Tylney Hall in Hampshire

Tylney Hall is located near Hook in Hampshire. It’s a lovely country house with endless grounds. From a photography point of view it’s a total spoiler, as the range of locations for photography are limitless. Sadly, time being like it is on a wedding day, I doubt many people see what this place has to offer. You just can’t capitalise on the potential of the scenery. Have a Google Map to see what I mean (if it’s green it’s probably part of the grounds).

I think I’ve effectively summed-up the main benefit of this wedding venue. Again it’s sad that you’ll never get to fully explore the grounds on a typical wedding day.

Ample Choice and Facilities

Tylney Hall isn’t a dedicated wedding venue, as it also operates as a hotel. However, from my experience of weddings at Tylney, you’ll be unaware of the hotel guests. There are several venues within the hotel grounds where you can get married, the first choice has to be the Tylney Suite (see photographs below). This large wood panelled hall is spacious, well lit and comes complete with a curtained stage and balcony. (Although I’ve yet to see the stage being used during a wedding!)

I would imagine this Hall could also be used during the evening, but with the wedding I photographed at Tylney we progressed to the Hampshire Suite which is tucked well away from the main Hotel. This suite is smaller and can’t boast a grade II listing, but I would imagine this suite exists to allow late night celebrations (without disturbing those sleeping in the Hotel).

One of the best wedding venues in Hampshire

All in all, this has to be one of the best wedding venues in Hampshire, simply because of the copious amounts of facilities and options for getting married. Having the venue operate as a hotel will aid guests travelling from further afield, and there is also the added bonus of an outdoor swimming pool for hot summer days. I’ve dropped that in as a feature – but there are many more.

Further information

The Tylney Hall website should give you all the information you need about holding your wedding. If you are in a rush here is a direct link to the Tylney Hall Wedding Brochure, which I think could do with an update (reminds me of the 80s) – http://www.tylneyhall.co.uk/assets/th_wedding_brochure.pdf

Hotel du Vin, Poole in Dorset

Hotel du Vin is a fairly new addition to the harbour area of Poole in Dorset. I was visiting for a small family wedding, with the bride and groom keen on reportage photography. This warm family wedding also featured a  second day on Brownsea Island, for a larger group of  friends and family (read more about this day here).

A Lucky Break with the Weather

Rain had been forecast, but thanks to a bit of luck the only things that fell from the sky were rays of sunlight. The bride and groom had two private rooms at their disposal, and a courtyard which was partially covered by a Millennium Dome type canvas (That’s a terrible and very inaccurate description to use!)

Due to the weather this is were most of my photographs were taken. I really had a photographers smile throughout.If the forecast rain had materialised,  the aforementioned rooms would have been harder to work in due to their cosy lighting and small size.

Discrete Wedding Photography

Later in the evening dinner was served, and I photographed the speeches and post-dinner moments. The room was candle lit, not photographically friendly, but perfect for the relaxed mood. With the small group size, I set my stealth abilities to full – not using flash was key to this.  Such environments are technically difficult to work in , but exactly the type of scenario where a professional photographer can really prove their worth.

Which raises an interesting point – always ask a photographer if they can work without flash – if the answer is a straight no, alarm bells should ring.  As I would argue this is a key skill any photographer should possess.

Further Information on Weddings at Hotel du Vin

Hotel du Vin own a chain of Hotels around the UK, although I’ve only visited their Hotel in Poole. You’ll find more information, and photographs of these on their website http://www.hotelduvin.com

The secluded beach on Brownsea Island

Brownsea Island, Dorset

Brownsea Island is a nature reserve in the middle of Poole Harbour, managed by the National Trust. It’s famous for it’s links to the Cub movement and for being a sanctuary to red squirrels.

I didn’t managed to speak to anyone directly involved with the Island, but I got the impression that as far as Weddings go we were pioneers.

Getting to the Island

The couple had wed the previous day at Hotel du Vin in Poole, so the nature of the day was very much orientated to enjoying the scenic surroundings whilst catching up with old friends.  Getting to the island was easy due to the proximity of the hotel to Poole Harbour (where passenger ferrys run regularly to the Island). Once we arrived some park rangers were on hand to transport older people and heavy items via Land Rover.

Choice of Venue

There are several buildings on the island, which I would imagine could be made available for hire. In this case the couple had selected a modern wooden building some 20 minutes walk from the landing bay (thus the Land Rovers were very useful). As the photographs below show, this building was very much in the style of a oversized Canadian forest hut. As the weather was brilliantly sunny, this venue worked perfectly. However if it had rained, we would have been fairly crammed inside. It’s something that crossed my mind repeatedly, as from a photography point of view, working in crammed conditions is very difficult.

A Private but Public Island

The island operates very much in the same way as a park would, so you do have the occasional non-wedding guest walking around, but with the location of the building in relation to the ferry dock, you should find the public are few are far between. Strangely enough, most of the public we encountered were nature photographers…wearing camouflage and looking very serious!

Later in the evening the wedding party and I walked to a small and deserted beach for sunset. Effectively we had our own private beach – something I would imagine is very hard to come by in regards to weddings.

Your biggest worry if you had a wedding on the Island, would be missing the last ferry back to shore, and having to camp out in the woodland with red squirrels lurking.

Further Information

If you want to find out about weddings on Brownsea Island click on the National Trust link at the top of this article. Through that page you should be able to find all the information you need.

The Ravenswood Hotel

I visited The Ravenswood Hotel back in March, when the forecasters were hyping about how warm and sunny the  summer would be.  I  want a refund for the disappointment dropped on me when they changed their minds. I probably talk about the sun and the rain too much, but it’s a large deciding factor in how I work. In this case, the wedding at Ravenswood was unfortunately a rainy affair.

Jazz and rain

When I visited the Hotel prior to the wedding there was a jazz lunch event on, which apparently this Hotel is famous for. I saw little of the surrounding grounds because, like the wedding day itself, the rain was falling like stones. However,  Photographs of the grounds can be found on the Hotel’s website

Inside Ravenswood

The wedding was held in a large octagonal hall at the centre of the hotel. Despite the rain the abundance of windows gave me plenty of light to work with, and so I didn’t need to use flash. As I was enjoying the light, the poor Bride had about 10 metres to dash from her car to the hotel entrance, thankfully a  network of umbrellas gave her an effective rain shield.

After the wedding a drinks reception was held in a smaller room, complete with a staircase and large fireplace. This room was, as I often say, “lit in a cosy way” which is my language for a photographers nightmare.  As a result I used a number of wireless flashes in this room, which helped me keep mobile and out of the way as much as possible.

This smaller room was very much used as a stop-gap, so that the Hotel could convert the main hall for the evening function. By this stage the windows provided only a moonlit scene, so I again used numerous wireless flashes strategically placed throughout the room.

Further Information

You may have found your way onto the Ravenswood Hotel website earlier with the photograph link, if not you can find it here: The Ravenswood Hotel.

The Clock Barn Hampshire

The Clock Barn is just outside the village of Whitchurch, Hampshire. The barn is tucked away amongst the Hampshire Countryside, and there is plenty of potential for photographs in the surrounding cornfields. Although you would need to put aside some extra time for this.

Venue Interior

The interior of the barn is divided into three sections. To the rear of the barn is a small function room, the rest of the barn is semi-split into two sections, with a large hall making up the majority of interior space. A smaller section  can be hidden from view by curtains or added the the already spacious main hall. Depending on the size of your wedding this smaller section can be used as the main wedding room or the larger hall can be deployed.

The exterior

As I mentioned above, the barn is located in a very rural area, however the barn itself doesn’t have large areas of exclusive exterior space. Immediately outside the barn is a small landscaped grass area, just beyond this is a larger un-landscaped field, which would hold large potential if you wanted extra marquees / staging / outdoor lighting.

Options in poor weather

Rain is always in my mind when I first visit venues. In this case the Clock Barn doesn’t have the variety or  choice you would find in most country hotels or houses. The main hall would most likely be converted for your evening reception, meaning that only one of the smaller rooms could be used for formal photographs . These rooms are visually the same, so again the choice available if dreaded rain hit, would be limited.

Further Information

Further information about The Clock Barn can be found here: http://www.wedding-venues.co.uk/clockbarn

If you would like to know any further information from me, either ask below or throw me an email.

Inside the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke.

The Holy Ghost Church, Basingstoke

The Holy Ghost Church in Basingstoke is awesome. Which feels like a strange word to use for a church- but I really was surprised by it’s grandeur. It is a hidden gem of Basingstoke. As you can see from the photograph above, the Church is lined with paintings and a splashing of gold (I know I should show this photograph in colour, but to contradict myself slightly, I prefer black and white to colour!)

The Ruins of the Holy Ghost

The Church also has the ruins of an old monastery within walking distance. Ruins – because Henry the VIII had his way with it – despite Henry, these ruins make a great photographic location.

Now, if you are wondering why there are no photographs of the ruins it’s entirely due to the unpredictable nature of public areas. In this case the ruins had become the playground of parkour/free runners. With numerous people jumping and diving around, we all decided it was best to head off to the reception venue.

Evening Reception

The Wellington Arms Hotel was the venue for the evening celebration.  This hotel is located (as the name hints) by Stratfield Saye, the home of the late Duke of Wellington (of Waterloo fame). If you look below, you’ll  notice a photograph of one of the entrance gates.

Internally the Hotel is split in two, the left side is a effectively a nice country pub and to the right consists of the Hampshire Suite which can fit approximately one hundred guests. There is another smaller room for around 30 guests, but I have yet to encounter this.

Outdoor photography opportunities

As far as photography goes the Hotel offers a medium sized un-landscaped garden to the rear. I always argue, all I need to take good photographs is a field full of people; however that scenario doesn’t always work. In this case, the grassed area is a little cut off. There is no seating or proximity to a bar, thus there is little reason for guests to naturally mingle there.  There is a small patio to the side, which fills both of these criteria, but the potential of the rear garden is unfortunately lost.

With these reviews, I  jump from a general perspective to a photographers perspective. Just above I talked about the lack of “outdoor investment”, which I suppose is my view as a photographer. However there are many venues in Hampshire which suffer from the same lack of landscaping, and frankly, especially in the winter – it doesn’t matter.

The Wellington Arms makes up for this by being a very warm and comfortable venue with excellent food – which brides, grooms, wedding guests and everyone who isn’t a photographer will probably find more important!

Further information

These wedding venue reviews could easily run for pages, so what you read here is condensed information of my opinions. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to post a comment below. Or to ask the Wellington Arms directly, visit their website: Weddings at The Wellington Arms Hotel.

The Fennes Wedding Venue

The Fennes is a Georgian Manor House in Essex, just outside Braintree.  Like many country venues,  you’ll get exclusive use of the venue by default. So you’ll avoid having awkward moments of “is this person a long lost aunty?”

My orders for this wedding put me in my preferred working style – staying subtle and blending into the background as much as possible. I also only photographed in black and white, which was brilliant as I’m a massive fan of this style of image!

The interior of the house is quite small, the front only consists of two small rooms. To the rear, a semi-permanent and seamless marquee is the main space for the wedding and wedding dinner.

Rain and Photography

As we discovered on the day, this small space can be a problem if the rain strikes! After the main wedding ceremony, a small army deploys to work on transforming the marquee area into a dining venue. Unfortunately during this period, there was nowhere to go apart from the front rooms, which were cramped. To be honest, from a guests point of view this lack of space is unlikely to be a problem. From a photographers point of view though, it was very difficult to move around. I love to fade into the wallpaper and let weddings flow without having to navigate through conversations, so my flow was subdued somewhat for 20 minutes.

And once we were able to enter the marquee – the sun came out!

Since The Fennes is out of my usual zone of Hampshire Venues, I won’t go into massive detail. But if you would like to know more, I’m happy to answer any questions you have. Get in touch!

The wedding venues website is: http://www.fennes.co.uk/

Shaw House in Newbury

In the centre of Newbury, Shaw House is an Elizabethan building which was recently given a £6 million renovation.

Although Shaw House is open to the public, I didn’t encounter anyone outside of the wedding party, so the House felt exclusive throughout the short ceremony. I was working in a reportage role, so the lack of public mingling certainly helped. As Shaw House is a registry office, you may find at weekends this exclusivity starts to fade, so before booking it is worth asking about this.

A custom made day

The bride and groom wanted a small wedding where they had a high level of control over the day. They pieced together an ad-hoc event which effectively split the day into three parts, the ceremony, a family meal and finally having a evening reception at the family home.

I think it’s fair to say the couple wanted to avoid the formality and ceremonial aspects of a wedding, so the wedding itself was very short. Within about 30 minutes we had arrived at Shaw House and left for The Wellington Arms in Baughurst. This brilliant restaurant was hired out  for the wedding party.  So no more than 10 minutes after leaving Shaw House in Newbury, we arrived for Pimms and drinks in the garden (I say we, I mean everyone had Pimms apart from me!).  It was very much a seamless transition from one location to another.

The Wellington Arms in Baughurst

The Wellington Arms (not to be confused with the Wellington Arms Hotel) is run by Jason King and Simon Page. They have clearly invested a great deal of effort and time in the creation of their restaurant. Much of their food is locally sourced if not self-produced (I assume the chickens in the rear field are not for display purposes!)

Without giving detail, as I just cannot review food – it’s an awesome place to eat.  Although due to the size, only suitable for smaller groups and definitely a place you’ll need to pre-book.

Later in the day

As I noted above, the day ended with a larger party at the family’s house. The emphasis was still very much on a close-knit family type event. I had already befriended everyone (well maybe I flatter myself), so by this stage, despite the small numbers, I could work relatively discretely.  Something which I always try to do, in balance with not being a stranger at a wedding.

A Wedding at Langrish House

Wedding venues love to claim they’re “unique” but I usually raise a cynical eyebrow when I hear it. If you feel the same way, let me justify my view that Langrish House is worthy of holding the title of a “unique” wedding venue.

Candle-lit Vaults

The venue is owned and run by the Talbot-Ponsonby family, which I think makes a massive difference in general attention to detail. It also features a “vault” under the house, which was used to hold prisoners during the English Civil War. The vault has a spooky feel to it, especially when lit by candlelight. My imagination took me down the haunted route (who knows?), but I’m not setting the best picture here! Add some wine and nice food, and the spooky-ness will soon warm to an intimate and cosy atmosphere.

In a way, I was actually sad when it didn’t rain on the day, because the vaults use became redundant; as everyone spilt outside to enjoy the sun. Rarely will you find a venue with such an interesting “if it rains” option.

Langrish House

The house itself a relatively small country hotel, with a highly rated restaurant attached (2 AA Rosettes) . It successfully hits the sweet spot between being homely and being in a hotel. More precisely, you don’t feel like you’re intruding into someone’s private life nor do you feel like a processed name on a list. The history of the house and the Talbot-Ponsonby family are referred to throughout, with the occasional historical artefact and newspaper cutting.

Outside you’ll soon make friends with the numerous chickens running around the spacious grounds. The hotel staff  “de-chicken” the front lawn to make sure it’s wedding friendly. What exactly this involves, I never asked – however chicken is on the menu!…

If you venture beyond this front lawn area, you’ll have to watch your step, as from time to time your feet may encounter a chicken “surprise”.

The Talbot Room

Weddings are held within the Talbot Room, which can easily be divided in two, depending on the size of your wedding. The larger section contains a balcony overlooking the lower level. This type of height is always useful from a photography perspective. And from a party perspective it also serves a role – as the all important bar area.

An All-Weather Venue

There’s no way of covering it up : rain is never welcome at a wedding.  However, should inclement weather strike, I would definitely want to be photographing a wedding at Langrish house. The photographic potential of the interior would warm the mood. It’s the type of place  where it would be nice to sit and enjoy some wine, whilst the rain soaks the unlucky chickens outside!

Further Information

Further information on Langrish House can be found on their website: http://www.langrishhouse.co.uk

If you would like any further information from me, either ask below or send me an email.