West Tower Wedding Photographer & Videographer

An exclusive-use country house in Aughton

West Tower is on Mill Lane in Aughton, near Ormskirk in Lancashire (L39 7HJ). The venue says it was built in the 1800s by a Liverpool cotton broker as a private country retreat, has been a grand home and a boutique hotel, and became a dedicated wedding venue in 2008. It hosts one wedding per day, so the house is yours for the day.

We photographed and filmed Natalie and Damian's wedding here on 18 July 2022. This page follows their day in six photographs. Our Liverpool guide and Manchester guide both show West Tower as a Lancashire country house option, and here we stay with the venue itself. What we say about the house comes from the venue's own website, and what we say about the photographs comes from looking at them.

For current venue details, explore West Tower. Natalie and Damian married in July, so ask the venue how the house and gardens look in other seasons.

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

The Ballroom, the terrace and the pagoda

The venue says it can welcome up to 145 guests for the ceremony and the seated wedding breakfast, and 200 or more guests for the evening. It is licensed for civil ceremonies, and you can choose the Ballroom or the Leather Lounge indoors, or the garden pagoda outside, subject to the weather and registrar approval. The pagoda is described as seating up to 145 guests, with an indoor option ready in the Ballroom if the weather turns.

The Ballroom is described as light and elegant, with chandeliers, floor-to-ceiling windows and views over the gardens, and is used for the ceremony, the wedding breakfast and the evening party. Outside there is a paved terrace with seating and open lawns that look out across the countryside, and the Cellar Bar sits beneath the main house with direct access to the terrace. The Leather Lounge is a fireside room just off the main hall.

The venue says its music and bar run until midnight for evening parties of up to 100 guests, and until 1am when there are more than 100 evening guests. It says dogs are welcome at the ceremony and in photographs around the grounds.

02 / July 2022 / Natalie and Damian

Natalie and Damian: a staircase, petals and the fields in evening light

Natalie and Damian married at West Tower on 18 July 2022. The photograph at the top of this page is from their evening portraits: Damian in a black dinner suit and bow tie and Natalie in a satin gown and pearl headband, foreheads together and smiling beside a field of ripe grass, with a flight of stone steps behind them and a bouquet of cream and blush roses in her hands.

In the morning, in a room with a crystal chandelier, gold-draped curtains and a gilt mirror, a woman in a navy floral dress and a fascinator helps with the back of Natalie's gown while she holds her bouquet, her veil stretching across the floor. Later she comes down a dark wooden staircase with her bridesmaids behind her, one gathering the train, her hand on the banister and a smile as she watches her step.

After the ceremony, Natalie and Damian walk arm in arm out through a shower of petals, both laughing, with groomsmen in black bow ties and guests clapping around them and a white lattice-sided pavilion behind.

As the evening goes on, they step away to the fields. Damian leans in to kiss Natalie against a pale glowing sky, the wide fields stretching away behind them, and then lifts her off the ground, her skirt swinging out, as they smile at each other in the last of the sun.

03 / Staying at West Tower / From the venue's own description

27 guest rooms, a Bridal Suite and a night before

The venue says it has 27 guest rooms across the Main House, Cottages, Coach House and Stables, plus the Dom Perignon Bridal Suite, which is included for the couple. You allocate the rooms, and the venue says rooms sleep up to 70 guests in all. Breakfast is served from 9 to 10am in the Cellar Bar and check-out is at 10.30am.

For getting ready, the venue says the Bridal Suite is available from 12pm. It sits at the top of the Main House with large windows and plenty of natural light, and the venue describes it as a good setting for getting-ready photographs. The Cristal Suite can be added to any package and gives early access at an agreed time, plenty of dressing space and natural light, and the venue offers a pre-night stay for up to six members of the bridal party. Ask the venue which of these your package includes and when each opens, so we can plan the morning around where each of you is.

Planning your photographs at West Tower

A few things worth asking the venue, and how we would plan around the answers:

1. Timing: The venue publishes an example timeline with a 1pm ceremony, drinks from 1.30pm, the wedding breakfast at 3.30pm, speeches at 6pm and the party from 7.30pm, and says every couple's timings differ. Tell us your timings once you have agreed them with the venue and we will plan the portrait walk around the light.
2. Evening light: Natalie and Damian married in July, and their evening photographs came from the fields and stone steps beside the house. We check sunset and light times for your date in advance and agree the plan with you before the day.
3. Rain: Agree an indoor or sheltered option with the venue when you confirm the order of the day. On the day we settle it together with you and the venue.
4. Group photographs: We do as many as you like and typically recommend around 15, which usually take about 20 minutes. Ask the venue where it suggests standing everyone, and ask a groomsman or bridesmaid who knows everyone to round people up.
5. Getting ready: If you and your partner are in different places, we move between you together, splitting our time as a team. Groom preparation typically takes about 15 minutes.
6. Supplier meals: The venue says photographers and videographers who are on site all day are often given a hot meal by the couple, served while guests have the wedding breakfast. Mention it to the venue when you plan your catering numbers.

One team for the photographs and the film

Cam and Beth have photographed and filmed over 400 weddings together, so a country house, a Ballroom and gardens that run out into open fields is familiar territory. You get one conversation about the timetable, one set of questions for the venue and one plan for the portrait walk.

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 West Tower wedding