Worcestershire Wedding Venues — A Photographer’s Guide

Worcestershire Wedding Venues

I’m not sure if there is a Guin­ness Book of Records entry for the coun­ty with the most wed­ding venues per capi­ta. But when your busi­ness is wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy you get a pret­ty good idea for these things. I’d say that the sheer num­ber of Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Venues means that it’s in the running!

Maybe it’s being in the heart of Eng­land, so close to lots of places with demand for wed­dings? I won­dered if it was an espe­cial­ly big coun­ty, so I Googled it, and it’s not! It’s 34th out of 40 coun­ties in terms of size!!

It only has one city, in Worces­ter, but lots of towns and loads of love­ly coun­try­side, which is where most of the wed­ding venues are which I’ve photographed. 

From Kid­der­min­ster and Broms­grove in the north down to Malvern and Eve­sham in south. Red­ditch in the east and Ten­bury Wells to the west. With Worces­ter itself, as a mag­nif­i­cent jew­el in the crown in the cen­tre. Every­where you look there seem to be venues and oppor­tu­ni­ties for Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Photography. 

So, in this blog I’m going to high­light some of them for you, because I’m good like that!!

If you’re want­i­ng to get straight to a par­tic­u­lar area then click on these links

Kid­der­min­ster Wed­ding Venues

Broms­grove & Red­ditch Wed­ding Venues

Eve­sham Wed­ding Venues

Worces­ter Wed­ding Venues

Kidderminster Wedding Venues

Up in the north-east of the coun­ty, real­ly close to Shrop­shire and Stafford­shire you’ve got Kid­der­min­ster. Bor­dered by the Wyre For­est Nation­al Nature Reserve to the west and Stour­port on Sev­ern to the south, some of the Worces­ter­shire wed­ding venues in the area are:-

Hartlebury Castle

Q. When is a cas­tle not a castle?

A. When it’s Hartle­bury Castle!

Ok, so why is it called a cas­tle if it’s not a cas­tle? A very good ques­tion and one I’ve done a bit of research in to and man­aged to find the answer.

Until 2007, Hartle­bury Cas­tle was the offi­cial res­i­dence of the Bish­op of Worces­ter, with the cur­rent build­ing con­struct­ed in the mid 13th cen­tu­ry, although the land has been used for that pur­pose since 855. Yes, that’s right, I’ve not missed a cen­tu­ry off that date, the site has been used to house the Bish­op for over a thou­sand years! 

It used to be called a Manor until for­ti­fi­ca­tions were built dur­ing the Eng­lish Civ­il War and it became known as a castle.

The for­ti­fi­ca­tions have now gone, as has the Bish­op, but what remains is an amaz­ing Grade 1 list­ed build­ing, res­cued by a char­i­ta­ble trust to pre­serve it. As well as being a muse­um, they also host wed­dings and gives you some amaz­ing choic­es for the cer­e­mo­ny. There is the Medieval Great Hall, Geor­gian Saloon and Bishop’s Study plus the car­riage cir­cle out front, per­fect for space hop­per races!

All in all, a stun­ning place to get mar­ried and per­fect for a Worces­ter­shire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er like me.

Hogarth’s Stone Manor

Stone Manor was built in the 1920s, as a pri­vate coun­try house. Then in the ear­ly 1970s it was used first­ly as a coun­try club before becom­ing a hotel a few years later.

There have been a few addi­tions to the build­ing over the years to add more bed­rooms and facil­i­ties, but it still retains that coun­try manor feel and charm.

There are indoor and out­door options for the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny itself along with the Gar­den Room where you’ll have the wed­ding recep­tion. The hotel has some­thing like 5 acres of grounds, includ­ing man­i­cured lawns, woods and a walled garden. 

I’ve pho­tographed a cou­ple of wed­dings at Stone Manor and delight­ed to be back there again soon!

Brockencote Hall Hotel

This is anoth­er hotel wed­ding venue that real­ly does­n’t feel like it’s a hotel!

Built in 1869 as a fam­i­ly home it was orig­i­nal­ly a Vic­to­ri­an style man­sion. Then, in the 1940s, new own­ers the But­ler fam­i­ly (from Mitchell & But­ler the brew­ers!) gave it a major over­haul fol­low­ing a fire. Inspired by their trav­els they remod­elled it as the French-style chateau you see today.

Out­side, it’s got 70 acres of park­land, a lake and a restored dove­cote. There’s a lawn to one side for gar­den games and a ter­race at the rear

Inside, Brock­en­cote Hall has a real­ly sump­tu­ous feel to it and the food is delicious!

Rock Village Hall

If you imag­ine a vil­lage hall you might think ‘quaint’, seen bet­ter days, in need of a bit of TLC? In which case, you’ve not seen Rock Vil­lage Hall!

I’ve done Worces­ter­shire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy here a cou­ple of times so know it fair­ly well.

It was built about 15 years ago and feels quite like a barn wed­ding venue inside. It’s got a well stocked kitchen for the cater­er to use and a room to set up as a bar. Out­side you’ve got the mil­len­ni­um green where you can set up gar­den games and great views over the Worces­ter­shire countryside. 

The build­ing has ground source heat and solar pan­els so does a great job of tick­ing the sus­tain­abil­i­ty box.

It’s not licensed so you’d need to make plans to have your cer­e­mo­ny else­where. There’s a 12th cen­tu­ry Nor­man church just up the road in the vil­lage, if you want­ed a reli­gious wed­ding. Kid­der­min­ster reg­istry office isn’t that far away, or you could do the legal stuff pri­or to the day and have a blessing.

Arley House & Arboretum

Arley Arbore­tum is some­where that I know well, hav­ing vis­it­ed many times with my wife and kids.

For those of you who have been, what you might not know is that nes­tled away out of sight is Arley House and you can get mar­ried there!

You can have your entire day in Arley House or opt to have your wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny in the glo­ri­ous sur­round­ings of the Ital­ian Gar­den with­in the Arboretum.

There’s also the option to have your recep­tion in a tipi, right in front of the entrance!

Hagley Hall

This is a venue that I knew noth­ing about until I was booked to pho­to­graph a wed­ding there. I’ve been to the Lyt­tel­ton Arms, named after the Lord who built Hagley Hall which is set in acres of parkland.

It’s a beau­ti­ful Pal­la­di­an house with Roco­co dec­o­ra­tion inside.

Some­thing that was extra spe­cial about the wed­ding pic­tured here is that the Bride’s par­ents had got mar­ried there them­selves and now live fair­ly close.

It’s always enjoy­able being a Kid­der­min­ster, Worces­ter­shire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy, but this con­nec­tion to the past made it extra special. 

West Midlands Safari Park

Now, have you ever thought about get­ting mar­ried in a zoo?!

Well, you can.… sort of!

With­in the grounds of the safari park you have Spring Grove House, a Geor­gian man­sion which is one of the three wed­ding venues they have.

You’re actu­al­ly hid­den away from the vis­i­tors to the safari park but an ani­mal encounter or safari dri­ve can be incor­po­rat­ed into the day.

Mill Barns

One more venue which is pret­ty close to Kid­der­min­ster, but is actu­al­ly in Shrop­shire, is Mill Barns. You can read more about it on my blog. 

Bromsgrove Wedding Venues

Mov­ing over to the east and the War­wick­shire bor­der and you’ve got Broms­grove and Red­ditch. Clos­er to Birm­ing­ham and very handy for the M42! Let’s take a look at some of the fab Worces­ter­shire wed­ding venues that I’ve had the plea­sure to pho­to­graph at in the area:-

Avoncroft Museum

What do you pic­ture when you think of a museum? 

Exhibits in a cab­i­net perhaps? 

Not at Avon­croft Muse­um, def­i­nite­ly not.

You see, Avon­croft Muse­um is a muse­um of build­ings, actu­al prop­er build­ings. That have been res­cued, relo­cat­ed and rebuilt in Worcestershire.

There’s a wind­mill, a gaol, an old co-op and a mis­sion church, plus many more. All spread out across 19 acres of lands.

They’re also got the Guesten Hall which has the res­cued 14th roof from Worces­ter Cathe­dral and is where you’d have your wed­ding. You can read more her on my blog about an Avon­croft Muse­um wed­ding.

Bordesley Park

Bor­des­ley Park is a venue that offers you lots of choice for your wed­ding day.

There’s a 16th cen­tu­ry manor house at the heart of the estate, that can be a back­drop to your wed­ding photos.

Then, there’s the Tudor Barn for your wed­ding recep­tion and either Bish­ops Barn or the Orchard Mar­quee for the rest of your day, depend­ing upon num­bers and the vibe you want to go for!

There’s loads of out­door space for sum­mer drinks, gar­den games or fire pits and marsh­mal­lows in the evening.

Check it out!

Gorcott Hall

Being a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er I get to see lots of dif­fer­ent venues and you come across lots of fas­ci­nat­ing history.

Take Gor­cott Hall, a 16th cen­tu­ry, grade II list­ed Tudor man­sion near Redditch.

The sto­ry is that is was the loca­tion for a roman­tic tryst between Queen Eliz­a­beth I and the Earl of Leices­ter, a local wid­ow­er. The rela­tion­ship would have caused a scan­dal so had to be con­duct­ed in secret, with Gor­cott Hall being the set­ting for one of the illic­it ren­dezvous. Quite a history!

Move for­wards about 400 years and Gor­cott Hall is now owned by Allie & Mark, both as their fam­i­ly home and wed­ding venue.

I can’t think of many oth­er wed­ding venues where the own­ers are as involved in the day as Allie & Mark. They are BRILLIANT and take of every­thing to ensure that your day runs smoothly.

From my point of view, as a Doc­u­men­tary Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­ph­er it’s great when the peo­ple run­ning it are both chilled but also on it. A relaxed, well run day is per­fect to pho­to­graph, to cap­ture all the joy and the fun. 

Manor Hill House

Some­thing a bit dif­fer­ent here. 

A coun­try wed­ding venue which is modern!

Manor Hill House is a con­tem­po­rary wed­ding venue with lots of land. 

Very styl­ish, think a sump­tu­ous AirBnB coun­try house you can use to get mar­ried in!

They’ve got places inside where you can have the cer­e­mo­ny, or out­side on the lawn. Then, if you need lots of space for your recep­tion, there’s a per­ma­nent mar­quee too

Grafton Manor

The last Broms­grove Wed­ding venue I’m going to men­tion is anoth­er hotel that does­n’t look like a hotel, Grafton Manor.

With a his­to­ry going back cen­turies it was the fam­i­ly seat of suc­ces­sive Earls of Shrews­bury, a title which at times was held by the Tal­bot Fam­i­ly. One of the Tal­bot fam­i­ly’s oth­er res­i­dences was Alton Towers!

These days, it’s pri­vate­ly owned by John Mor­ris who runs it both as a hotel/wedding venue and also pri­vate fam­i­ly home.

For your wed­ding, as well as an option for an inti­mate cer­e­mo­ny with­in Grafton Manor itself. there’s also John Mor­ris Hall next door. What was once a chapel is now decon­se­crat­ed and is licensed for civ­il weddings.

A small­er wed­ding break­fast can be held with­in the manor or they have a per­ma­nent gar­den mar­quee over­look­ing the lake for a larg­er do. 

Evesham Wedding Venues

Mov­ing down to the south east of Worces­ter­shire now and we have Eve­sham. It’s famous for the fruit & veg­eta­bles grown in the sur­round­ing coun­try­side and aspara­gus in par­tic­u­lar! Right on the north­ern edge of the Cotswolds it’s got some won­der­ful wed­ding venues near by. Here goes! :-

The Fleece Inn

Now, how many pubs do the Nation­al Trust own? Quite pos­si­bly, just this one, The Fleece Inn at Bretforton!

It’s old, very old. 15th cen­tu­ry to be precise.

Half tim­ber built, low ceil­ings, walls slop­ing at rather crazy angles, a piece of history.

There’s a barn with­in what is essen­tial­ly the pun beer gar­den. Although how many beer gar­dens are large enough to con­tain an orchard?!

It’s rus­tic, quaint, his­toric, and gen­er­al­ly pret­ty fab!

Have a read of the blog about The Fleece if you want to see more

Deer Park Hall

Some­times a venue has a name that per­haps is a nod back to days gone by, a ref­er­ence to the past.

Not with Deer Park Hall. It’s so named because.… you guessed.…. they’ve got a herd of deer!!

Red and Fal­low deer roam around the grounds and there’s also a vine­yard so you can drink home-pro­duced wine if you wish.

The views across the val­ley towards the Malvern Hills (with many oth­er Worces­ter­shire wed­ding venues prob­lem hid­den away!) are stun­ning and the options for your wed­ding are just as good.

For your cer­e­mo­ny you can go indoors in the oak-pan­elled hall, or maybe go alfres­co. Your guests real­ly get to soak up the out­door atmos­phere if you get mar­ried on the lawn. Tell them to bring the sun­cream though!

For lat­er on, there’s the Bre­don Room, with more amaz­ing views!

Lapstone Barn

We’re def­i­nite­ly in the Cotswolds here but only 20 min­utes from Evesham. 

Lap­stone Barn is a tra­di­tion­al Cotswold 18th cen­tu­ry stone barn, used as a work­ing farm until the 1980s. It’s now a beau­ti­ful rur­al wed­ding venue.

There’s Stone Barn for your cer­e­mo­ny and North­wick Barn for the wed­ding break­fast. Then, in the evening there’s Tan­ners Bar for drinks and the snug if you want to chill! 

Springhill House and Barn

So at Springhill House & Barn you have the lake­side Vic­to­ri­an House and then a large rus­tic barn. 

It’s not licensed, so you’d need to get mar­ried else­where. But drinks by the lake, a huge court­yard for games and then a love­ly barn for to eat, drink and make merry!

Dumbleton Hall

The last one I’m going to men­tion in the Eve­sham area is also in the Cotswolds, Dum­b­le­ton Hall Hotel.

Do you know what I mean by Cotswold stone? A yel­lowy lime­stone that starts to appear once you get far enough south of Birmingham.

You find entire vil­lages made with the stone, like sleepy Dum­b­le­ton, right on the edge of the Worcestershire/Gloucestershire bor­der. There’s a Church, a vic­arage and vil­lage club. But what it also has, which not many vil­lages do, is a stun­ning 19th cen­tu­ry coun­try house, Dum­b­le­ton Hall, now used as a lux­u­ry hotel and wed­ding venue.

The hotel has var­i­ous dif­fer­ent spaces for your cer­e­mo­ny includ­ing the The Oak Room with wood pan­els, The Shire Room for an inti­mate cer­e­mo­ny or the gaze­bo for an out door ceremony.

Worcester Wedding Venues

So, to end this round up of Worces­ter­shire wed­ding venues in, lets take a look at some around Worces­ter itself. 

A cathe­dral city. I’ve actu­al­ly pho­tographed one wed­ding at the cathe­dral itself! You don’t get many wed­dings there as you have to be able to show that you’ve a con­nec­tion with it, but what a venue!

It’s a very his­toric place with Anglo-Sax­on, Medieval, and Civ­il War impor­tance, to name just a few aspects of it’s story. 

With all that rich his­to­ry it’s no won­der that it has inter­est­ing and diverse wed­ding venues sur­round­ing it:-

Whitbourne Hall

The wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny that took place at Worces­ter Cathe­dral used Whit­bourne Hall for their recep­tion, and what a fas­ci­nat­ing place. 

It’s a grade II, Pal­la­di­an style coun­try house in 9 acres of gar­dens. For the house, think Jane Austen. For the gar­dens, think Ital­ian villa. 

It’s a pri­vate res­i­dence which can be hired for exclu­sive use as a wed­ding venue and they only take 10 book­ings a year — very exclusive!

Crumplebury

Less than a mile away from Whit­bourne Hall, but oh so dif­fer­ent, you have Crum­ple­bury.

It’s a very mod­ern, styl­ish events venue that feels like an art gallery inside. Lots of light, lots of space, great con­tem­po­rary vibe.

It’s owned and run by the peo­ple behind Green Cow Kitchens who have a farm-to-fork ethos. 

There are both indoor and out­door spaces for your wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny and the stun­ning Grand Hall for your wed­ding breakfast.

Curradine Barns

Cur­ra­dine Barns is a col­lec­tion of 19th-cen­tu­ry tra­di­tion­al red brick barns in the vil­lage of Shrawley.

There’s the Gra­nary Barn for your wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny Bar­ley Barn for the wed­ding break­fast. I’ve pho­tographed a few wed­dings at Cur­ra­dine Barns and always love going there.

They’ve got an upstairs space for prep and also some farm­hous­es, so both of you can get ready there if you wish.

The Gra­nary Barn has oodles of charm and char­ac­ter for your cer­e­mo­ny with the Bar­ley Barn hav­ing been recent­ly extend­ed to give you more room for dining.

Talk­ing of din­ing, the food is amaz­ing and they’ve got an out­door kitchen and piz­za oven for the evening food. 

Holt Fleet

Well, you can’t get much clos­er to the riv­er than The Holt Fleet!

We’re talk­ing right on the banks of the Riv­er Sev­ern, just out­side the vil­lage of Omberse­ly and only 4 miles from Worcester. 

The first pho­to is of the impres­sive Thomas Telford Bridge which has a great view down on the venue — but watch out for the traffic!

Although The Holt Fleet is known by a lot of peo­ple as a pub/restaurant, they’ve also got their own func­tion rooms and pri­vate out­side space for weddings

Bennett’s Willow Farm

On the edge of Worces­ter you’ve got Manor Farm, which has been run the Ben­nett fam­i­ly for 5 generations.

They added a farm cafe with events space and then also a yurt, per­fect or a rus­tic feel wedding. 

Ben­net­t’s Wil­low Farm has a wood­land area, out­door space and a glamp­ing site.

What I love about here is that it gives you all the rur­al charm of a remote coun­try­side venue but it’s on the doorstep!

Worcester Guildhall

The Guild­hall is right in the heart of Worces­ter and dates back to 1721. It’s had var­i­ous civic func­tions of the years includ­ing being a court and a jail.

Today, amongst oth­er things, it hosts weddings.

You can have the cer­e­mo­ny and wed­ding break­fast there, but you can only hire the Guild­hall up until 6pm. So if you’re want­i­ng to par­ty long into the night then you might need to think about hav­ing an ‘after par­ty’ venue too!

Bredenbury Court Barns

Pho­tograph­ing a wed­ding at Bre­den­bury Court Barns is a bit like try­ing to catch a bus. 

You wait ages to get booked for a wed­ding there, then two book­ings come along at once!

Suf­fice to say, I can’t wait for my first expe­ri­ence there and hope it will become one of many.

The venue is in the grounds of a manor house with glo­ri­ous views of the coun­try­side. The barn is built with rus­tic oak tim­bers and floor to ceil­ing windows.

There’s The Orangery, built in the 1920s, where you can have your wed­ding ceremony.

Then the Oak Barn is where you’ll eat and party.

Music Festival

Ok, so this need­n’t be unique to Worces­ter­shire, there are music fes­ti­vals every­where. But what a cool way to spend the week­end of your wedding!

The cer­e­mo­ny was actu­al­ly in Here­ford­shire, at Malvern Reg­istry Office, then a pub lunch to follow. 

Before the vin­tage dou­ble-deck­er bus took all the wed­ding guests to the Sun­shine Music fes­ti­val in Upton Upon Severn.

As well as their tents they’d set up a small gazebo/marquee with a bar in it. 

Plus, their first dance had to be on one of the biggest dance floors there is!!

Farm Wedding

One final sug­ges­tion for you for Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Venues — have your wed­ding on the farm!

The images are from one par­tic­u­lar wed­ding I did, not too far from Kid­der­min­ster. You can read more about it on this blog about their Worces­ter­shire Farm Wed­ding.

Of course, not every­one lives on a farm, but there plen­ty of fields out there avail­able to hire if you fan­cy giv­ing it a go!

So there you have it, my guide to Worces­ter­shire Wed­ding Venues, based on lots of per­son­al expe­ri­ence as a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Giv­ing you hope­ful­ly one or two ideas of places to check out to find the per­fect one for you.

OTHER BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

• 33 Birm­ing­ham and West Mid­lands wed­ding venues
• Shrop­shire Wed­ding Venues
• 70 Ideas for Wed­ding Entertainment

If you’re look­ing for a Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phy, (or for any­where else), then please get in touch.

I’d love to have a chat!