Ettington Park Hotel, near Stratford-Upon-Avon

[wpcol_1quarter id=”” class=”” style=””]A wedding is always an exciting event and a wedding held in a venue close to the world famous Bard’s residence in Stratford-Upon-Avon, is surely a Wedding Photographer’s dream come true. I think such factors can uplift everyone’s spirit and add that glow to faces that make the pictures poignant.
The Ettington Park Hotel, situated in picturesque [/wpcol_1quarter][wpcol_3quarter_end id=”” class=”” style=””][/wpcol_3quarter_end]Ettington Village is just about five and a half miles southeast of Shakespeare’s birthplace. The hotel belongs to the Shirley family and is one of the twenty country house heritage properties leased by the Hand Picked Hotels.
This lovely Ettington Park is in the beautiful Stour valley with the river Stour weaving its path through the estate. A perfect venue for a Warwickshire Wedding, it also lends itself to exquisite Natural Photography. In the nineteenth century, this historic house was renovated and rebuilt by the famous architect, John Prichard, who redid the exterior walls of the building around the core of the ancient manor. The tall chimneys together with the square and round turrets add character to the Documentary Wedding Photography.
The entrance to the hallway is enhanced by the glass vaulted conservatory and the carriage porch , which leads into the hallway with its vaulted ceiling, are gorgeous and are of special interest to a West Midlands Wedding Photographer though , the house was damaged in a fire in 1979. In 1983, the neo-Gothic manor house was given on lease to the Isis Hotel Company and after a restoration to the tune of a million pounds, a luxury hotel was established at the Ellington Park.
Being a reportage Wedding Photographer, I am able to exploit to the full, the wonderful architecture of the Manor and its interiors, as settings for the visual impact of the building is achieved when contrasting stones like ironstone brought from Edge Hill, yellow limestone quarried at Gloucestershire and blue lias obtained from Wilmcote and not forgetting the local white lias is used in layers. The wedding party set against this glorious facade truly makes for a masterpiece. Stone friezes carved and artistically put over the windows tell the tales of family history. These and many stone statues add the touch of antique elegance to the portraits of the bride and groom. The reception area has a mantelpiece carved from neo-Elizabethan oak, which also features the coat of arms of the family on two shields here. Faith, Hope and Love, which are also the watchwords of any marriage, are represented as carved figures. So what better than to have the bride and groom photographed here?
The lovely big stained glass windows and the imposing fireplace make the library a lovely room to hold civil ceremonies and receptions. A mid-sized group of 60 can be accommodated here. For a larger group of 96 or so, the South Room, with its wood panelled ceiling and the Duke of Essex fireplace, is ideal.
The Ettington Park Hotel is one of my favourite wedding venues which quite definitely help produce unique wedding photographs.