Do you charge travel to Faversham?

No. Faversham is about fifteen minutes from my home in Canterbury, and there are no travel fees anywhere in Kent.

Can we really get married in the brewery?

Yes. Shepherd Neame's brewhouse is licensed, and ceremonies take place in front of the mash tuns and a stained-glass window, for about fifty standing guests, on Saturdays. There are larger rooms on the same site for bigger ceremonies and the party afterwards.

Which register office do Faversham couples use?

Faversham is in Swale, whose register office at Sittingbourne Library has one small room for about ten guests. Most couples use Wellington House in Canterbury instead, fifteen minutes away, or marry at the Guildhall in the middle of town.

Is Oare Marshes good for wedding photographs?

In the right light it's one of the best places in Kent: flat, open, water and sky. It's a nature reserve, so we stay on the paths and keep it quiet, and it's ten minutes from town. The last hour before sunset is when it works.

Do you know Faversham well?

It's the nearest town to Canterbury of any size, so I know it as a local rather than as a wedding photographer. I haven't photographed a wedding here since coming back from filmmaking, and I'd rather say that than imply otherwise.

Faversham

Faversham wedding photographer

Faversham is fifteen minutes west of Canterbury and one of the best-preserved market towns in England. The Guildhall stands on pillars in the market place, Abbey Street is medieval all the way down, the creek runs out through the marshes to the Swale, and the whole town smells of the brewery on a brewing day. It’s a town with a lot of character packed into a very small space.

I haven’t photographed a Faversham wedding since coming back from documentary filmmaking. This page is a planning guide to the venues and the town.

In the town

The Guildhall was built in 1574 as a market hall and still stands on open pillars in the market place. Ceremonies take place in the first-floor Council Chamber, for up to fifty including the two of you, seven days a week, even on market days. There’s a lift. It’s ceremonies only, so the reception goes somewhere else. The walk down the stairs into the market place, with the town around you, is the photograph.

Shepherd Neame Brewery on Court Street calls itself Britain’s oldest brewer, and it’s still brewing. There are three spaces. The brewhouse ceremony takes place in front of the copper mash tuns for about fifty standing guests, on Saturdays only. The fifteenth-century hall house in the visitor centre has a crown-post roof. The old brewery store takes up to 140 for a ceremony or a meal and 300 for the party. It’s one wedding a day, with a brewers’ garden for the drinks.

The Alexander Centre on Preston Street is a Victorian building with a large hall for about two hundred, a smaller room and a courtyard garden. You can bring your own caterers. It’s the flexible option for a big wedding in the middle of town.

Just outside

Mount Ephraim Gardens at Hernhill is a family-owned house with ten acres of Edwardian gardens on a fruit-farming estate. Ceremonies can happen in the house or in the gardens for up to 150, with a marquee for bigger receptions. The house is exclusive use, with access the day before and the day after, and over twenty people can sleep on site. The gardens look out over orchards to the estuary.

Brenley Farmhouse at Boughton is a family farm with two licensed ceremony spaces, accommodation for over thirty, and freedom to bring your own suppliers.

Judd’s Folly sits on top of the Syndale valley on the edge of town, a hotel in parkland with an outdoor gazebo ceremony for about ninety and twenty-eight bedrooms.

The light

North of the town, the creek runs out through Oare Marshes and Nagden Marshes to the Swale. It’s flat, open and full of water and sky. Looking west and north across the Swale towards Sheppey, the evening light comes across the water. Ten minutes from the Guildhall, it’s a completely different set of photographs from the town.

In the town itself, Abbey Street and the lanes around the brewery are narrow and shaded, good at midday. The market place is open and gets the afternoon sun. Mount Ephraim’s gardens are on a slope facing towards the estuary, which gives you long evening views.

Sunset is around quarter past nine in late June and just before four in December.

Getting guests here

Trains. Faversham has high-speed trains to St Pancras in just over an hour, and mainline trains to Victoria.
Parking in the town centre is limited on market days and Saturdays. Brewery and Guildhall guests should use the town car parks.
The hop festival takes over the town on the first weekend of September. If your date falls on it, it’ll be very busy and very Kentish.

How a Faversham day usually runs

A Guildhall ceremony and a meal at the brewery or a pub in town is a compact day, and the full wedding day covers it with time for the marshes at the end. Mount Ephraim and the farm venues are whole-day weddings with everyone on site, and the full day suits those too.