Wedding Photography at Warwick Castle
Wedding Photography at Warwick Castle
It was a long time coming, but on 28th September 2019, I finally did wedding photography at Warwick Castle proper.
The day started for Rebecca at The Globe Hotel for getting ready photos for the bridal party and a bit later for me at a very nice rented house on Warwick high street that had been hired for the groom and groomsmen.
From the high street house it was a short walk to the castle, where we were met by a knight character who let us through the gates ahead of the main guests, this allowed me some time to set my camera for the lighting conditions in the Great Hall where the wedding ceremony was to be held.
I had been to this room in advance but still, it is good to have a bit of time to test settings. At the same time the videographer arrived I said it was quite dark he ignored me then only realised he needed extra lighting in the middle of the ceremony creating quite a lot of noise and distraction whilst he hastily got his act together.
A lot of planning had gone into the day and you want people who are professional and know what they are doing but anyway this particular wedding had a few hidden surprises especially for the groom that required extra detail.
In addition to a spectacular castle wedding, there was also a subtle Star Wars theme, instead of the bride walking down the aisle first as is expected by a nervous groom instead a man dressed as Chewbacca appeared and walked with the brides father halfway down the aisle before being chased away by one of the knights.
It was very funny after this the bride came down the aisle as expected after the bride maids and what followed was a touching service where both bride and groom did readings for each other.
After the service we did some formal photos in the Castle courtyard, before the wedding started there had been some sort of mix up at the castle gates where the security hadn’t let in the bridal car straight away which delayed the wedding timings by 40 minutes, so by this time it was getting quite dark and also the weather had changed from a sunny afternoon to gloomly skies and a strong possibilty of rain.
With the weather turning we did the formal photos as quickly as possible and then went to do some bridal portraits in the fading light whilst the guests headed to the conservatory for drinks and canapés.
Finally, the weather did turn and it started raining just as we were finishing the bridal portraits and we joined the rest of the guests in the conservatory. Later on, all the guests moved to the Great Hall where they were treated to knights fighting it out for the honour of the wedding guests, except another twist was the knights were fighting with combat light sabres!
Next were the speeches which were again very entertaining with lots of slides and embarrassing pictures which created a good reaction from the guests. Then quite rapidly it was cutting the cake and then the first dance.
The groom and a lot of guests were French it is a tradition in France after the first dance for the guests to dance in a circle around the bride and groom. The groom had picked a song called "Nous deux contre le reste du monde" which translates as “Us Against The Rest of the World” by Ben Mazue which had a really nice vibe to it and with the guests all dancing around in a circled smiling and laughing it was a pleasing scene.
After this sparkler procession was planned for outside but by this time it was raining extremely heavily so sadly this part was cancelled but I did persuade the bride and groom to have some photos outside which was brave of them because it was absolutely hammering it down and quite cold, even with an umbrella it was hard to stay dry. We did some nice photos taking advantage of the rain and then I finished.
