“Thank you so much for the photos and slideshow – they are amazing! They’ve turned out brilliantly!”
A relaxed & informal wedding in the Cotswolds, photographed by Robin
As Midlands wedding photographers we’ve seen many ‘laid back ‘weddings over the years but I think this one stands out as possibly the most laid-back wedding we’ve seen to date. A beautiful country manor house in the Cotswolds, a relatively small number of guests, street food, a complete lack of formality and the kind of sultry, hot weather that makes everything slow down. This was N&J’s wedding, held in July at Charingworth House.
A Charingworth House Wedding
Charingworth House is a beautiful Cotswold-stone building situated in the most northernmost part of Gloucestershire. It’s close to the borders of both Worcestershire and Warwickshire but is very much part of the Cotswolds. Strictly-speaking it’s not actually a ‘wedding venue’ as-such, but is more a place that can be hired for private events. Legal wedding ceremonies can’t take place here, however it is a perfect venue for a blessing or other celebrant-led ceremony. It’s located almost next door to the Hyll Hotel – formerly known as Charingworth Manor Hotel – and the similarity of names did cause a bit of confusion at first and still does on search results!
N&J’s day was covered by Robin alone for about 8 hours, starting in the early afternoon. He arrived nice and early to have a good look around the venue and get his bearings on where everything was to take place. Guests started to arrive shortly afterwards and congregated in and around the large kitchen with a drink to gently ease into the day and the bride made her final preparations before the ceremony was due to begin around 3pm.
Wedding ceremony on the lawn at Charingworth House
The venue features a large, well-kept lawn at the rear of the property, overlooking the Cotswold countryside. It was here that N&J’s ceremony took place in the hot afternoon sunshine.
What’s particularly nice about ceremonies that are led by a celebrant (rather than a registrar as for a legal service) – is the personal nature of how the ceremony is conducted. There’s more time for stories from the couple’s past and none of the ‘rushing off’ that legal registrars often have to do. With N&J’s ceremony it was even more of a personal ceremony as it was conducted by the groom’s mum, who is herself training to be a celebrant.
Relaxed afternoon & couple photos
With the ceremony wrapped up it was time for the afternoon celebrations to begin. With no formal schedule, everyone just relaxed into the latter part of the afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and sipping drinks. It was so nice not to have a rigid structure to have to work to. Even the requested group photos were small in number and took moments to arrange.
By late afternoon much of the sting of the summer sun had subdued and it seemed a good time get N&J away from the crowd for a short time for some photos of them alone. Robin didn’t want to keep them away from the party for long, so kept this first couple session short and to the immediate surroundings of Charingworth House.
Food & Speeches
As the shadows slowly began to get longer and the afternoon sun gave way to a beautiful, balmy evening, it was time for food. N&J brought in two different caterers for their wedding and the first – Yaard Hut served up a selection of Jamaican street food, which went down very well with everyone.
At this time there were also some speeches, followed by a few games for everyone to get involved with. This was quite a competitive crowd, and with the heat of the day now cooling, both the cornhole and giant Connect-4 became hotspots of the early evening.
Evening couple photo shoot
Around 8pm the light was absolutely gorgeous so it was time to take N&J off again for a few pictures. This time Robin took them a little bit further, using the leafy lane directly outside Charingworth House, which by that time had a dreamy, sun-drenched look, with the setting sun backlighting the couple. Once again, this is quite a short photo session and twenty minutes later we were back with the crowd.
Evening games, sunset & pizza
So the final part of the evening (at least for Robin) took place during the final slice of daylight and the warm afterglow of the sunset. Again, the competitive spirit of the crowd kicked in as everyone took turns to throw basketball hoops.
The crop field at the back of the venue gardens was glowing and it seemed right and proper to get the couple into the wheat (carefully!) to take advantage of the beautiful conditions before everyone returned to the group games – this time it was the classic egg & spoon race!
The second caterer for N&J’s day was Del Vecchio’s Pizza who produced what seemed like a never-ending supply of mouthwatering wood-fired pizzas. There may be more a more perfect food choice than pizza for the last part of a wedding day, but we’ve yet to find it :-)
Final thoughts
N&J’s wedding was an absolute delight to cover. Not only were the couple great, but so were the entire crowd of friends and family they had around them. This was one of the most relaxed and care-free weddings we’ve covered. The pace of the day, the food and overall vibe was perfect. The lack of formality took nothing away from N&J’s wedding, in fact it added to it, resulting in a day that was not only a pleasure to be involved with, but also so much fun to actually photograph. A new venue to explore, some challenging light and heat to deal with at times, but a beautifully photogenic venue that brought with it some fantastic photo opportunities. A really big thank you to the couple :-)
Suppliers for this wedding
Venue:
Charingworth House, Gloucestershire
Catering:
Yaard Hut Caribbean Street Food
Bar:
The Tipsy Rose Mobile Bar
Hair & Makeup:
Aglaia Hair and Makeup:
Planning your wedding at Charingworth House?
If you’re planning a relaxed wedding without many of the formalities that come with more traditional venues, Charingworth House deserves a closer look.
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