Clandon Park Winter Wedding

Victoria & Luke’s winter wedding at Clandon Park

This was the last wedding I shot at Clandon Park, before the devastating fire in April 2015. I hope one day, once it’s restored to shoot there again sometime. It was a beautiful venue.

Clandon Park is always a great wedding venue to shoot at, even in the midst of winter. The marble hall is just a delight, with all that lovely daylight flooding the room and bouncing around the white walls. It’s also a lovely place for guests to meet before entering the wedding ceremony itself, held in the very grand Tapestry Room. Although much darker to shoot in, the light in here is a dream for lovers of natural light (me). Large windows give a perfect clean light over the front row of guests, gradually fading off to the back. With the rich tapestries forming a beautiful background to any image. I would always say to couples that the number one thing about any wedding image is the people in it. If they look like they are enjoying the day and are in love with their partner, the rest is easy, however when you also have a great backdrop with great light, it makes the photographers job even easier to perform. The daylight on the main picture above is just divine to work with, especially in Black & White, which is one of my personal specialities.

Victoria had asked me not to cover any bridal prep for her wedding, which was a shame for me as I enjoy that part of the day, but it did give me the chance to mix with the guests a little bit more than normal before the wedding started which helped get them used to me being around. It always helps when guests are comfortable with the photographer. My aim is always to be as unobtrusive to the day as possible, however, I’m still there. So the better I fit in with the guests, the better the flow of the day. All I need from guests is for them to enjoy the wedding day and as much as possible ignore my presence with a camera. That enables me to capture beautiful natural candid images of happy people, not forced fixed smiles from uncomfortable people.

I hope you enjoy looking through Victoria & Luke’s wedding. Please bear in mind, this is a condensed set of images from their day, their final collection contains over 600 images, a full mixture of colour and black and white. If you are planning a Clandon Park winter wedding, then hopefully these images will provide some inspiration and ideas for how your own wedding could look there.