The organisers of a Cumbrian wedding fair say the county’s businesses could cash in on the growing number of nuptials in the region.

The organisers of the Lake District Wedding Fair, which will take place in February, said the county has seen a 36 per cent increase in weddings since 2013.

According to figures from Cumbria Registration Service there were almost 3,000 weddings in 2017/18, compared to 2,158 in 2013/14. This includes a range of venues, with many couples from outside the county travelling to Cumbria.

One of the directors of the Lake District Wedding Fair, Joe Nichols, said: “The steady growth in the number of weddings taking place in Cumbria opens up some great opportunities for a wide range of businesses.

“Of course, it’s good news for more traditional wedding venues and suppliers, but there are so many other local businesses who could benefit too.

“For instance, Jamaican Street Food, a caricaturist and quirky bars in restored horse boxes are among the more unusual exhibitors attending the event because they recognise the commercial value of reaching out to prospective brides and grooms.

“People aren’t just looking for somewhere to get married, they want unique and genuinely memorable experiences that they can capture and share not just in real life, but on their social networks too.

“Offering those experiences as a county will make us more competitive and ultimately, could help to position the Lake District, Cumbria, as the UK’s leading rural wedding destination.”

One of the exhibitors at the Lake District Wedding Fair will be Lake District Estates, which operates Ullswater Steamers and Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.

Head of marketing and development Rachel Bell said: “Weddings are a vital part of our business because they enable us to utilise our heritage boats and steam trains outside of the regular timetabled services and to create bespoke charters, including our new luxury observation carriage on the railway.”

Fiona High, operations manager at Brantwood, the former home of John Ruskin in Coniston, said: “Being able to hire out our historic house and estate as a wedding venue alongside our other art events is very important to us.

“We are able to bring together many of the attributes of the house; a beautiful historic room for the ceremony, fabulous grounds and views for photographs, a jetty for people to embark onto a cruise on Coniston Water on the Steam Yacht Gondola and a restaurant for any catering.

“Bringing these all together to create the perfect backdrop for such a joyous and important event is not only a delight to offer, but makes real commercial sense.”

The Lake District Wedding Fair will take place in the Exhibition Hall at the J36 Rural Auction Centre at Crooklands near Kendal on February 23 and 24 2019.