Rowton Castle wedding

Row­ton Cas­tle shot by wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Stu­art McKendrick.

Row­ton Cas­tle is a gor­geous Eng­lish wed­ding venue, and I love the pho­tographs of the venue in this real wed­ding sub­mis­sion… I couldn’t say no to the atmos­pheric pho­tos of the cas­tle by pho­tog­ra­pher Stu­art McK­endrick from Dig­i­tal Excel Pho­tog­ra­phy. Row­ton Cas­tle is a beau­ti­ful 17th cen­tury grade II listed build­ing, set in 17 acres of tran­quil grounds six miles west from the his­toric mar­ket town of Shrews­bury. Bride Jemma mar­ried Stephen at Row­ton Cas­tle in Autumn 2009. All the details of the day are so very strik­ing, from the bride her­self to the mag­nif­i­cent venue. I hope you enjoy this Eng­lish wed­ding feature!

Bridal shoes and a reflec­tion of Row­ton Cas­tle in the bride’s car!

Wed­ding prepa­ra­tions for the Row­ton Cas­tle wedding

Bride Jemma poses for a pic­ture with her young brides­maids and flower girls. They all look so lovely, and the lit­tle one is as cute as a button!

Jenna admires her dress — a real state­ment wed­ding gown — in this mir­ror photo

When he sub­mit­ted this real wed­ding for the blog, Stu­art told me, “I really like to make my brides look strong and hold ele­gant poses.” And when I look at this pic­ture I know exactly what he means — Jemma holds her­self with such con­fi­dence, really show­ing off that dress and mak­ing it hers. I think Gok Wan would adore her!

Jemma looks stun­ning as she sees Stephen for the first time

Jemma arrives for the wed­ding cer­e­mony, and her expres­sion is a won­der­ful mix­ture of hap­pi­ness and nerves. She looks amaz­ing though, her wed­ding dress cut to flat­ter her amaz­ing curvy fig­ure, and with that spec­tac­u­lar bridal bou­quet. The pic­ture frame in the back­ground just hints at the lux­ury of Row­ton Castle.

Jemma and Stephen take advan­tage of the cas­tle set­ting for some lovely photographs

The roman­tic set­ting of Row­ton Cas­tle is per­fect for artis­tic wed­ding pho­tos. Here Jemma’s wed­ding gown with that amaz­ing veil is almost high­lighted in a won­der­ful blue light, as the bride and groom share a kiss out­side the cas­tle. The wed­ding dress with such a full skirt and long veil stretches all the way across the pho­to­graph — a dress like this deserves the attention!

The page boys are great, and have an instant rap­port with the photographer

How adorable! The younger page boy on the left looks fan­tas­tic in his wed­ding fin­ery, in a casual and happy pose, grin­ning at the cam­era. To the right, it’s time to let off a lit­tle steam — what a cool pic­ture.  The boys clearly had fun with the wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher and this made for some excel­lent pictures.

The veil inspires some unusual wed­ding pictures!

This is really excit­ing con­tem­po­rary wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. I love Stu­art McKendrick’s eye for the unusual, and these pic­tures make a great state­ment. The veil cre­ates light and shad­ows, and Jemma has a great time play­ing to the camera.

Around Row­ton Cas­tle there are some amaz­ing loca­tions for wed­ding photographs

These are my favourite pho­tos from Jemma and Stephen’s wedding. The bright red of the autumn leaves against the walls of the cas­tle, with shad­ows cast­ing a rich blue onto the wed­ding dress, and the old tree in the gar­dens lit for a night time wed­ding pho­to­graph. Both pic­tures are spe­cial, cre­ative, unusual and roman­tic too.

Jemma stands proudly for this last wed­ding photo out­side Row­ton Castle

Jemma’s pose here takes me back to Stuart’s com­ment about mak­ing his brides look strong and ele­gant… she really makes a state­ment in every pho­to­graph. In this pic­ture, beau­ti­fully lit with the wed­ding dress glow­ing white and twin­kling lights around the cas­tle, Jemma is the cen­tre of atten­tion and for me this is just how it should be on her wed­ding day.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to beau­ti­ful bride Jemma and Stephen. And thanks to Stu­art McK­endrick of Dig­i­tal Excel Pho­tog­ra­phy for sub­mit­ting this wed­ding to the Eng­lish Wed­ding blog. Please visit Stuart’s pho­tog­ra­phy blog too, and check out the slideshow of his best wed­dings last year — there are some gor­geous pho­tos in there.

I have another wed­ding full of Eng­lish his­tory for you to enjoy: this spring­time wed­ding in Cam­bridge is gorgeous!