Clearwell Castle Wedding Photography || Jason & Henna’s Photos
Clearwell Castle Wedding Photography
We’ve been so looking forward to visiting Clearwell Castle as a wedding photographer for a long time. Jason & Henna’s wedding was high on our list of awesome weddings for this year!! They had a fab day planned, in amongst all this Covid chaos. A wedding ceremony lead by their Pastor from their home church, a beautiful dinner, a Chinese Tea Ceremony, sparklers and a great party!! We love seeing traditions from different cultures. The Chinese tea ceremony is always so much fun and a lovely time for the close family to come together with various offerings for the bride and groom.
Let’s talk for a little bit about this beautiful venue – Clearwell Castle. OMG, what a stunning wedding venue. Down in Gloucestershire, surrounded by the beautiful Forest of Dean is this gorgeous Grade 2 listed castle. Exclusively yours for the day of your wedding. How amazing is that! You can read all about the castle and it’s history at the bottom of this blog 🙂
The Wedding Day
So, back to the lovely bride Henna and the wedding day. When we arrived, Henna was getting ready in the Keepers Cottage there at Clearwell Castle with her parents and all her 5 bridesmaids, superstar videographer James from James Wray Weddings was there too, so it was all go! Henna was ready in such good time, she was keen and ready to go see Jason. Early! Over at the castle, everyone was arriving with boxes of decorations and accessories for the wedding, the groomsmen were greeting everyone and showing them to their seats in the great hall – Kinda organised chaos!! Love it. Such a great atmosphere.
With the ceremony finished, it was time to head outside for a few family photos before we all got too cold and took refuge inside the castle by the open log fire for a while. Henna and Jason had planned lots of time to enjoy the drinks reception, so we were all able to relax and enjoy a drink (well not us of course…we’re always running around like crazy planning the next 10 steps ahead of us behind the scenes!), but everyone else was nice and relaxed! After we had a chance to warm up, we headed back out and found a couple of nice spots for photos in good light. A bamboo plant made for some lovely intimate photos with nice wide apertures on the beautiful 35mm lens. Clearwell Castle, from the point of view of a wedding photographer, is beautiful and really suits our style.
The Wedding breakfast
Then, just before the wedding breakfast, Henna took the chance for a quick wedding dress change, but not before a couple of photos on the stunning staircase. Normally, we avoid photos on stairs like the plague as they’re usually a bit underwhelming, but the staircase there at Clearwell is beautiful – it’s wide, with lots of space, flooded with beautiful sidelight, so it’s the perfect place for bridal portraits to show off that amazing wedding dress from Davids Bridal.
Dinner was followed by speeches, and then the lovely Chinese Tea Ceremony, before we all took to the darkness outside for sparklers before the first dance. THEN the party got started. The nice thing about this wedding was there wasn’t a huge amount of drinking happening, yet everyone hit the dance floor hard, right from the first song and partied all night long!
Henna & Jason – It was so nice to finally get to know you guys and to meet all your friends and family. I hope you’re staying safe out there now, and looking forward to that honeymoon when were all allowed out again!
Here are a few of our favourite images while we work on your full gallery. Our only rules are: Find a screen bigger than your phone, turn it up LOUD and enjoy!
Clearwell Castle History
So Clearwell castle. What more could you ask for from this fairytale castle for a wedding day. There are lots of manicured grounds for photos, accommodation for your guests to stay the night and above all, an underground club-style bar for the late evening party. Therefore, in our eyes, it’s perfect. If you’re interested in the architecture, it’s a Grade II* listed Gothic Revival mansion. Originally named Clearwell Court, it was redesigned and re-built by Thomas Wyndham in 1727 with substantial alterations to the existing Clearwell Mansion.
20th Century Castle
Fast forward to the 20th Century. Clearwell Castle was renamed in 1908, used for a little while but then was left empty until 1953. It was then bought and restored by the son of the former estate under-gardener, Frank Yeates. Frank was a baker and sold his family-run bakery business in Blackpool to transform the castle. Working tirelessly with his friends and family, he turned it into somewhere really special. As a result, it became sought after in the music business it was used as a rehearsal and recording studio for rock legends, including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple & Queen. How cool is that!?
Now it’s a glorious, family-run, multi-award winning wedding venue. Seriously, go check it out.
Get in touch with them to have your wedding at this special venue:
Email: info@clearwell-castle.co.uk
Tel: 01594 832 320
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