Norwich Castle Wedding Photographer & Videographer

A Norman castle and working museum in the middle of Norwich

Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery stands on Castle Hill in the centre of Norwich, Norfolk (NR1 3JU). The museum says William the Conqueror built the castle as a royal palace and that it is open daily from 10am to 5pm. Norfolk County Council, which runs the registration service, describes a working museum in a building the Normans put up over 900 years ago, and lists the castle's Benefactors Room among its civil ceremony rooms, booked through an online form.

We photographed Ryan and Kirsty's ceremony at the castle on 4 August 2021. This page is about that ceremony and the castle: their portraits and the rest of the day were taken at a different countryside venue, which we do not name here, and those pictures are included only so you can see the whole day. Our Suffolk guide shows more weddings in the next county, and here we stay with the castle. What we say about the castle comes from the council and the museum's own websites, and what we say about the pictures comes from looking at them.

For current venue details, explore Norwich Castle. Ceremony times, numbers and rules are the council's, and they can change, so check its page when you enquire. Our photographs date from August 2021.

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

A private ceremony room inside a working museum

The council's page for the Benefactors Room says the room is inside Norwich Castle, and that although the building is open to the public the room is not, so a ceremony there is completely private. It describes a large ornate window, a fireplace and historic artwork, and says the castle's gardens make a good backdrop for photographs. The museum's own venue hire page also lists the Benefactors Room as available for private wedding ceremonies and other smaller gatherings, and sends wedding enquiries to the council's website.

Ceremonies take place on the hour: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 4pm, Wednesdays from 12 noon to 4pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 3pm. The council gives the capacity as 50, which includes your two witnesses and a photographer if you have one, and does not include the two of you or the two registrars. The museum's hire page gives different figures for the room (60 guests, and Mondays only, for its general hire), so ask both teams which apply to a ceremony on your date.

The room in our photograph is a gallery with large gilt-framed landscape paintings above a wood-panelled lower wall, and rows of pale wooden chairs set out for guests. We cannot tell from the photograph alone which of the castle's rooms it is, and it does not show the window or fireplace the council describes, so if the setting matters to you, ask which room your date would use.

The museum's venue hire page lists other spaces for events, among them the Castle Keep, the Great Hall, the Rotunda, the Battlements and the Castle Café, and says an in-house catering team serves them. The pages we read do not say whether any of these can be hired for a wedding reception, so ask whether you can use them after your ceremony, and what they cost.

02 / August 2021 / Ryan and Kirsty

Ryan and Kirsty: a kiss in a gallery of paintings, then portraits beside a lake

Ryan and Kirsty married on 4 August 2021, a Wednesday. The photograph at the top of this page is the kiss at the end of their ceremony in the castle: Ryan in a dark suit and Kirsty in a lace gown, with a flowered hair piece and a veil, their arms round each other while guests seated behind them smile, one in a red floral dress and another holding up a camera.

Afterwards they walked in bright sun beside black iron railings, with rooftops and a spire behind them. Kirsty smiles down at her bouquet of red and cream flowers with its long red ribbons, and Ryan talks with his hand held out, friends walking alongside. We cannot place this walk exactly, so we do not say where it was.

The rest of the day was photographed at a different venue in the countryside, with a lake, tall hedges, rows of young conifers and open fields. The sky turned soft and grey. In the first picture the two of them stand with their foreheads together in front of a wall of ivy, Kirsty's bouquet between them. At the lake, Ryan holds her close and they smile at each other, the water still behind them.

A mown path between a tall hedge and a bank of conifers gave them a long walk, small against a wide pale sky.

Later the light turned amber. In a field of dry grasses and tall seed heads they kiss with the low sun behind them, Ryan in a dark waistcoat and floral tie. In the last picture they walk hand in hand out through white drapes hung with lights, Ryan laughing, Kirsty smiling, confetti falling all around them.

Planning your photographs and film at Norwich Castle

A few things to ask the council and the museum, and how we would plan around the answers:

1. Booking and timing: The council books the Benefactors Room through its own online form, separately from the museum's venue hire team, and slots start on the hour. Once you have your time, send it to us and we will work backwards from it to decide when each of us meets you in the morning.
2. Numbers: The council counts your two witnesses and a photographer within its 50. If you want a camera for film as well, ask the registration team whether a second person filming counts towards that number, and tell us the answer so we can work out where each of us stands.
3. Arrival and waiting: For couples who want to arrive separately, the council suggests partner one arrives 20 minutes before the start and partner two and the guests 15 minutes before, with guests waiting in the Bird Gallery until the ceremony. We can be with each of you in turn, so send us your arrival plan once it is agreed.
4. Gardens and confetti: The council welcomes photographs in the castle gardens and bans flash inside the castle. Confetti must be biodegradable and can be thrown anywhere in the grounds except outside the main entrance, so buy it with that rule in mind.
5. Group photographs: We do as many as you like and usually recommend around 15, which take about 20 minutes. The castle's grounds and its indoor waiting area give your guests somewhere to gather, and one person who knows everyone makes it quicker.
6. Portraits and moving on: A portrait walk of about 15 minutes gives you what you need from the castle. If your reception is somewhere else, as Ryan and Kirsty's was, allow time for the journey. The council says a ceremony car larger than a people carrier cannot cross the bridge to the entrance, so it stops at the bottom of the bridge.

One team for the photographs and the film

Cam and Beth have photographed and filmed over 400 weddings together, which suits a day like this one: a short private ceremony on the hour, then travel and portraits somewhere else. With one booking there is one timeline, and both of us plan around the same slot.

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 Norwich Castle wedding