THE wedding venue at Poole’s Compton Acres can claim to be the most popular in the world after triumphing in an international competition.

The Italian Villa took the Most Popular Venue title in the international Wedding Industry Experts Awards.

Around 150 weddings a year take place at the venue, in the grounds of the famous gardens on Canford Cliffs Road.

Awards are given out on a regional, national and international basis, and are decided by popular vote.

The Italian Villa is managed by catering business Beales Gourmet Ltd, which also gained a top six place in the Most Popular Catering Service category internationally.

Tony Beales, managing director of the Italian Villa and Beales Gourmet, said: "I could not be more thrilled that we have been voted the most popular wedding venue in the world.

“The awards recognise how hard our teams at Beales Gourmet and The Italian Villa work to uphold our excellent reputation. We are honoured to be attracting couples from around the world – one recently from as far as Australia – to host their weddings with us.

“Our company is on track to deliver over 200 weddings this year, both at The Italian Villa, and at other prominent venues across the south. We’d like to thank all of our customers that voted for us – it genuinely is a brilliant feeling to be number one in the word.”

The Italian Villa has three floors of suites, catering for weddings, civil ceremonies and partnerships, with room for up to 250 guests in a ceremony and 180 seated at a wedding breakfast.

The Wedding Industry Experts Awards were started in 2012 and are now the largest popularity competition for wedding professionals and industry-related businesses worldwide.

There are 82 categories and members of Wedding Industry Experts compete for town or city, county, country and international levels.