Romantic, relaxed wedding day with Italian touches at The Citadel Shropshire

Leanne and Kearney’s wedding brought a touch of Italian flair to the West Midlands, as well as a brilliant local venue to my radar as a wedding photographer: The Citadel Shropshire. If you’re looking for a really unique, charming setting for your wedding day, then you need to check it out.

The Citadel Shropshire

The Citadel Shropshire is an incredible, luxurious wedding venue that was built in 1824 to look like a castle (incredible brief for an architect, by the way – we’d love to build our new home, please can it have crenellations?!)

As well as the building itself, The Citadel Shropshire also has 3 acres of stunning gardens, and it was this that sealed the deal for Leanne and Kearney. “We just love its natural beauty. The gardens are lovely and the views are amazing. Kearney used to say we would have to get married in a castle and the building looks like a mini castle so we felt it was meant to be. It’s not overly fancy, but is kept to a very high standard by the family who own it and you can see the love and care that goes into the gardens and property. It just felt like us!”

Though it usually operates as a Bed & Breakfast, when you book The Citadel Shropshire for your wedding you get exclusive use for the weekend. This meant Leanne and her bridal party got ready there on the morning before heading to their ceremony spot. Then, it was time for her, her new husband (!), and all of their guests to return to The Citadel Shropshire for an elegant marquee reception.

Touches of Italian luxury

Italy holds a special place in Leanne and Kearney’s heart, and though the pandemic put paid to Kearney’s dream of proposing in Italy, they brought it into their wedding day in some lovely touches. For example, they chose pizza from The Pizza Blues’ pizza oven as their main course, which they served alongside some delicious Italian salads (because who says wedding meals have to be dry and traditional?!). They also had tiramisu as one of their dessert options.

This fit perfectly with the rest of their wedding vibe, which was relaxed but elegant. Their flowers were simple yet sophisticated arrangements of white roses with eucalyptus leaves, which featured in Leanne’s gorgeous bouquet and in bud vases down the middle of the tables. They also adorned the cake stand, which featured a chic gold hoop that encircled the cake like a halo, framing the gold-flecked tiers and wire topper perfectly.

In fact, every element of Leanne and Kearney’s wedding was meaningfully chosen. They wanted to do things their way, which is always music to my ears as a relaxed wedding photographer (their actual music, for both the ceremony and their first dance, was Elvis, because they’re both big fans of Elvis’ music.) They made their own cake, and their confetti was lovingly dried by family and friends. Plus, as they only wanted their closest family and friends there, Leanne and Kearney had a guestlist of 60.

Romantic wedding couple portraits

Another element where they created their day in the way they wanted was their portraits session: while I recommend my couples allocate at least 30 minutes for portraits, they allocated a lot more than that. In their pre-wedding questionnaire, they stressed that “We are both just looking forward to having special moments together, and spending time together having our wedding portraits done is a very big part of that.” Again, music to my ears!

We relished that extended time and used it to explore the beautiful grounds and gardens of The Citadel Shropshire. Leanne and Kearney had mentioned how the gardens were a huge part of what sealed the deal for choosing their venue, but nothing could have prepared them for just how beautiful they were when their wedding day came around! In amongst the stunning greenery, lawn and trees are huge rhododendron hedges. The bold, brilliant shades of red, pink, purple and orange, make the most incredible backdrop for portraits.

A relaxed wedding timeline

No matter how much you plan, sometimes things happen that you can’t account for. Leanne and Kearney’s timeline ended up going completely out of the window: they ended up sitting late for food, the meal took longer than planned, and the speeches ran over. They also wanted sunset photos, so the first dance happened after sunset and the band played right through. Luckily, however, Leanne and Kearney had always wanted their day to be laidback, so on the day they were really happy going with the natural flow of things.

Kind Words

It was a total joy photographing Leanne and Kearney’s wedding at The Citadel Shropshire – I loved everything about their day and them! I’m really glad to say they felt the same, too: here’s the gorgeous review they left me:

“We had the absolute pleasure of having Laura as our wedding photographer. From start to finish Laura was professional but still approachable. She made the whole process feel relaxed knowing everything was in her capable hands. Her beautiful photographs are proof of her talent as a photographer, but in those photos you don’t get to see how lovely she is to work with and be with for the day.

Laura made sure we were where we needed to be and wasn’t afraid to direct us or our guests when necessary. We felt her presence there but she wasn’t overbearing in any way, and she got some great candid shots. Laura went above and beyond what I expected of a photographer, and produced the most beautiful couple portraits for us. She encouraged us to have fun and just enjoy being together for our couple portraits and that was one of our favourite parts of the whole day. Having never been to our venue before, she was able to get the absolute most out of it, and was able to accommodate our timings so that we could have dance floor shots and a creative night shot.

We are so so happy that Laura was our photographer, we couldn’t have asked for anything more, and we will treasure our wedding photos forever. We cannot recommend Laura highly enough, she captured our wedding day perfectly. Thank you Laura!”

Contact Laura

If you’re getting married at The Citadel Shropshire and looking for a wedding photographer; or perhaps you’re getting married somewhere else but like my fun, relaxed style, I’d love to chat to you about your plans! You can get in touch here.