restrictions of a global pandemic? Thanks to the series viewers get to live the dream alongside the small family with the big plans.
A camera crew has followed Marian, Rob and their daughters Ffion and Catrin over the last 12 months.
Marian, who grew up in the nearby village of Llangynog, has been buying and selling properties since she was 18 and less than 10 years after starting out with NFU Mutual in the financial services sector she was overseeing a book of business worth £58m and was in charge of 16 offices.
In 2019 she was crowned the Inspirational Woman of the Decade at the Women in Business awards.
When asked why take on such a huge challenge such as Llansteffan Castle, the estate and woodland, she said: “Growing up, I was here as often as possible. Mum and dad had a dairy farm so we couldn’t go very far for days out.
“Everything we needed was here; the beach, the castle, ice cream, chips.
“Then, when Rob and I started going out, we would often go to the castle for walks.
“We have fond memories of falling in love there.
“Its meaning has changed; from being there as a child, to being a special place for us as a couple and now of course, it’s a place for us as a family, but it’s always been significant in my life.”
Rob’s expertise as a civil engineer has proved invaluable for the massive project and his DIY skills are certainly being put to the test.
Despite the size of the project, the family managed to keep it a secret for a while.
“When we first bought the castle, it was a bit of a shock that we had achieved it,” said Marian.
“Then we felt really embarrassed and wanted to keep it quiet. I remember saying, how can we make sure no one finds out? I could hear this little voice of others maybe saying, ‘who do they think they are?’.”
But it was impossible to keep something so exciting a secret in a small village, as Catrin their youngest daughter soon realised. She said: “I didn’t tell my friends at school, they came to me and asked, ‘Catrin – do you own the castle?’.
“When Mum and Dad told us, we thought, Don’t you have to be royalty to do that? Wow!”
“Not many people get the chance to buy a castle, so I’m really happy about it,” added her sister Ffion.
With only a handful of Welsh castles in the hands of private owners, the family work closely with Cadw, who are responsible for safeguarding Wales’s historic sites, to ensure any developments are sympathetic to the site.
How will they manage? Follow their journey on Teulu’r Castell on S4C every Thursday night from April 21 at 9pm to find out.
The series will be available to watch, with subtitles, on S4C Clic and BBC iplayer.