Ardington House

The stone temple out on the lawn is where most of your day happens at Ardington House. You marry under its dome with open Oxfordshire parkland behind you and nothing man-made in the frame, so the ceremony pictures look like they were taken in a garden rather than a room, and there’s space to set a quartet just off to one side. It’s an outdoor venue at heart, with the house sitting in the middle of it, and you get the whole place to yourselves, so we’re never waiting for another party to clear a spot. The lawn takes every guest in one frame with the brick front behind them. Give us ten minutes at the pond and you get the quieter pictures - there’s a wooden footbridge, reeds, and the house reflected in the water. Inside there’s a panelled room and a staircase if the sky turns. Hold back the last half hour of light if you can, because the parkland opens west and you end up as two dark shapes against the sky.