If you’re planning a Lanwades Hall wedding, you’ve found one of those venues that feels a little bit hidden away from the rest of the world. There are beautiful gardens, character filled rooms, plenty of natural light and, very importantly in the British countryside, lots of gorgeous options for photographs even when the weather decides not to cooperate.

I recently photographed Adam and Charlie’s spring wedding at Lanwades Hall and got to experience exactly what the venue is like throughout a full wedding day, from getting ready in the morning through to sneaking outside when the rain finally cleared for their portraits.

They described themselves to me before their wedding as “funny, relaxed, impulsive and ambitious”, and said one of the things they loved most was simply having fun together. That became exactly the feeling we wanted their wedding photographs to hold too.

So, if Lanwades Hall is currently sitting somewhere on your wedding venue shortlist, here’s everything I think you should know about getting married there.

Where is Lanwades Hall?

Lanwades Hall is in Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, sitting beautifully close to the Suffolk border. Its location makes it a wonderful choice for couples searching for wedding venues in either Cambridgeshire or Suffolk, particularly if you have friends and family spread across both counties.

I’m based just down the road in Red Lodge, so Lanwades Hall is wonderfully local to me too. It’s perfectly positioned for couples who love the Suffolk countryside but also want easy access to Cambridgeshire.

The venue itself describes Lanwades Hall as “a hidden treasure”, which feels rather fitting once you arrive and see just how much is tucked away within the house and grounds.

What is a Lanwades Hall wedding like?

Lanwades Hall has that lovely combination of feeling grand without your wedding needing to feel overly formal.

There’s dark wood panelling, huge windows, fireplaces and historic details inside, then gardens, stone steps and plenty of greenery once you wander outdoors. It gives you lots of different backdrops without having to leave the venue or spend a huge chunk of your wedding day travelling somewhere else for photographs.

You can also choose between indoor and outdoor ceremony spaces, so the day can feel completely different depending on the season, number of guests and atmosphere you’re dreaming of.

For couples who want their wedding to feel relaxed while still having somewhere beautiful and special to gather everyone they love, I think that balance is one of Lanwades Hall’s biggest strengths.

Getting ready at Lanwades Hall

This was actually one of the reasons Charlie told me they chose Lanwades Hall over another venue they had considered.

Being able to get ready at the venue meant they didn’t have to hire an Airbnb, get everyone ready elsewhere, gather all their belongings together and then travel over before the ceremony.

And as a Suffolk wedding photographer, I completely understand why that appealed, and have seen quite a lot of different getting ready areas, and this is an important one to consider when searching for your venue.

The fewer logistics you have to squeeze into your wedding morning, the more space you have to actually enjoy it.

Lanwades Hall has a dedicated dressing room and Wedding Suite, so you can already be settled into the venue while everyone gets ready around you. The Wedding Suite is included with its wedding hire and the venue also has additional bedrooms available for guests.

It means your morning can begin as part of the wedding rather than feeling like the bit you have to get through before you arrive.

Where can you have your ceremony at Lanwades Hall?

There are several ceremony options depending on the size and feeling of your wedding.

The Morning Room can host ceremonies for up to 70 guests and has lighter walls and plenty of natural light from its windows overlooking the gardens.

For larger ceremonies, the Great Hall offers more space and has gorgeous dark wood panelling balanced by large bay windows.

If you’re dreaming of something tiny and cosy, there’s also the Old Library. It can accommodate up to 20 guests and you can quite literally get married in front of an open fire, which sounds ridiculously lovely for an intimate autumn or winter wedding.

And then there’s the Sunken Garden.

For an outdoor ceremony, you can walk down the sweeping stone steps and marry in front of the jasmine arch surrounded by the gardens. It’s a completely different feeling from the indoor spaces, which gives you a surprising amount of choice within one venue.

What happens if it rains at a Lanwades Hall wedding?

Adam and Charlie gave me the perfect opportunity to answer this one because yes, it rained, and then it stopped, and then the sun came out! A fairly accurate summary of photographing weddings in England, really. Which is what I love to remind my couples when they worry about rain on their wedding day: even if rain is forecast, there are always pockets of dry or lighter rain that we can use for your portraits. The harder part is finding somewhere for group photos, so ask your venue about those types of locations when you do your tour.

While it was raining, I was already looking around the Hall for alternative portrait locations. There is beautiful light coming through the windows and so much character indoors that I knew we had plenty of options if the weather never improved.

But rather than deciding that their scheduled portrait time was our one and only opportunity, we waited. We actually stepped outside for a few minutes for this photo and the rain came back so we went back in to enjoy their guests fora bit and tried again about 20 minutes later.

The weather eventually cleared beautifully, so we were able to head outside for their group photographs and later take their couples portraits when the light was much prettier.

This is one of the reasons I don’t believe your wedding photographs should be dictated by a minute-by-minute schedule. Having a timeline is incredibly useful. Being willing to throw a tiny part of it out the window because the sun has suddenly appeared is useful too.

The best places for wedding photos at Lanwades Hall

One of my favourite things about photographing a Lanwades Hall wedding is the sheer variety.

There are beautiful photographs to be made throughout the Hall itself, particularly around the windows where we can make use of all that lovely natural light.

Outside, you have the gardens, terrace, stone steps and greenery to play with.

But sometimes the prettiest photograph isn’t waiting in the most obvious “photo spot”.

When it was time for Adam and Charlie’s couples portraits, some of my favourite light was actually over near the driveway.

So that’s where we went.

Because they were having a spring wedding, we also found a gorgeous blossoming tree which gave us the dreamiest backdrop for some of their portraits.

I couldn’t confidently tell you what kind of tree it was if you paid me (I want to say cherry blossom but I’m no tree expert!). I can tell you the light was gorgeous.

Adam and Charlie had told me they trusted my vision and were happy to go along with my guidance, which meant that when I spotted beautiful light or somewhere I knew would photograph wonderfully, even though this tree was a bit of a walk away from where we started, we could simply wander over and play.

That trust is what allows portraits to feel less like “right, now stand here and pose” and more like spending a little pocket of your wedding day together.

Relaxed wedding photography at Lanwades Hall

Before their wedding, Adam and Charlie told me they wanted their photographs to feel fun, laughing and flirty.

They also told me that although they both enjoy socialising, they equally need time to recharge their social batteries.

I loved knowing that beforehand because wedding photography isn’t only about finding beautiful locations. It’s about understanding the two people I’m photographing.

You don’t need to know what to do with your hands. You don’t need to arrive armed with poses you’ve saved from Pinterest. And you definitely don’t need to spend your wedding day performing for my camera.

Adam and Charlie trusted me to gently guide them when they needed it and otherwise give them space to be themselves.

That’s the balance I’m always looking for.

Natural moments when they’re already happening. Gentle guidance when it helps. And absolutely no expectation that you suddenly transform into professional models because you’re wearing wedding clothes.

How many guests can you have at Lanwades Hall?

According to Lanwades Hall’s current wedding information, its single-day weddings can comfortably accommodate 80 guests for the ceremony and meal, with up to 130 guests for the evening celebration.

The different ceremony rooms also make smaller weddings possible, including intimate ceremonies of up to 20 people in the Old Library.

The evening celebration can spread across four rooms and, during the summer, onto the terrace. There’s an onsite licensed bar and space in the Great Hall for a band or DJ, while the Morning Room can be used for things like a photo booth, sweetie table or children’s activities.

Can you stay at Lanwades Hall?

Yes you can, in fact, for single-day weddings, the Wedding Suite is included and there are 12 additional bedrooms which can be booked separately.

Lanwades Hall also offers multi-day wedding hire with two nights’ accommodation included, giving you the option of turning your wedding into more of a weekend together rather than having everything begin and end within one day.

For couples with close family or friends travelling in, I can see this being particularly lovely. You get more time together without trying to have every meaningful conversation with every person you love somewhere between dinner and the dance floor.

How much does a Lanwades Hall wedding cost?

At the time of writing, Lanwades Hall lists its 2026 single-day venue hire between £2,890 and £8,550, including the Wedding Suite.

Its 2026 three-day hire ranges from £8,800 to £16,500 and includes two nights’ accommodation, with the Wedding Suite and 12 additional guest bedrooms sleeping up to 26 people in total.

Wedding venue prices and packages naturally change, so I would always recommend checking directly with Lanwades Hall for its latest availability and pricing rather than using these figures to set your final wedding budget.

[LINK TO LANWADES HALL]

Is Lanwades Hall dog friendly?

It is!

Lanwades Hall currently lists itself as dog friendly, so if having your four-legged family member involved in your wedding is non-negotiable, this is definitely one to have on your list.

And yes, I am always very happy when somebody brings a dog to a wedding. I even have a whole blog on how to include your dog at your wedding and I’m excited to know that Lanwades Hall allows for dogs at their venue because I know how special dogs are for so many couples.

Where are the best spots for golden hour at lanwades hall?

If you know anything about me it’s that I am a sucker for a good golden hour. It’s what my entire brand is based on and I’ve been chasing those perfect golden sun rays since I was a teenager first driving around trying to photograph the sunset.

So when I tell you I scout out where the sun is heading during the day so I know exactly where to take you when the sun starts to dip, know that I’ll find that light.

One of my favourite parts of photographing at Lanwades Hall was discovering just how beautifully the light became in the evening.

Their wedding day had been rainy and overcast when I arrived, and then the sun came out quite harshly, so we took a break and decided to come back out closer to golden hour. I kept an eye on the weather and the light. We had worked in a section for their timeline to come out just before evening guests arrived and we got so lucky!

The sun was coming through these trees right near the driveway and this was a perfect spot to wrap up their portraits for the evening.

If golden hour portraits are important to you, I’d always recommend adding a section to your wedding timeline between 6:00pm-8:00pm depending on the time of year as it changes every month. I have a handy tracker in my client portal so I can easily find it for your date and location but you can always google this when creating your timeline as well. It works best during clear sunny days, but I have been so blessed with many rainy days getting a gorgeous golden hour and sometimes a rainbow so don’t let any weather discourage you.

Adam and Charlie’s Lanwades Hall wedding

What I loved most about photographing these two was how willing they were to simply enjoy themselves.

They had told me from the beginning that they wanted photographs that would help them remember how much fun they had together, rather than photographs that simply showed what everything looked like.

That’s always the difference I’m chasing.

Years from now, I don’t only want you to remember the flowers or exactly how the tables were decorated.

I want you to remember how it felt.

We could just get on with having fun.

Charlie had actually worked with me before their wedding and described the experience as “very relaxed and natural”. In her review, she said that I made them feel at ease during their sessions and listened to what they wanted from their photographs.

Knowing they already felt safe enough with me to trust my ideas meant that when their wedding finally arrived, there wasn’t this awkward period of figuring one another out.

to say Julie is an amazing photographer would be an understatement! the photos she has taken to date are my most favourite photos to ever exist. She is kind, warm, caring and very passionate about her work. Julie makes you feel at ease during your sessions and always listens to what you want to get out of your sessions/wedding photos. Julie has captured the most special moments in my life and has created photos that I will cherish for a lifetime. I couldn’t recommend Julie enough and there truly aren’t enough words to do Julie justice!

Charlie’s Google Review

Planning your own Lanwades Hall wedding?

If you’ve fallen a little bit in love with Lanwades Hall and you’re now searching for a photographer who will help your wedding photographs feel warm, natural and unmistakably like the two of you, I’d love to hear what you’re planning.

My approach to weddings is relaxed with gentle guidance when you need it. I’ll help you create a photography-friendly timeline beforehand, keep an eye out for beautiful light throughout the day and happily change our plans when the British weather unexpectedly hands us ten minutes of glorious sunshine.

Because your wedding photographs shouldn’t require you to spend hours away from everyone you invited to your wedding.

Go hug your people. Drink the champagne. Eat the food while it’s hot. Dance badly with your favourite humans.

I’ll take care of remembering it.

ENQUIRE ABOUT YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

I’d love to hear about your plans and if you’ve chosen Lanwades Hall as your wedding venue!

I’d also love to credit the amazing team that brought this wedding together for Charlie & Adam:

Makeup Artist: Finishing Touches by Krissma
Florist: Posy Lane Florals
Dress: Shades of White St Ives
Suits: Moss Bros
Wedding Newspapers: The Crafty Lab