The most photographed luxury wedding!

Today we’re bring­ing out the big guns* and shar­ing a Chi­nese wed­ding from Belvoir Cas­tle - a slice of sheer unashamed lux­ury, deca­dence and delight in weddings.

Alan and Ruth were mar­ried in Novem­ber and pho­tog­ra­pher Mar­tins Kikulis won an AGWPJA award for his pho­to­graph of the wed­ding guests them­selves pho­tograph­ing the happy cou­ple. It’s pretty cool isn’t it!

This is a treat for any­one who admires a grand wed­ding venue. It’s a bit of Eng­lish Wed­ding opu­lence — and as a wed­ding blog­ger I couldn’t say no to such a spec­tac­u­lar set of images. (Also — Mar­tins Kikulis is a lovely, lovely guy and I really like his pho­tog­ra­phy style too.)

But Alan and Ruth’s wed­ding is here because it’s awe inspir­ing — this is a clas­sic Eng­lish wed­ding, the way the aris­toc­racy have done it for years I imag­ine: from the horse and car­riage to Ruth’s full and beau­ti­fully made wed­ding dress, from the por­traits of the ances­tors to the four-tier wed­ding cake. This is a proper, lux­u­ri­ous wed­ding and I hope you enjoy gaz­ing at it in awe as much as I have!

The lances lin­ing the entrance­way to Belvoir Cas­tle make it a whole new kind of classy, albeit with a hint of our vio­lent past, but hey. Grandeur and then some!

Ruth’s dad looks at home with the cas­tle, but burst­ing with pride at his lit­tle girl get­ting married.

Mar­tins told me, “The wed­ding of Alan and Ruth took place in one of the grand­est places I have ever had a plea­sure to pho­to­graph. Belvoir Cas­tle (www.belvoircastle.com) is located in Leices­ter­shire, lit­er­ally in the mid­dle of nowhere. When I first saw it I was truly blown away! The set­ting and the cas­tle are absolutely amaz­ing. The Duke of cas­tle was also attend­ing the wed­ding and took charge of some parts of the day.”

Alan and Ruth by a por­trait of the Duke, Duchess and family.

The girls at the back are enjoy­ing the con­fetti bit!

*For any­one wait­ing to see what I meant about the big guns…

They don’t dress up like that for your aver­age wed­ding fire­work dis­play do they?

A shot of Alan and Ruth high­lights the high ceil­ings and plenty more of Belvoir Castle’s his­toric decor.

This was a big wed­ding: 100 guests and there’s still plenty of room for every­one to mingle.

Will you be cut­ting your wed­ding cake with a sword? Heee I think it’s a great touch. There isn’t a photo of the actual cut­ting, so I’m assum­ing it was lifted high above the bride and groom and sliced those four tiers right down the middle!

Guests form an orderly queue to pho­to­graph the bride and groom with their families.

Not only does Belvoir Cas­tle have room for a bike on the land­ing, it’s a penny far­thing and looks right at home as an orna­men­tal piece.

These images of Alan and Ruth really show the scale of the venue — and the beau­ti­ful and ele­gant bride and groom fit per­fectly with the sur­round­ings. Mar­tins said, “We also took a chance to have a small pho­to­shoot in one of the grand­est rooms of the castle…”

I love this image of Ruth twirling around in a room fit for a princess.

Thanks to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Mar­tins Kikulis for shar­ing this wed­ding, and con­grat­u­la­tions to Alan and Ruth. There are more images on Mar­tins’ own blog post of the Chi­nese wed­ding in a cas­tle — do go and see them if you’ve enjoyed these.

Any tak­ers for a Belvoir Cas­tle wed­ding out there? I’d love to know if we’d all marry here, given the choice and the budget!