Ashford wedding photographer

Ashford sits where the Stour rivers meet, half an hour south-west of Canterbury, with the North Downs on one side and the edge of the Weald and Romney Marsh on the other. It’s also the best-connected wedding town in Kent. Ashford International is under forty minutes from St Pancras. For a wedding with a lot of London guests, that matters more than almost anything else.

My one wedding near Ashford so far is Mark and Fiona’s at Bilsington Priory. This page is a planning guide to the venues around the town and how I’d think about each.

Gardens and villages

The Secret Garden at Mersham is in the old walled kitchen garden of the Mersham le Hatch estate, just off the M20. It has four licensed spaces, from a gazebo in the walled garden to a Victorian glasshouse, and the food is grown on site. My guide covers the ceremony spaces and the rain plan.

Chilham is up the Stour valley towards Canterbury. It’s a medieval square with a Grade I church at one end and the castle gates at the other. The castle no longer advertises weddings, but the village still works, and my guide explains how.

Country houses

Eastwell Manor at Boughton Lees is an ivy-covered manor at the end of a long tree-lined drive, now run by Champneys. It has oak-panelled rooms and an Italian gazebo in the walled garden that seats up to two hundred for an outdoor ceremony. It’s the big-house option near Ashford, with bedrooms on site.

Bilsington Priory to the south is a thirteenth-century priory looking out over Romney Marsh, with a Great Hall under a beamed roof and an outdoor ceremony on the lawn. The building does a lot of the work for the photographs. I photographed Mark and Fiona’s wedding there: a ceremony in the Great Hall, petals at the timber porch and a first dance under fairy lights. My guide covers the ceremony spaces, the light and what I’d plan differently.

Kennington Hall is a Georgian house in thirteen acres on the north side of town, with garden ceremonies and a summerhouse for smaller weddings.

Farms, mills and the unusual

Frasers at Egerton is an oak-framed room and terrace on a three-hundred-acre farm, with the bridal suite in a seventeenth-century oast house. If you want the oast in your photographs without a long drive, it’s right there.

Willesborough Windmill is a white smock mill from 1869 on the edge of Ashford, with a small marriage room, a nineteenth-century barn and a meadow. It’s small, local and unlike anywhere else.

Port Lympne, twelve miles south above Hythe, is a restored mansion with an outdoor pergola looking out over the reserve. It’s the only venue in Kent where the animals in the background of your photographs might be grazing antelope.

The register office

Ashford no longer has a register office. Couples use Wellington House in Canterbury or Oakwood House in Maidstone, both about half an hour away, or marry at one of the licensed venues above. A register office wedding in Canterbury in the morning and lunch back in the Ashford villages is a good, simple day.

The light

South of the Downs the land opens out. The Weald is to the west and Romney Marsh to the south, and the sky is bigger than it is around Canterbury. Evening light comes across a long, flat distance and stays warm for longer. The walled gardens at Eastwell and Mersham hold the light and the warmth too, which makes them good for drinks receptions into the evening.

Sunset is around quarter past nine in late June and just before four in December. For a winter wedding, the walled gardens are best at lunchtime, and the house interiors take over after that.

Getting guests here

• Trains. Ashford International to St Pancras on the high-speed line is under forty minutes. There are also trains to Charing Cross and Victoria, and Eurostar connections for guests from the continent.
• Roads. The M20 runs past the town, and most venues are within ten minutes of a junction.
• Hotels. The town has plenty, close to the station. That’s useful if the venue doesn’t sleep everyone.

How an Ashford day usually runs

Most Ashford venues are whole-day, single-site weddings, and the full wedding day covers the morning through to the first dance. If you’re using the register office in Canterbury and coming back to a village pub or a garden for lunch, the intimate wedding package is often enough.