A cool Cotswold wed­ding with mar­ryoke, pina­ta and a first dance flash mob!!

Matara Centre Wedding Photography

Matara Centre Wedding Photography

How to describe The Matara Cen­tre?

Enig­mat­ic would be one word, diverse would be anoth­er, per­haps spir­i­tu­al? Their own web­site describes it as ‘tra­di­tion­al­ly uncon­ven­tion­al’, and I LOVE IT!!!

Matara Cen­tre Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phy is just the best thing to do!

Nes­tled away in the sleepy Cotswold coun­try­side it’s handy for the M5, not too far from Glouces­ter and easy to get to from Bris­tol, but it feels like you’re in anoth­er world.

With a Grade II list­ed Regency coun­try house, at first glance it might seem like a typ­i­cal exam­ple of rur­al Eng­land, but then you start to explore

There’s The White Gar­den, The Herb Gar­den, The Ital­ian Kitchen Gar­den and the Chi­nese inspired Clois­tered Court­yard. In the park­land there’s pas­ture, a lake, hid­den cor­ners and mys­ti­cal stone sculp­tures. Inside you’ve got inter­est­ing curios from the East, Zen rooms and The Hilarium.

“What’s The Hilar­i­um?” I hear you ask? Well, get your­self down to The Matara Cen­tre and you’ll find out!!

So, with a back­drop like that for a wed­ding I guess you’d expect it to be a day full of excite­ment and cre­ativ­i­ty, and you’d be absolute­ly right, just read on

Rea­sons to choose Matara Cen­tre for your wed­ding venue:-

  • Set in 28 acres of Cotswold coun­try­side with wood­land, wet­land and flower meadows
  • East meets West with a Grade II list­ed Regency House and Ori­en­tal inspired clois­tered courtyard
  • A social enter­prise ded­i­cat­ed to peo­ple and place

Oth­er blogs to check out


Your love, lift­ing me high­er
Than I’ve ever been lift­ed before
So keep it it up
Quench my desire
And I’ll be at your side
For­ev­er more

Your Love Keeps Lift­ing Me High­er — Jack­ie Wilson


A Matara Centre Wedding

The build up to the wed­ding nor­mal­ly fol­lows the same pat­tern for me; My day starts with the Bride as she is get­ting ready, then I head off to the Groom and guests as the cer­e­mo­ny gets clos­er, cap­tur­ing the two sep­a­rate strands of the sto­ry until they con­verge at the alter

Matara Cen­tre Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phy can be dif­fer­ent though!

At Matara, you can hire the house for the night before the wed­ding for you and about 20 of your friends, which is exact­ly what Lau­ra & Duane did.

But, of course, that means that both the Bride & Groom are in the same place the morn­ing of the wed­ding. ARGGHHH!!!

Wed­ding tra­di­tion purists need not wor­ry though, with clever use of a par­ti­tion screen to divide the bed­room cor­ri­dor in two, (and a rota for break­fast!) you can have both Bridal prep and Groom prep going on simul­ta­ne­ous­ly with no fear of any ‘rules’ being bro­ken (although if you do want to see each oth­er before the wed­ding then why not?!)

As a pho­tog­ra­ph­er it also gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be in two places at the same time, if that isn’t a meta­phys­i­cal impossibility?!

Behind one door you had the bon­homie of the boys alto­geth­er whilst behind the oth­er door you had the very relaxed girls, chill­ing and enjoy the odd glass or two of fizz

Outdoor Costwolds Wedding

A lot of venues give you more than one option for where to have your cer­e­mo­ny and The Matara Cen­tre is no excep­tion hav­ing half a dozen to choose from.

Lau­ra & Duane had opt­ed for the Chi­nese style clois­tered court­yard which gives an indoor/outdoor vibe, the guests all under the cov­er of the the clois­ter but the Bride & Groom stand­ing on a jet­ty, jut­ting out into the fish filled pool.

(If you want to see a few more ways you can have an out­door wed­ding then I have anoth­er blog com­ing that you might want to read)

Matara Centre Wedding Reception 

After the cer­e­mo­ny you want to put your feet up and have a drink right? Nooooooooooo! 

Not with a venue like this 

You want to have a trea­sure hunt, and explore, and make a lip-sync music video, and have a mem­o­ry rib­bon tying cer­e­mo­ny in the rose gar­den, THAT’S what you want to do 🙂

Then to follow?

Well, you have pina­ta, food and then a first dance flash mob of course!!

If you’re look­ing for Matara Cen­tre Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phy, (or for any­where else), then please get in touch. I’d love to have a chat!