Moore Place Hotel

The columned porch is what Moore Place in Bedfordshire gives you first. A red carpet runs out from under it with white pillars either side, and it works three times over: the arrival, the bridal-party portraits, and again after dark when the whole front floodlights and you stand in the lit doorway. Round the back there’s a rockery waterfall and a pond, and that’s the sheltered spot worth ten minutes, because water and greenery look completely different from the formal front and it stays usable whatever the sky is doing. A white iron garden table sits nearby for something more relaxed. Indoors, open fires and panelled rooms hold the portraits if it rains, and the reception rooms look out over the garden so the speeches shoot on daylight. Couples often marry at the church nearby and come back for the rest of it. You get the place to yourselves, so we can use any corner of it at any point without waiting on another party.