SURREY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Surrey wedding venues
I may be based in Sussex but I can walk to the Surrey border from my house. Many weddings I’ve shot end up being in both counties, a Surrey church and a reception in Sussex or vice versa – like this wedding in Ditchling and Ridge Farm (just up the road from me).
Surrey wedding venues vary a lot. From barns to luxury hotels. From castles to marquees in the garden.
With the county stretching from the outskirts of London, across the M25 and down towards Hampshire, the range of venues is understandable. From Hampton Court House, like this wedding that started in London, and Northbrook Park, just outside Farnham, like this wedding. Or head from Farnham castle across to say, a garden in Oxted.
Surrey offers many options, especially for London couples looking for a bit of ‘countryside’ not too far away.
Gate Street Barn
One of Surrey’s premier wedding venues that has grown a lot since it opened in 2000. Barns built in the traditional manner from trees felled by the 1987 storm. The first wedding I shot here was back in 2002, it really was just a barn then. Now it offers more space and ability to accommodate a variety of wedding days. Ceremonies and receptions. A contained wedding day in a peaceful country setting, just outside Guildford.
Nutfield Priory Hotel
A luxury hotel and spa, just outside Redhill, that sits on a site where a thirteenth-century priory once stood. The building now is a Victorian Neo-Gothic mansion built for an MP. Stained glass windows, high ceilings and dark wood-panelled walls, there is a touch of ‘Hammer Horror’ about the building. But also a touch of ‘old luxury’. A strip of garden at the back overlooks the Surrey countryside.
Millbridge Court
Just near the Surrey-Hampshire border, in Frensham, an old house converted into a smart wedding venue. Principally two big ‘halls’ – for ceremonies, dining and dancing and a very nice outdoor wedding ceremony area. Not a massive venue but that gives it a special intimacy. It lends it a ‘private house’ feel, rather than a bland hotel atmosphere. Odd for me to go here and think that an old relative did his army training at the start of WWI just nearby.
Northbrook Park
A Grade-II listed eighteenth-century country mansion, just outside Farnham. Set within 120 acres, with gardens inhabited by peacocks, you would not realise that the A31 is just next to it. The two large spaces for ceremonies and dining – The Vine Room and The Orangery. Country house wedding venue, not far from London.
Horsley Towers
Glimpsed from the A246 or viewed from across its own lake, there is a very ‘French chateau’ feel to this nineteenth-century mansion in the Surrey countryside. With towers, flint walls, an ornate chapel, and cloisters, Horsley Towers is certainly very different from many hotels/venues out there.
Great Fosters
A five-star luxury hotel near Egham in Surrey and not far from Windsor. A Grade I listed Elizabethan mansion set on 50 acres. If you are looking for an impressive, luxury wedding venue in Surrey, hard to beat this one!
RoYal Holloway College
Another Surrey wedding venue near Egham, this unique-looking college is part of the University of London. Founded as a women-only college by a Victorian entrepreneur, Pevsner described it as “the most ebullient Victorian building in the Home Counties”. It’s quite a backdrop to any wedding reception. Plus there is the College Chapel, built in 1886 if you want to hold your wedding day all on one unique site.
Ham Polo Club
Ham Polo Club, is the last remaining polo club in Greater London. Just near the river Thames and the stately home, Ham House. This is a wedding reception venue, with seating for 150 for dinner in the Clubhouse and the Rooftop Terrace, overlooking the grounds, for the drinks reception. Plenty of space also for other photos and for guests to relax.
Pembroke Lodge
Located on the edge of Richmond Park – call this Surrey or London – a Grade II listed Georgian mansion, that looks out over the Thames valley towards Windsor. This grand house started as a tiny cottage on this spot, for a molecatcher. The later house was once owned by the then Prime Minister, Lord Russell. Now it mainly operates as a premier wedding venue. The terrace in the evening sunlight is especially good.
Barnett Hill Hotel
A Queen Anne-style mansion in the Surrey Hiills (not far from Guildford). Described by one broadsheet newspaper as ‘a magnificent gingerbread-brick palace, crowned with green copper domes’. A big building, with lots of bedrooms, but the main reception rooms are not oversized ballrooms but retain some intimacy without feeling small.
Farnham Castle
Standing above the town of Farnham, looking out across the Surrey Hills, this former palace for the Bishops of Winchester. In medieval times this was the richest diocese in the country. Get married in a Surrey castle, why not? The oldest parts now sit in ruins and it is the largely fifteenth-century palace where weddings are held.
Hampton Court House
First off, NOT Henry VIII’s old gaffe, that’s just down the road. This eighteenth-century grade II listed house, on the edge of Bushy Park, is actually a school when not a wedding venue.
Ridge Farm
A sixteenth-century farmhouse on the Surrey/Sussex border. Famous for being a recording studio for the likes of Queen, Roxy Music, Ozzy Osbourne, Thin Lizzy, The Smiths, Oasis, Status Quo, and many more… The recording studio closed down in 2003 and the venue now mostly holds weddings and business meetings.
Botleys Mansion
A Surrey country house wedding venue, Botleys Mansion, near Chertsey. An eighteenth-century Palladian mansion, with a major glass-topped extension for hosting the dinner reception.
Cain Manor
A Tudor house deep in the Surrey countryside. Run by the same chain that owns Botleys Mansion. I shot a wedding here in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the staff went out of their way to make the day work still for the couple!
