It’s fair to say that Castle Howard (setting for many TV programmes and films including both the original TV version of Brideshead Revisited and the recent big screen remake) near Malton in North Yorkshire is one of our favourite venues for wedding photography.
Partly and perhaps obviously because of it’s grandeur and partly because it just happens to be 8 miles from our studio front door (or maybe our studio front door is 8 miles from Castle Howard…which is more likely based on the number of visitors we get in comparison).
It is an on-going privilege to be an officially recommended wedding photographer for Castle Howard and an honour that a great deal of the photography featured on their website and in the brochure, we were commissioned for.
A question we are often asked is, “have you worked at such and such a venue before?” and sometimes we have and sometimes we haven’t, generally preferring the inspiration that comes from haven’t.
But in the case of Castle Howard, we make an exception and believe it’s quite an important factor on two counts.
First, the fact that weddings do not and cannot (currently) take place until 5pm which means a fairly compressed wedding ‘day’.
The second factor is the sheer size and scale of the place, – it’s not a question of what do you shoot and where, but what are the priorities and what do you miss out?
For instance, if a bride and groom want some photography/filming at/close to the Temple of the Four Winds, then it’s at least a 15 minute walk in each direction that needs to be factored in to the already short timescale.
The Atlas fountain is usually another ‘must’ and the interiors of course are to die for…but take time to get around (usually coordinated with a tour around the principle rooms for the guests).
Tough place to work?
Well we never work harder or faster than at Castle Howard, but it’s always worth the effort!
We try and limit our visits to any venue to just 3 per annum (keeps us inspired!), but we couldn’t resist taking a 4th booking for wedding photography at Castle Howard this year on top of the 3 weddings we have already covered at the venue. Considering how few there have been, that makes us something of a Castle Howard wedding photography regulars.
We have also filmed weddings twice there now and on this site, you will find various full/complete actual Castle Howard weddings…and not some snap of the place that someone took on a family visit the other weekend!
In order to view a recent Castle Howard wedding, click one of the links below:
Anna & Tom
Liang & Chris