Hunton Park Hotel

There’s a wide flight of stone steps down to a fountain in the garden at Hunton Park in Hertfordshire, globe lamps either side, and that’s the ten minutes we’d fight for. It gives us layers in the frame instead of a flat lawn, and a train spread across those steps is about the strongest single portrait the place offers. You marry in the Orangery, glass overhead and garden on every side, so your whole ceremony runs on daylight even in midwinter. Your morning happens in rooms with tall windows and patterned walls, and there’s a sweeping oak staircase indoors that takes the entire bridal party without anyone squeezing in. The red-brick front and its arched doorway carry the confetti and the group shot. Out in the formal gardens there’s topiary, gravel paths and clipped yew around the fountain. Dinner and dancing go in the marquee with blossom trees dressed through it, and the light in there turns soft and warm the moment the evening starts.