Wedding Photography at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire

Wrest Park is an English Heritage property three quarters of a mile east of Silsoe, ten miles south of Bedford. The house is an early 19th century mansion that combines English architecture with the style of an 18th century French chateau, set in 92 acres of gardens that combine three centuries of English garden design (English Heritage wedding page). Weddings use four rooms licensed by Central Bedfordshire Council, the Orangery, the Library, the Drawing Room and the Dining Room, plus a marquee on the Petit Trianon Lawn.

Our studio is at 21 Joel St, Northwood Hills HA6 1NU, photographing weddings since 2001 and rated 4.8 out of 5 from 580+ Google reviews. We are glad to photograph at Wrest Park, and coverage starts from £750. English Heritage publishes room capacities but very little else, so below is what it does publish, and the questions to put to the Venue Hire team.

What a Wrest Park wedding costs, and what is not published

English Heritage does not publish wedding prices for Wrest Park. The weddings page lists rooms and capacities and invites couples to enquire about marquee packages by email (weddings at Wrest Park), and the enquiry form offers a copy of the wedding brochure on request (wedding enquiries). The only package price we could find on English Heritage's site is an old off peak insert, so we have not quoted it: ask for the current brochure and price list for your year.

Capacity is published, and it shapes the cost conversation. For a ceremony the Orangery takes 170, the Library 100, and the Drawing Room and the Dining Room 60 each. For dining, the Library seats 100 and the Dining Room 60, with the Orangery listed at 170 for a reception. The Petit Trianon Lawn is listed at 450 for a reception, and the same page says the lawn can accommodate a marquee for up to 1,000 guests for dining and dancing. Those two figures are not the same, so confirm in writing which applies to your layout.

Questions to put to the Venue Hire team: what the hire fee includes, whether hire is exclusive use, which caterers are approved, whether the marquee price covers flooring, lighting and toilets, what the finish time is, and whether a ceremony fee or registrar fee is added on top.

Four licensed rooms and a marquee lawn: ceremonies at Wrest Park

Central Bedfordshire Council's register of approved venues lists Wrest Park at MK45 4HR with four rooms, the Orangery (170), the Library (100), the Drawing Room (60) and the Dining Room (60), and the Marquee on the Petit Trianon Lawn as a linked outside area (council venue register). Civil ceremonies are conducted by the local registration service, so book the registrars as well as the venue.

English Heritage describes each room. The rich blue Drawing Room keeps original Louis XV features, including a painted gilded ceiling and an elegant fireplace. The Dining Room is gold and white with its original parquet floor, is often used for dancing and sits next to the bar area. The Library is lined with books and gilded plasterwork, with floor to ceiling windows. The Orangery is a garden pavilion a short walk from the house, which the venue suggests for a summer ceremony, a drinks reception or an evening dinner (weddings page).

English Heritage does not publish ceremony times, whether Hindu, Sikh or Muslim ceremonies (a mandap, a havan or a nikah) can be held in the rooms or the marquee, whether a baraat or live dhol is allowed in the grounds, or which halal, vegetarian or Jain menus its approved caterers offer. Ask the Venue Hire team in writing about each one before you book.

Getting ready at Wrest Park: no named bridal suite

English Heritage does not name a getting ready room or publish bedrooms at Wrest Park, and its pages describe the state rooms as unfurnished (visit Wrest Park). Plan on getting ready at home or at a hotel nearby and arriving dressed, and ask the Venue Hire team whether a room in the mansion is set aside for the couple and close family on the day. If you do get ready off site, allow for the drive in on the A6 when you fix the start of photography.

A suggested order of the day at Wrest Park

An outline for planning, not a schedule. Times are shown only where the venue publishes them; everything else is a stage to time with you and confirm with the venue.

Six hundred years of the de Greys and a house of the 1830s

The de Grey family held the Wrest estate for over 600 years; Edmund Grey was made Earl of Kent in 1465. Henry, Duke of Kent, laid out the formal woodland garden between 1706 and the 1720s, and in 1758 Jemima, Marchioness Grey, brought in "Capability" Brown to remodel the park while keeping the formal layout. Thomas Robinson, 2nd Earl de Grey, an amateur architect, demolished the old house and built the present one about 200 metres to the north between 1834 and 1839, in an 18th century French style (English Heritage history).

The house opened as a hospital for wounded soldiers on 7 September 1914, was evacuated after a fire in September 1916 and was sold in 1917. From 1948 it housed the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering, later the Silsoe Research Institute. English Heritage took it over in 2006 and began a 20 year project to restore the gardens to their state before 1917.

Parking at Wrest Park for wedding guests

English Heritage says there is plenty of parking, with designated disabled spaces in the Walled Garden area (facilities). A space count, coach access and overnight rules for wedding guests are not published, so ask the Venue Hire team if guests will leave cars overnight.

Wrest Park wedding photography, frequently asked questions

Other wedding venues we cover

• Shuttleworth, Biggleswade
• Knebworth House, Knebworth
• Hatfield House, Hatfield

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Enquiries for this venue are handled by Kaushik Bathia, FBIPP and FMPA, who has photographed more than a thousand weddings since 2001 and holds five European Kodak Gold Awards.