Ragley Hall wedding | Morag & James

Ragley Hall wedding photography

Morag and James’s wedding was in Warwickshire, on chilly Saturday in April.

Coverage starts in the local pub. A quick drink for the groom and friends in the Mason’s Arms, in the village of Long Marston, about 5 miles southwest of Stratford-upon-Avon. Bard country. The church where the ceremony would take place, was just a short stroll up the road for them, at St James the Great church in the village.

Warwickshire wedding reception venue

The church service in Long Marston was then followed by a wedding reception at Ragley Hall, just a few miles away across the country, near Alcester. All that was needed was a nice warm Spring day, so people could enjoy the grounds of this stately home. It didn’t rain, and the sun came out occasionally but it wasn’t warm, as April continued to impersonate February. So respect to Morag for braving the cold to pose for more photos when the sun did make an appearance during the wedding breakfast.

Ragley Hall is a Grade I listed mansion set in a big estate that has been in the ownership of the same family for 300 years. A large Palladian mansion set in over 1000 acres of estate land and home to the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford. Ragley is the seat of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. The Seymours count among their forbears Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII. The house was designed in 1680 by Robert Hooke, a friend of Sir Christopher Wren, and Capability Brown created the surrounding parkland scheme. One odd fact, the term ‘Ragley’… means ‘rubbish dump’ in old Saxon. Not the words that spring to mind when you see the vast Great Hall in the house.

Here are a few images from this wedding at Ragley Hall, a country stately house seemingly named after a ‘rubbish dump’…