Peckforton Castle Wedding

The cer­e­mony at Peck­for­ton Cas­tle — what a stun­ning wed­ding venue!

I’ve admired Peck­for­ton Cas­tle from afar for many years. As a cal­lig­ra­pher I’ve seen and writ­ten many invi­ta­tions to wed­dings there, and it’s one of those lux­ury venues I’d love to illus­trate — and now, what a treat to be able to fea­ture it on my new blog! This first real wed­ding photo of the cer­e­mony room at Peck­for­ton Cas­tle says it all. The light flood­ing in from those nar­row win­dows, the exquis­ite mosaic tiled floor, even the chairs are a bit special!

Caroline’s wed­ding shoes are dainty and very sophisticated

Peter and Car­o­line* were mar­ried in Novem­ber. Their day was oh so sophis­ti­cated, with lots of white and pale ivory roses, and sil­ver details at the wed­ding recep­tion — a lovely, pure colour scheme for a win­ter wed­ding. Caroline’s shoes are divine, with the sim­ple rose­bud on the toe they’re per­fect for the occa­sion. I like this pic­ture with the tex­ture of the stonework of the cas­tle… it all sets the scene for the day.

Caroline’s Ian Stu­art wed­ding gown — the detail­ing is so pretty

I love Ian Stu­art Bridal — and this wed­ding gown from his Belle Epoque col­lec­tion is one of my favourites. The Cey­lon gown in ivory with beaded French lace and the lovely silk fab­ric is unmis­take­able. This pic­ture really shows how gor­geous an Ian Stu­art dress can be; and it looks even more stun­ning on Caroline!

Car­o­line makes her red car­pet entrance and has eyes only for Peter!

What a gor­geous venue. If you’re hav­ing a cas­tle wed­ding then Peck­for­ton in Cheshire is a shin­ing exam­ple of how your day should be. As Car­o­line makes her entrance along the red car­pet, the guests all turn to watch, and later she’ll look back at the wed­ding pic­tures to see the moment from their per­spec­tive. It’s not only the peo­ple that make this pho­to­graph, but the height of the room with all its grandeur: the arches, fire­place, tapes­tries and light­ing make for a lux­u­ri­ous ceremony.

A lovely lit­tle moment for the bride and groom before the wed­ding ceremony

There are so many things to love about this pic­ture. Caroline’s expres­sion takes cen­tre stage, Peter looks so happy, the sun­light catches Caroline’s veil and we see the detail­ing and shape of that gor­geous Ian Stu­art bodice on the wed­ding dress, also Caroline’s dad looks very proud to be a part of the wed­ding. Wonderful.

With this ring…

Peter puts Caroline’s ring on her fin­ger, an impor­tant moment for them both. Expres­sions all round are seri­ously happy in this pic­ture. I still love how the sun­light is shin­ing into the cas­tle room, giv­ing every­thing a bit of a mag­i­cal glow. If you visit Phil Drinkwater’s blog after read­ing this, you’ll see he’s got a real flair for wed­ding pho­tos with a bright ray of sunshine!

Hap­pily mar­ried, the bride and groom walk down the red car­pet together

Caroline’s wed­ding dress has a lovely lit­tle frill at the back, embell­ished with pretty crys­tals, lead­ing into a long full train which falls beau­ti­fully behind her as she turns and leaves the room. Her waist length veil com­ple­ments the detail­ing of the wed­ding dress.

Car­o­line looks gor­geous: her hair and make up look amazing

Car­o­line is such a happy bride with a lovely smile! I love this photo for how nat­ural every­thing looks, from Caroline’s expres­sion to the guests in the back­ground and her pretty make up and hair. Car­o­line wears loose curls with a sil­ver crys­tal hair vine, and del­i­cate lit­tle sil­ver and pearl ear­rings. Her make up is lovely and nat­ural with fan­tas­tic empha­sis on her eyes and she’s beam­ing in every picture!

Head­ing out­side for the por­trait session

As the bride and groom head out into the sun­shine, pho­tog­ra­pher Phil snaps this lovely pic­ture, once more get­ting Car­o­line bathed in sun­light — I just love how the light shows off her gor­geous fig­ure, shin­ing onto the veil to frame her shoul­ders. The focus of this pic­ture is the detail­ing of the back of the wed­ding dress, with the beau­ti­ful flower and dou­ble frill beneath the lac­ing at the back of the bodice.

Car­o­line is framed by the arch­way at Peck­for­ton Castle

More fan­tas­tic sun­light adds magic to this pic­ture of Car­o­line in her Ian Stu­art dress. The bodice is beau­ti­ful with its ver­ti­cal lines of beads and crys­tals, and the won­der­ful shape of the lac­ing. The lit­tle sparkles at the top of the photo make it a really artis­tic, beau­ti­fully com­posed picture.

Enter the Toastmaster!

If you’re hav­ing a cas­tle wed­ding, you absolutely can’t go with­out a toast­mas­ter! They’re a bless­ing for help­ing orga­nize things on the day, and not to men­tion a fan­tas­tic Eng­lish wed­ding tra­di­tion. I think this is Ray­mond Bon­nard, one of Cheshire’s very best toast­mas­ters and Vice Pres­i­dent of the North­ern Guild of Toast­mas­ters. (I’m not sure… if you’re read­ing this and you know who it is, please com­ment and let me know!)

Excel­lent por­trait of the bride and groom in the cas­tle setting

I do like sav­ing the best for last. The best thing about a cas­tle wed­ding is the lit­tle nooks and cran­nies you can find for the wed­ding pho­tos, and this is just per­fect. The dark floor and steps frame the bot­tom of Caroline’s dress, the stonework is the gor­geous red stone found every­where at Peck­for­ton and the view through the win­dows is another part of the cas­tle. And that’s not to men­tion the bride and groom, shar­ing such a lovely look I want to tip­toe away and leave them to enjoy their wed­ding day!

Thanks to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Phil Drinkwa­ter who sub­mit­ted this wed­ding to the blog a cou­ple of weeks ago. It’s been worth the wait I think — from the lit­tle details to the grand cas­tle cham­ber I think every photo is relaxed and nat­ural and yet ele­gantly composed. Let me know what you think by com­ment­ing here, and please com­ment on Phil’s own wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy blog too!

*The bride and groom’s names have been changed at Phil’s request to pro­tect their privacy.

If you like lux­ury wed­dings, you’ll love this blog post: the most pho­tographed lux­ury wedding