Beaulieu Abbey Church wedding – Siobhan & Jack

Beaulieu Abbey Church wedding photography

Saturday’s wedding was an Anglo-American union with guests from around the world. Siobhan and Jack’s wedding was held at Beaulieu Abbey church in the New Forest. The reception, on a warm September evening, was across Southampton Water in the Royal Victoria Country Park.

Beaulieu Abbey church was originally the refectory of the thirteenth century Cistercian Beaulieu Abbey, much of which was later destroyed by Henry VIII’s vandalism. It was part of a very big complex of religious buildings that took four deacdes to build. After the ceremony a small reception in the autumnal sunshine before heading off to the main reception venue.

Wedding reception at the Royal Victoria Country Park

The reception venue, the Visitor Centre at Royal Victoria Country Park, is all that remains of the British army’s first purpose-built hospital – built after the Crimean War. In fact, it was the Chapel to the military hospital and now sits in splendid isolation within the park after the rest of the hospital was demolished in the 1960s.

So it was a case of ‘married in the canteen, dinner in the chapel‘…..but then what a ‘canteen’!

The military connection was apt, as Jack is a former Royal Marine. The Royal Marines and other elite units were very well represented in the guest list. Not every groom’s speech can be like Jack’s, thanking his friends for saving his life over a long career in some very hostile environments.

The following images hopefully give an idea of the day. The first is from later in the evening but seemed appropriate to start with, but the story really begins at the luxury boutique hotel near Lyndhurst, Limewood. Here both Siobhan and Jack got ready with family and friends. Their wedding gifts to each other were then couriered along the hotel corridor – to just a few tears!

Here are a few images from this Beaulieu Abbey church wedding…