The Glyn Clydach Wedding Photographer & Videographer

A wedding hotel with 15 acres of grounds at Neath Abbey

The Glyn Clydach is on Longford Road at Neath Abbey, Neath, in Neath Port Talbot (SA10 7AJ). Its own website describes a wedding venue with a restaurant, The Loft, and its wedding brochure describes 15 acres of grounds with panoramic countryside views, a function room for 50 to 250 guests and, from January 2027, 17 guest bedrooms.

We photographed Sam and Shauna's wedding here on 21 September 2021 and Clarise and Jordan's on 25 September 2021, four days apart. Both days are told here in photographs, with portraits among a roofless stone ruin, in the gardens and by a red timber gazebo. Our Swansea and Gower guide shows more weddings in the area, and here we stay with the venue. What we say about the buildings and grounds comes from the venue's own website and brochure, and what we say about the photographs comes from looking at them.

For current venue details, explore The Glyn Clydach. Both weddings were in September 2021, so ask the venue what has changed since, including the new bedrooms it says it is adding in January 2027.

01 / The spaces / From the venue's own description

A function room, 15 acres of grounds and overnight rooms

The venue's wedding brochure says it is licensed by Neath Port Talbot for civil ceremonies, with a choice of indoor or outdoor settings, and that you can choose a celebrant instead for a more personal ceremony. It sends couples to the Neath registry office to confirm a date and time, and notes that registrar fees apply.

The one room it describes is the Abbey Suite, which it says has a fully draped ceiling with fairy lights and holds 50 to 250 guests, and can be divided into a smaller area for an intimate wedding. Its all-inclusive package is listed as covering ceremony and reception room hire, welcome drinks, a wedding breakfast, an evening buffet, chair covers, a DJ and a bridal suite, and it also offers evening-only and vow renewal packages. It does not name a separate ceremony room or give a ceremony capacity, so ask which room your ceremony would be in.

Outdoors, the brochure lists a sweetheart bridge, a church-style door set in a wall and a wishing well, panoramic countryside views and space for a helicopter arrival. Its menus are made by the venue's chefs from locally sourced produce, and it offers partial and full drinks packages.

The venue's accommodation page says 12 new double bedrooms are being added in January 2027, to give 17 guest bedrooms in all, along with a new bridal preparation suite so that wedding guests can stay the night before and get ready on the morning. The brochure adds that the bride can stay the night before in a room for her and up to three guests. Ask for the current room list and rates for your date.

02 / September 2021 / Sam and Shauna

Sam and Shauna: an arched door in a garden wall, a roofless ruin and a lawn in the evening light

Sam and Shauna married on 21 September 2021. The photograph at the top of this page shows them holding hands and facing each other in front of an arched wooden door set in a stone wall, the groom in a grey tweed three-piece suit and the bride in a fitted lace gown with a long train, dark trees above them. The brochure lists a church-style door among the garden features, and this looks like it.

Indoors, the bride writes in a book at a table dressed with dried flowers, the groom standing behind her and smiling, white voile curtains at the window. Then they walk back down the aisle hand in hand beneath an arch wound with ivy and white roses, their guests standing on either side under a draped white ceiling.

Afterwards they step outside among the stone ruins. In the first, they stand hand in hand in the gap of a tall roofless wall and smile at each other, with a white building and a tiled roof showing through the openings behind them.

In the next the groom carries the bouquet of dried grasses and pink roses as they walk through a narrow gap between the old walls, the bride lifting her skirt. Then they kiss in warm low light, his hand on her cheek.

As the evening light softens, they walk hand in hand across a lawn, the groom smiling back at the bride, a line of trees behind them.

Inside again, the two of them pose beside their two-tier cake with a small chainsaw between them. The day ends with their first dance under a draped ceiling strung with fairy lights, laughing as they hold hands, guests at round tables behind them.

03 / September 2021 / Clarise and Jordan

Clarise and Jordan: a ruin, a bench under bare trees and a gazebo on a grey day

Clarise and Jordan married on 25 September 2021. Their ceremony was in a bright hall with blue curtains and ceiling tiles rather than in one of the venue's own rooms. The two of them hold hands facing each other in front of an arch of red and white flowers, the bride in a veil and tiara and a sparkling gown, the groom in a grey check suit and red tie, and some of their guests wear face masks.

Outside, they walk arm in arm as red and pink confetti falls around them, the bride laughing out loud, a white car and trees behind.

Their portraits took them to the stone ruins. In the first they face each other through a tall arch, the bride's veil and train spreading across the grass beyond. In the second they stand hand in hand on the gravel inside the roofless walls, pointed windows high above them.

Then the groom leans in to kiss the bride in front of the old stonework, her bouquet of red and pink roses held between them.

The sky stayed grey, and it suited them. On a wooden bench under bare branching trees, with open fields and low hills behind, they sit forehead to forehead while the bride's long white train spreads across the grass.

On the same bench the bride laughs up at the groom. Then, inside a red timber gazebo with their arms around each other, they look out across the fields towards the hills.

The last frame is indoors, where the two of them lean in to laugh over their three-tier cake decorated with red roses, a bar behind them.

Planning your photographs at The Glyn Clydach

Some questions for the venue, and how we would plan around the answers:

1. Where you marry: The venue says it is licensed for civil ceremonies indoors or outdoors, and welcomes celebrants. Clarise and Jordan married in a hall away from the venue and came here for portraits and the rest of the day, so ask what the venue can offer for each plan and which room your ceremony would be in.
2. The ruins: Both couples had portraits among a roofless stone ruin, and it gave two very different results in warm and in grey light. The venue's pages do not mention it, so ask whose it is, whether you may use it on your date and how long the walk takes.
3. Garden and views: The venue lists 15 acres with countryside views. A lawn, a bench under old trees, a church-style door in a wall and a gazebo all appear in these two days, so ask which parts are open to you and whether anything is closed to guests.
4. Evening light: Sam and Shauna's lawn walk came as the light dropped in September. Tell us your start time and we will check sunset for your date, then agree the portrait plan with you before the day.
5. Grey skies: Clarise and Jordan's day stayed overcast and the bench and gazebo pictures still work. Ask the venue where you can shelter, and we will settle the plan on the morning.
6. Groups and portraits: We recommend about 15 group photographs, which usually take about 20 minutes, so choose a spot with room and ask someone who knows everyone to gather people. Your portrait walk, about 15 minutes with photo and video together, is the time to use the grounds.

One team for the photographs and the film

With over 400 weddings behind us as a photo and video pair, a hotel with a draped function room, a ruin in the grounds and a lawn for the evening light is something we plan for easily. You get one timetable, one list of questions for the venue and one plan for the portraits.

The photo and video team package carries a £120 deposit and a £400 saving over booking photography and videography separately. We are based near Cardiff, and travel across England and Wales is included in standard full-day packages. When the drive is over two hours we always stay in a hotel the night before and cover it.

Questions about a The Glyn Clydach wedding