Countryside Wedding Photography at Spicer Manor
Spicer Manor feels more like a house you’ve borrowed for the weekend than a conventional wedding venue. Tucked into the Yorkshire countryside on the edge of the Peak District, it is completely exclusive to the party. It was a pleasure being the couples Spicer Manor wedding photographer. The house, gardens and event spaces all belong to you and your guests, with 15 bedrooms sleeping up to 34 people. That changes the feel of a wedding. Everyone arrives, settles in and becomes part of the same weekend rather than simply turning up for a ceremony and leaving again.
Natural & Relaxed Wedding Photos Captured At Spicer Manor by David Stubbs
A House Designed for Wedding Celebrations
There is plenty going on inside Spicer Manor. The grand staircase, oak orangery and individual bedrooms give the main house plenty of character, while the dedicated games room has pool, table football and air hockey. There’s also a cinema room and two hot tubs. Those aren’t things I necessarily need to photograph as features.
People playing pool while they’re getting ready. Someone disappearing into the cinema room. Friends having a drink in the orangery for your wedding. Guests wandering between the house and the grounds with no particular plan. Those moments are much more useful to me than a list of formal photographs. For the morning at Spicer Manor, there is also the Meadow View getting-ready room, with large bi-fold doors and skylights providing plenty of natural light. It’s a proper space designed around getting ready together rather than trying to squeeze everyone into a bedroom.
Spicer Manor’s The Coach House & Yorkshire Countryside
Spicer Manor’s Coach House is where the wedding takes on another character. Its oak beams, fairy lights and large arched windows give it a warm, rustic feel, while the windows look directly towards the lawn and fountain. It can be used for the ceremony, breakfast and evening reception, so the whole celebration can remain together rather than being moved between separate buildings. For an outdoor ceremony, the front lawn looks across the Yorkshire countryside. Afterwards, there are lawns, paddocks, the courtyard, stone walls and the surrounding countryside to explore. There’s even a meadow behind Spicer Manor that makes a particularly good escape for a few minutes of quiet during the evening.
That’s probably how I’d approach photographing a wedding here. Not by taking you away from the party for endless portraits, but by giving you space to enjoy the weekend and photographing what happens naturally around you. Spicer Manor already provides the backdrop. A grand staircase in the morning, countryside in the afternoon and a barn full of people dancing at night. The photographs should simply connect all those parts together into one story.
David Stubbs Would Love To Be Your Spicer Manor Wedding Photographer
