This was my first Walcot Hall wedding, and I hoped it wouldn't be my last. I did what I always do somewhere new, which is turn up early and walk the whole place working out where the light lands, and then it rained and I had to think again. Nobody else seemed remotely bothered.
"The plan was to marry outdoors in the Enchanted Forest. The rain had other ideas, and the day was not one bit worse for it."
The VenueWhat Walcot Hall gives you
- iA Georgian house that is still a house. Built in 1726, out on the edge of Alkborough, and full of rooms nobody has flattened into function spaces: damask paper, tall mirrors, curtains with a pattern you have to look at twice. The bride gets ready up in the suite and comes down a cantilevered staircase, which is worth building time into the morning for.
- iiSomewhere to get married whatever the sky is doing. The Ceremony Room seats up to 80 under sash windows that run floor to ceiling, and the Mezzanine takes something smaller. Outside there are four licensed spots: the Main Lawn, the Fountain Terrace, the Enchanted Forest and Narnia Woods. That is the useful bit. A wet forecast here costs you a view, not the day.
- iiiFive acres of formal garden inside twenty-seven acres of parkland. Gravel paths, a little wooden footbridge, clipped hedges and roses. As a wedding photographer I am a sucker for a good rose garden, and it is surprising how many venues can't be bothered with one.
- ivOne wedding a day, and a marquee for the night. Glass fronted, chandeliers, and a black ceiling full of pinprick star lights. Walcot Hall Estate has the current numbers and the rooms in the house if your guests want to stay over.
A Real Walcot DayCharlotte & George, 13 July 2024
Here is how the day ran.
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The bridal suite
Charlotte got ready upstairs in a room I would happily have photographed empty. Bridesmaids in teal, an antique mirror propped against the wall, morning light coming through a window nearly as tall as the room. Nobody needed directing.
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Rain, and a change of room
By the time the guests were arriving it was coming down hard, so the ceremony moved indoors. Chivari chairs with teal sashes, candles down a bare board floor, flowers arched over the window at the top of the aisle. The room was properly full, people standing along the walls, and I photographed Charlotte's walk in from the front in black and white.
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Canapés, then the family formals
Rain does not cancel a family group photo. It just moves it. Guests had canapés indoors while I worked through the formals at the entrance, brick and creeper and that white portico behind them.
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The unicorn
Then a white pony turned up in a flower garland with a horn on its head. I have photographed a lot of wedding cars and I would take this over a vintage Bentley. It was still spitting, Charlotte had one hand on the bridle, and neither of them minded the weather at all.
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Out to the gardens, then the marquee
The rain gave up in the afternoon and we got outside properly: the gravel path under the trees, the footbridge, the lawn with the house and the orangery behind. The wedding breakfast was in the marquee at the end of the garden and the day ran to time. By the evening the weather had turned into a story rather than a problem.
"Pick a venue with four outdoor ceremony spots and a house you would be happy to be stuck inside, and a wet July stops being a disaster. Walcot is both."
PricingA full day at Walcot Hall
A full day of Walcot Hall wedding photography starts from £1,800. The pricing page has what's included and the shorter options.
Charlotte & George's SuppliersWho made the day
Venue: Walcot Hall Estate, near Alkborough, Scunthorpe. The rest of the supplier list didn't survive on my old version of this page. If you worked on this wedding, send me your name and I'll put it up here properly.
