A Hylands House wedding this coming Saturday kick starts our wedding season for 2017. With brilliant blue skies and sunshine this morning here’s hoping the spring weather is here to stay. Or at the very least for the weekend anyway!
We are very proud to be one of the preferred suppliers at Hylands House in Chelmsford, Essex. We have photographed many weddings at this particular venue. For this blog we thought we would reminisce about some recent Hylands House weddings we have shot. A great preparation for a new year of weddings starting at Hylands.
The team at Hylands House pride themselves on the flexibility the venue offers couples. Couples are free to choose all of their own suppliers. From photographers to florists as well as outside caterers and the drinks you would like to serve with your food, the choice is yours. This attracts a certain type of couple who have their own individual style and want to arrange their wedding their way. Our kind of couple!
We have been a part of such a huge variety of weddings at Hylands House and each and every wedding has been different.
Many couples have their entire wedding at the venue, from the morning bridal preparations in the beautiful upstairs bridal suite right through to dancing the night away into the small hours.
The bridal suite is a favourite of ours. It is a huge huge room. However many bridesmaids, flower girls and other visitors you may have on the morning there is plenty of room. There are large windows which provide great views over the parkland and allow the room to be flooded with beautiful natural daylight. It is therefore just right for your makeup artist and also perfect for photography.
Some of our couples have married in the drawing room with it’s high ceiling and a grand piano. The huge glass doors mean that the room is flooded with natural light. Others have walked down the aisle in the magnificent banqueting hall. An ornate golden room with painted ceilings, huge historic paintings and dramatic gold walls (we actually call it the gold room).
However not all of our brides and grooms have married at the venue. One particular couple chose to hold their traditional ceremony at Brentwood Cathedral. Sri Lankan drummers then welcomed them to their Hylands House reception. The drummers wore traditional Sri Lankan dress and danced across the front lawns creating a real spectacle. This was the perfect way to incorporate the culture of the groom and his family. It was also great for photographs!
If couples do marry elsewhere Hylands House is a special place to arrive at together. Driving along the sweeping drive through parkland with the imposing white neo-classical villa constantly in view is a very dramatic arrival.
Some of our couples book just the house. Wedding breakfasts in the banqueting room have varied from intimate afternoon teas to lavish four course meals. The tiled mosaic floor in the large entrance hall makes the perfect dance floor. Other brides and grooms following the ceremony move on to the large pavilion for the speeches, the wedding breakfast and finally the dancing.
The venue of Hylands House really does offer a huge variety of photo opportunities. The imposing white facade with huge white pillars is a real must for some shots. It is also lit up at night so we often organise some twilight shots with the couple too. It’s in a stunning parkland setting so we often take a short wander to capture some relaxed romantic images using the natural surroundings. If the weather is not so kind the interior of the house also has a wealth of photo opportunities. Who could forget the dramatic sweeping staircase?
We usually organise a huge group picture of all the guests together and Hylands House is the perfect venue for this. This set up always makes a brilliant picture. This is an image that always seems to make it into the couple’s album too. We tend to gather all the guests on the drive at the front of the building and one of us looks out of a top window to take the picture. If it is a winter wedding we use those magnificent stairs. We really don’t want all your guests standing outside in their finery getting freezing cold.
Below is a selection of images all shot at Hylands House. We hope it gives you a flavour of both our photography style and the different styles of wedding you too could hold at Hylands House.
Our Hylands House picture gallery of weddings through the seasons.