Real Wedding: A Classic Celebration at a Kent Country Estate

Classic Kent Wedding at a Country Estate

Kent calls itself the Garden of England, and in late spring the description seems entirely fair. The orchards are in blossom, the oast houses — those distinctive conical-roofed hop-drying kilns found throughout the county — punctuate the landscape, and the quality of the high-pressure Kentish light on a clear May day is extraordinarily clean and useful for photography.

Victoria and Edward married at a Jacobean manor house in the Weald of Kent, an estate that had been in the same family since the early 19th century. The house itself was open for the wedding; the ceremony took place in the estate library, the reception on the long south lawn.

The Estate Library

The library ceremony is one of the most photographically intimate settings available. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, warm lamplight, the accumulated presence of centuries of reading — and in the centre of it all, two people making a promise. The library at this estate seated forty-five guests and felt perfectly proportioned.

The light through the south-facing sash windows was the key technical element. Late morning in May, the light was almost horizontal at 10am, raking across the room and picking up the spines of the books and the textures of the couple's faces with beautiful, warm directional light.

The Walled Garden and Orchard

Behind the house, a Victorian walled garden — mellow red brick, espaliered fruit trees, beds of cut flowers — provided the best portrait setting of the day. Victoria's oyster-pink dress against the warm brick and the early summer flowers produced a colour palette that could not have been more precisely tuned.

The old orchard beyond the wall, its apple trees still holding the last of the blossom, was where the most natural couple moments came. No direction needed — just two people walking slowly through a beautiful space that felt entirely their own.

The South Lawn Reception

The reception on the south lawn — marquee on the grass, long tables, the house facade as backdrop — was exactly the English country house wedding that the venue promised. The speeches were excellent; the evening band was excellent; and the view of the house from the far end of the lawn at dusk, with the first stars appearing and the marquee glowing warmly on the lawn, was one of those images that makes you grateful for the work.