Great Fosters Winter Wedding

A little bit of a throwback to a beautiful Great Fosters Winter wedding with Amy and Ian. We were truly blessed with the most perfect Winters day. A dusting of snow the previous day created beautiful backdrops for Amy and Ian’s wedding photographs.

Great Fosters is a stunning venue located in Egham, Surrey. It is a Tudor style building that was used as a hunting lodge for Henry VIII, often travelled to from his main residence at Hampton Court. It is without doubt one of my Top 3 Surrey wedding venues. The main house itself, is as you can imagine, steeped in original features and the bridal prep room has actually been slept in by Henry VIII!

The grounds at Great Fosters are gorgeous, whether its a Winter wedding or Summer wedding, you really won’t be disappointed by the variety of backdrops for your celebrations. There is the maze garden, which for me is one of the main features. This makes a great photo if you can get a vantage point (see my feature image above).

There are two water features, one of which is a Saxon moat that wraps around the rear of the maze garden and leads to a wonderful wooden Japanese bridge. This bridge looks especially stunning in Spring when the wisteria is is full bloom; I love using this bridge for photographs of the bride and groom and also small group pictures. Just be aware of the Canadian geese, they can be a little feisty!

Amy and her bridesmaids prepared for the day in the main bridal suite. With it’s historical Tudor style decor, it can be a little on the dark side, but I think this helps add to the ambience. The mood in the room was filled with excitement. Amy is a huge Disney fan and her bridesmaids had arranged for heart shaped helium wedding balloons and beautiful Mickey Mouse shaped cake pops.

The ceremony took place in the Orangery – I love this room as it is always filled with natural light, further enhanced with Amy’s chosen wedding colours of yellow and white. Ian looked nervous whilst waiting for Amy to walk up the aisle. Images from this part of the day are some of my favourites, you never know how grooms will react, some have nervous laughter and others are truly emotional. He certainly had a huge smile on his face when arrived! The ceremony was filled with love and laughter, and being at the front of the ceremony, I have the perfect spot to document those little “I love you” glances.

Post ceremony we headed into the Painted room for drinks and canapes. It may have been chilly outside but nothing that couldn’t be solved by wrapping up in faux fur wraps before heading out into the gardens. Amy was brave and the Winter Sun created some beautiful light to work with, lot’s of natural lens flare.

The wedding breakfast took place in the main barn area, with roaring open fires it was a welcome relief from the cold and smelt wonderful. The speeches were funny and lot’s of stories shared from Amy and Ian’s childhood and drunken adventures, this led to lot’s of head in hands moments. These two are blessed with incredibly warm, loving and very funny families and friends, whom I’m sure will be there to help support them through the adventure of marriage.

If you’re considering a Great Fosters Winter Wedding, please do get in touch, I’d love to hear about your wedding plans ♥