Weddings in Colchester: England's Oldest Recorded Town

Colchester claims to be England's oldest recorded town — a Roman legionary fortress, Camulodunum, established in AD 43 as the first capital of Roman Britain. Its Norman castle (built directly on Roman temple foundations), its stretches of Roman wall, and its medieval and Georgian townscape give wedding photographs here a historical depth and architectural variety of literally two thousand years. For couples drawn to genuine antiquity, Colchester has no rival in south-east England.

Colchester Castle and Castle Park

Colchester Castle keep is the largest surviving Norman castle keep in England — larger than the Tower of London. Built over the vaults of the Roman Temple of Claudius, it has a bulk and imposing quality that no other English castle outside the Welsh border fortresses matches. The castle park surrounding it — 17 acres of formal gardens, rose beds, and mature tree avenues — gives portrait settings with Roman-Norman-Victorian architectural layers simultaneously visible.

The castle's south-facing facade in afternoon light is excellent for ceremony group shots; the rose garden immediately to the south of the keep is one of the finest formal garden portrait spaces in north Essex. The Dutch Quarter of medieval timbered buildings immediately north of the castle gives narrow street portraits with authentic medieval character.

The Roman Walls

Colchester's Roman walls are among the best-preserved in England — massive courses of Roman tile-and-stone bonded coursing, still standing in places to their full Roman height, running for over 1000 metres around the town. The Balkerne Gate (the largest surviving Roman gateway in Britain) at the west of the town is an extraordinary architectural survivor from the 1st century AD. The combination of Roman masonry — warm orange tile, coursed grey stone — with the gardens planted along the wall line gives portrait settings of vivid colour and historical resonance.

Wedding Venues in and Around Colchester

Beyond Colchester

Colchester sits at the gateway to both the Essex coast and the Suffolk border. The Colne Estuary — Mersea Island, Brightlingsea, and the tidal creeks of the north Essex marshes — is 15 minutes south. The Suffolk border and Dedham Vale (Constable Country) are 15 minutes north. The combination of an urban ceremony in Colchester with portrait sessions in Dedham Vale or on the Mersea Island foreshore gives extraordinary photographic variety within a very small geographical radius.