Wedding Venue: Ragley Hall

Inside the House

Great Hall

The baroque and rococo styling is an impressive space to hold your wedding ceremony and reception. This room, with a spectacular 40ft high decorative ceiling, is licensed to hold 220 for a ceremony and is suitable for a seated banquet of 180.

The Great Hall is 252 sq.m at 21m x 12m

Red Saloon

Adjoining the Great Hall is the Red Saloon and perfect for the more intimate occasion with a licensed capacity of 104 for the civil ceremony. The exquisite crystal chandelier and log fire is perfect for fine dining during your wedding breakfast with up to 80 guests.

The views from the windows are nothing short of breathtaking as you’ll overlook the awe-inspiring Rose Garden and ‘Avenue’.

The Red Saloon is 96 sq.m at 12m x 8m

If you hold your ceremony in the Great Hall, you’ll be led into the Red Saloon to informally greet your wedding guests, or just to spend a bit of quality time together, while your guests are led downstairs to the drinks reception. This is also an ideal time to capture a few quick, informal photos together and with your bridal party.

Preparation Rooms

Ragley Hall has a few other smaller rooms available for use which are ideal if you or your wedding guests need to get changed during the day. The rooms can also be used as morning preparation rooms for the bride and groom.

South Staircase

The South Staircase has to be one of the highlights to your visit to Ragley Hall. In 1983, the painter Graham Rust completed a huge mural known as “The Temptation”. The floor to ceiling painting, with depictions of exotic animals, locations and personal commissioned portraits of the resident family, is a perfect backdrop and conversation starter for your drinks reception. 

Vaulted Hall

The ground floor features flagstone floors, and also vaulted ceilings in their recently refurbished Vaulted Hall. This Hall can transform into your evening reception space and has a bar, stage and dance floor.

Asian Wedding Venue

What makes Ragley Hall one of the top 10 Asian wedding venues in the West Midlands, is the fact that, not only is there plenty of room for your guests, they have no restrictions on the type of ceremony and rituals allowed, plus they also allow private catering. So if you’re planning for the groom to arrive on a Baraat Horse accompanied by Dhol team plus Swaagat and Var Aagamana, no problem! The entrance to Ragley Hall provides an impressive location to welcome the groom in style, plus the staff are very accommodating for what a Hindu ceremony requires.

For eg, when covering Indian Hindu wedding celebrations, the civil ceremony is usually arranged first in the morning in the Red Room, (The Great Hall is available if you’re planning a larger guest list.) followed by a drinks reception along with food prepared downstairs so the guests can spill outside into the patio area to enjoy the scenery and relaxed conversation. All of which you’ll get to share with the resident peacock.

The bride and groom can then get changed into their traditional wear, in the separate different changing rooms available, for the traditional ceremony.

As by tradition the groom should arrive on a Barrat Horse and be formally welcomed by the bride’s family, there is plenty of room at Ragley for this to happen. The driveway and front area is impressively spacious, to add to the spectacular nature of the whole proceedings.

The Great Hall has plenty of space for a large Mandap with all the accompanying ceremonies. Plus, there’ll still be plenty of room for your guests to comfortably enjoy the ceremony.

Want to include Agni Puja and Mangal Phera during the ceremony? Ragley Hall will accommodate you also.

Utilising the decadence of Ragley’s State Rooms and combining this with their beautiful Rose Garden marquee site, makes Ragley a spectacular Asian wedding venue.

When I shoot Asian weddings (or any type of wedding for that matter!) and there are more than one ceremony during the day, you can be assured that however long your day, I don’t charge extra to cover all your ceremonies. My Full-day, effectively unlimited time, coverage price is ideal for just those occasions, with an unlimited number of final images too!

I tend to start with the bridal preparations early in the morning and will carry on until the evening celebrations are sufficiently covered, and it’s common for me to more than double the usual number of images presented.

If you’re planning fireworks at the end of your day, as Ragley Hall permits the use of fireworks, then I’ll be there to capture all of that too, without clock-watching.

Park and Gardens

You and your guests won’t fail to be impressed by the 26 acres of mature formal gardens created by Victorian designer Robert Marnock, along with hundreds of acres of stunning parkland created by Capability Brown, with beautiful contemporary sculptures and views over the Warwickshire countryside.

Other areas of the estate have been left wild for visitors of all ages to explore. During your drinks reception, you and your guests can wander around exploring the area or just take a moment to sit quietly on one of the benches to enjoy the spectacle of the many contemporary garden sculptures. If you’re fortunate, you may even catch a glimpse of the deer in the woodland!

Marquee Wedding Venue

For any event over the capacity of 180, you will need to hire one of their marquees.

For marquee weddings, the hall can still host drinks receptions, smaller ceremonies and photography.

Where to Stay at Ragley Hall

Ragley Hall has a portfolio of exclusive holiday homes situated within the Ragley Estate available for accommodation during your wedding.

Hunting Lodge at Ragley Estate

This Grade II listed 16th Century building hosts up to 16 guests in it’s 2 ground floor and 5 first floor bedrooms. There is parking for up to 8 cars on a private drive.

Ridgeway Farmhouse at Ragley Estate

This dog-friendly building hosts up to 8 guests in it’s 4 bedrooms. There is parking for up to 4 cars.

Arrow Lodge at Ragley Estate

As you arrive at Ragley Hall, Arrow Lodge is the gatehouse on the left of the main entrance and offers comfortable accommodation for 2 guests.

History of Ragley Hall

Ragley Hall is a stately home, located south of Alcester, Warwickshire, eight miles (13 km) west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the ancestral seat of the Marquess of Hertford for over 300 years

The house, which was designed by Dr Robert Hooke, was built for Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway and completed in 1680. The Great Hall is thought to have been decorated by James Wyatt in 1780.

It became the home of Anne Conway and she was visited there by a number of notable people including Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Thomas Vaughan, Henry More, Ezechiel Foxcroft, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and Christian Knorr von Rosenroth. Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont was Anne’s physician from 1671 until her death in 1679.

Financial instability of the Seymour family left the house threatened with demolition more than once. In 1912, following the death of Hugh Seymour, 6th Marquess of Hertford, the estate’s trustees recommended that the house be demolished. However, during World War I and World War II, the house found use as a military hospital. Hugh Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford, who inherited Ragley Hall from his uncle in 1940, fought to save it after the war. It was refurbished between 1956 and 1958, when it became one of the first stately homes opened to the public.

In 1983, the painter Graham Rust completed a huge mural including pets, friends and family members which is known as “The Temptation” and is exhibited on the Southern staircase.

Ragley was the site of the Jerwood Sculpture Park, opened in July 2004. The Park included works that won the Jerwood Sculpture Prizes, and the work of Dame Elisabeth Frink, among others.

Ragley Hall News

• 
  Indian Wedding Photographer | Sahiti and Nitin
  View an Indian wedding as photographed by the venue’s recommended photographer – award-winning photographer Clive Blair Photography.
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  Asian Wedding Photographer | Clive Blair Photography
  As a recommended photographer for Ragley Hall, it’s always a pleasure to return for another Civil and Indian wedding. View Manisha and Sunny’s celebrations.