Holmewood Hall Wedding - A wedding photographer's review
/HOLMEWOOD HALL WEDDING VENUE, CHURCH STREET, HOLME, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, PE7 3BZ
The Holmewood Hall wedding venue near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire is one of my all-time favourites.
I know how hard it is for a bride and groom to choose a wedding venue, so I thought I’d explain what makes Holmewood Hall so great.
This page takes you through the typical stages of a wedding and the benefits of choosing Holmewood Hall for each of those stages.
Most venues have something that lets them down photographically but Holmewood Hall scores highly in every department.
The venue is beautiful inside and outside, rain or shine, in every room and in every situation throughout the day.
Let’s dive in.
Romantic photographs
Clearly at a venue like this the only concern is being spoilt for choice and either feeling overwhelmed with all the great locations, or taking yourself away from your wedding for too long trying to cram in every possibility.
There’s…
The lake
The woodland
The bandstand
Great views of the sunset
Twilight shots with Holmewood Hall lit up and glowing in the background
And of course plenty of great options for photographs inside the venue itself, from the winding staircase to the Gold Room.
The good news is that Holmewood Hall is one of the venues I’ve been to most so I know it as intimately as you know your partner (OK maybe not quite that intimately!).
Rather than ramble on about all the possible locations and ideas for couple photographs at Holmewood Hall I may as well just show you a selection before we wrap up with the cake cut, first dance and the evening party…
Getting ready in the morning
The Holmewood Hall wedding suite is absolutely gorgeous and easily one of the best I’ve seen anywhere, let alone in this area.
Not only does it look stunning, but it’s huge and has two rooms so there’s plenty of room with lots of bridesmaids and hair stylists and makeup artists.
For the ‘getting ready’ photos the bridal suite is perfect because it’s light and airy and has plenty of great places to photograph the bride and bridesmaids.
The giant gold mirror and 4 poster bed are also great features.
The Ceremony (inside and outside)
Holmewood Hall keeps up the high standards with their options for your wedding ceremony.
You can either get married in the gorgeous Gold Room or the Band Stand in the garden and they can cater for up to 77 guests.
They are both stunning locations, but from a purely photographic point of view the Gold Room just edges it. This is because when you’re under the band stand (any band stand - not just Holmewood Hall’s) the light on you is much darker than the light on the guests outside in the sunshine. This means the guests tend to be a bit ‘over-exposed’ (ie. Too bright) in the photos. Again, this would be the same for any Band Stand wedding. That said, the vibe and the setting is fantastic, so if you’d love an outdoor wedding then Holmewood Hall is a brilliant option.
Confetti
Holmewood Hall is one of only 3 venues I’ve ever been to that allow confetti indoors and outdoors. The indoor confetti is saved for the First Dance though, so more about that later. The confetti shot can either be down on the main lawn, or by the side of the house near the band stand. On one occasion we were also allowed to do confetti in the ceremony room as the couple walked out down the aisle…
Group photos
This is another area where where Holmewood Hall ticks all the boxes.
For photographers the big consideration with group photos is finding the best light. You don’t want people squinting and gurning because they’re looking into the sun. But then you also want a lovely background. At many venues the best background has the worst light and vice versa.
Holmewood Hall has two beautiful sides and looks great whether I’m photographing towards the house or away from it, so I know I’ll get great shots whatever the weather. Speaking of weather, I’ve had to do group photos indoors here too and once again the options are great. The best place for indoor group photos would seem to be The Great Hall, but that’s where all the guests are congregated if it’s cold or raining so it’s too noisy with too many distractions for the guests. So I do it in the Champagne bar against the fireplace where it’s quieter and has good light. The Library would be fine too.
The other thing that Holmewood Hall has which are great for photos is steps. Both at the back and the side of the gardens there are steps which can be used to make some of the larger groups look more visually appealing by putting heads at different heights.
The food and the staff
OK, onto the really important thing - food!! The food is delicious which certainly isn’t always the case at wedding venues.
It’s not easy to serve a large number of meals to a high standard because food gets cold or over-cooked quickly. But Holmewood Hall have very well drilled staff. When the food is served I’m usually sat in the garden bar opposite the kitchen, so I get to hear the staff talking. And believe me it’s like a military operation. They’re the perfect combination of efficiency and friendliness. Plus they give me free drinks (non-alcoholic of course!)
Speeches
The dining room is another elegant room with chandeliers and a beautiful big bay window where the head table goes. From a photographic standpoint the large windows let in a nice amount of light, plus they’re shaded so the light isn’t too harsh either.
There are no annoying items around the head table that could detract from the speech photos either (eg. Fire extinguishers, signs etc.)
Cake cut and first dance
The cake cut and first dance is done in The Great Hall which has the huge winding staircase wrapping around it.
As I mentioned earlier, the guests are allowed to throw confetti during the first dance. Just make sure you check with Holmewood Hall which confetti is allowed inside because they have different requirements for inside and outside the building.
I get a shot of the confetti raining down on you as the guests hurl it off the staircase and then I run up the staircase to get an atmospheric shot from above, too.
The evening party
One of the many things I love about Holmewood that’s different from a lot of venues is that in the evening the guests tend to spread out into different rooms. I think it gives it the feel of a giant house party, but it a really cool house!
Some guests chill out in the library or the Champagne bar where they can have a natter. Some people sit outside on warm summer evenings and of course the dancers can hit the dance floor in The Vault.
I like this mixture of locations because it keeps all the guests happy and gives the photographs a mixture of settings and styles.
Accommodation
OK, so you’ve had the best day of your lives (except maybe if you’ve had children!) and it’s time for you to all pass out. Holmewood Hall can help here too because it has bedrooms to accommodate up to 40 guests. The centre of Peterborough is about 20 minutes away.
Explore Holmewood Hall in 3D
If you’d like explore Holmewood Hall in 3D then checkout their 3D tour where you can virtually walk around this beautiful wedding venue.
I hope you’ve found that review of Holmewood Hall helpful and if you’d like to know more about my services you can either go to my wedding page or download the full brochure below.
