A whimsical woodland Garthmyl Hall wedding with an ethereal dress

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know I love a Garthmyl Hall wedding – and if you’ve not, you’ll soon feel the same! Carrie and Callum’s gorgeous, relaxed, winter woodland Garthmyl Hall wedding is the perfect example of why it’s one of my favourite venues to work as a Shropshire wedding photographer, so I’m delighted to be sharing it with you today.

A note on a Garthmyl Hall wedding

Garthmyl Hall is a Grade II listed country house on the Welsh border. Yes, it’s gorgeous on the outside, but it’s equally if not more gorgeous on the inside: think timeless, yet luxurious style. A Garthmyl Hall wedding is one of my absolute favourites to shoot as a Shropshire wedding photographer because while it oozes character and charm, it’s also a great space to make your own. This means that while no two days will ever be the same, they’ll always be incredible. And, true to form, Carrie and Callum made it their own for their whimsical woodland wedding, and loved every second of it.

Whimsical woodland wedding style

Carrie and Callum wanted their Garthmyl Hall wedding to be totally relaxed, and focused on the fact that they could finally get married after their fair share of Covid postponements! They opted for a gorgeous whimsical woodland theme, with Carrie’s mum planning the day for them.

Carrie’s one-of-a-kind woodland wedding dress

I am so in love with Carrie’s one-of-a-kind woodland wedding dress from Dolly Blue Bridal. It featured ethereal, billowing sleeves, and a full tulle skirt that flowed gracefully around her, but the real star of the show was the bodice. Covered in tulle, it featured delicate applique flowers on the front and back, and had a very slightly curved bateau neckline that looked almost medieval, with a very slight ruffle that matched the sleeves too. At any rate, she looked totally regal, and exuded major faerie princess vibes!

And how could we forget Callum? He and his groomsmen looked dapper in deep blue wool suits from Peter Posh, while Carrie’s bridesmaids all wore flutter-sleeved tulle dresses in a delicate seafoam green. (Come the dancefloor later on, the long, flowing skirts on these hid the fact that all of them had slipped into comfy white trainers!)

A Garthmyl Hall wedding ceremony

Carrie and Callum chose to have their ceremony in the Ballroom at Garthmyl Hall. With stunning gilt mirrors and an ornate ceiling, it doesn’t require much additional decoration, and Carrie and Callum kept it simple with draped white fabric at the end of each row, finished with flowers. At the top of the aisle, they rested some white pillar candles on the table, which was flanked with two tall floral arrangements in a white and green colour scheme. Accents in the room, such as the door and the window frames, were actually painted a very similar green to Carrie’s bridesmaids’ dresses, so it really was the perfect setting!

Another feature of a Garthmyl Hall wedding that I love is the staircase. It lends just the right amount of drama as you descend to your ceremony space, especially when dressed with cascading flowers and foliage as TMS Events had done here.

After the ceremony and all of their guests gamely braving the crisp outside chill for a cute confetti shot, it was time to celebrate! Carrie and Callum mingled with their guests as they drank bubbles and ate nibbles, before we took some time to take a few portraits.

As I mentioned above, one of the many reasons I love a Garthmyl Hall wedding so much is because of just how beautiful it is, outside and in. There are so many gorgeous backdrops on offer it’s almost impossible to pick (and in fact, among the other lovely words they left me – which you can read at the bottom of this post – part of Carrie’s happy customer review was ‘I can’t believe there are so many! How many photos did you start with???’). We ended up taking some outside in the beautiful grounds, as well as some against the rustic whitewashed walls of the Orangery, before returning to the marquee for their reception.

A Garthmyl Hall wedding reception

Carrie and Callum had incorporated loads of thoughtful details into their wedding reception.

For example, each table was named after a year they’d been together, and accompanied by a photo of them during that year (they met at high school, so it was a real trip down memory lane.) Each guest also had a fortune cookie favour waiting for them at their seat.

Their cake also followed the whimsical woodland theme, with an elegant white three-tier design decorated with white flowers and topped with two cute Mr & Mrs pinecones. To mirror the hexagonal shape of each layer, the cake stand was actually a cake hoop (well, technically a cake hexagon!) which surrounded the whole cake with delicate foliage. Cake hoops are a great way to make a statement of your cake, so that it almost doubles up as decor – you can see another example of one of my couples using a cake hoop here.

After that it was of course, time for guests to let their hair down, and later on there was street food too, including pizza and fish and chips – a.k.a. The perfect dance floor grub!

Kind words

Carrie, Callum: thank you so much for having me to shoot your Garthmyl Hall wedding. It truly was an absolute joy!

Here’s what they had to say when they got their photos…

“Thank you so much Laura! We spent about 2 and a half hours going through all the photos last night with our family, even had aunty and uncle pop round for a party. They are AMAZING! You captured every moment, it was so lovely to see all the background pictures…it’s a nice balance of emotional and HILARIOUS! I can’t believe there are so many! How many photos did you start with??? I’m so happy to have so many, it will be hard to pick but we’ll just have to choose a lot I think… we might have a wall dedicated to the wedding!”

If you’re looking to follow in Carrie and Callum’s footsteps, and are planning a Garthmyl Hall wedding and looking for a photographer to tell your story, then I’d love to hear from you – contact me here.