Highcliffe Castle
Proud to be a recommended supplier at this venue
A Highcliffe Castle wedding is an enticing prospect for any wedding photographer.
If you’re looking for sheer magnificence and jaw-dropping beauty as a backdrop to your big day then your Highcliffe Castle wedding photography should tick pretty much every box. It’s quite simply breathtaking here. A Highcliffe Castle wedding has the wow factor, no question!
This beauty of a venue on the New Forest coast is – perhaps unsurprisingly – perched high on a cliff (or at least as high as the cliffs tend to get in this part of the world) looking out over the Solent to the Isle of Wight. Down below is a gorgeous beach; a sandy one, no less, which is a bit of a rarity for Hampshire. Accessible by a couple of different routes – the slightly longer but more accessible sloped path, or the more direct (but much steeper!) steps. It doesn’t end there though: acres of grounds, from the formal gardens right outside the door to the twisted and tangled woodland offering some welcome shade in the hot summer months.
The magnificent ceremony room is flooded with natural light and if your guests can tear their eyes away from you for a moment they’ll get their fill of charming gardens and big views out over the lawn.
And if all that still isn’t quite wow enough for you, check out the insanely cool Game of Thrones style door on the other side of the castle – the first thing you and your guests will see as you sweep up the drive. Highcliffe Castle is wedding photography heaven; every time I go there camera in hand I feel like a kid in a sweet shop!
OVERVIEW:
A stunning building, packed full of history, perched on top of the cliffs on the Hampshire coast between Lymington and Christchurch - an absolute dream of a location looking over a sandy beach and across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. An incredible place to hold your wedding: ceremonies typically take place in the Wintergarden - a light-filled room with an abundance of windows, overlooking the formal grounds. So many options indoors and out for your reception - most notably the towering height of the Great Hall for a sit-down meal to remember, but also with several smaller rooms on offer depending on the size and style of celebrations you are planning.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES:
The architecture of the Castle building gives you so much to work with as a backdrop: The huge double doors which enter into the Great Hall, the steps leading up the Wintergarden room above the formal rose garden, the main front entrance... but this is really just the start. The immediate and wider grounds have an abundance of little tucked-away corners, some with views across the whole castle, others making featured of the trees and plants of the gardens. Then there's the beach (with actual sand - something you don't see so much of on the Hampshire coast) and it's views across to the island. This is a particularly good spot to catch later in the evening when you have a good chance of enjoying it largely to yourselves.
PRACTICALITIES:
A dedicated car park for weddings removes any of the stress for you and your guests. At the start of the ceremony you'll sweep up the drive right up to the stairs to the Wintergarden room, so any pre-ceremony spoiler risk for you and your guests is taken care of. Good accessibility throughout the building, despite its age, and around the grounds. As a popular holiday destination there's certainly no shortage of accommodation locally, as well as a number of nearly public transport options and taxi services for the return leg.
