An elegant English castle wedding done beautifully – this is a wonderful feature we’ve been so looking forward to sharing with you. Racheal and Jonathan married at Powderham Castle, overlooking the river Exe in glorious Devon. With three stunning dress changes, Rachael looks incredible every moment of their day – and Jonathan looks fantastic in a very elegant blue suit. (He told us he’s a quick shopper and was done in 15 minutes!)

They chose our friends at Evolve Photography in Devon to capture their day. Experienced, talented and exceptionally hardworking wedding photographers, Evolve delivered an amazing set of images which tell the story of this Devon wedding with oodles of grace and charm. Keep scrolling to see the full selection of photographs from Racheal and Jonathan’s day!

Wedding photographer’s website

https://evolvephoto.co.uk/

How did you choose your photographer?

We both researched extensively online before choosing Mark as our photographer

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Yes! Mark was fantastic from the outset and set our minds at ease , we couldn’t be happier with the finished results which have given us our lovely memories

Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?

Powderham Castle was special, it was where I proposed to Racheal as it’s somewhere we both love to visit, it has some unique rooms and the outside lighting in winter really added a distinct style to our photographs. The photos on the staircase are a particular highlight

Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?

Racheal: My plan was to have 5 dress changes which is normal in the Ugandan culture, in the end we settled for 3 haha and this worked well with the timings throughout the day. Also, I went over budget for my main dress but it was so worth it I knew the dress was perfect when I saw it.

Jonathan: I am a decisive shopper! The first suit I tried on I knew it was the one for me and I was done in 15 minutes to be fair.

Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness

Yes we used 2 local florists in Exeter and also mixed our decorations with some artificial flowers as this helped with our budget

Did you hire a wedding planner?

No wedding planner, we both worked closely together and can’t thank Jonathan’s mum and sisters enough in particular who helped greatly including the wedding invitations and table planning

As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?

We budgeted in this area so we could use a different caterer, Jonathan’s mother made an amazing tiered cake which was a hit!

Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves

We worked extensively in the table layouts and spent a number of months picking up different pieces to add to the decorations across the castle

Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?

Yes we both wrote individual vows which we read to each other on the big day , it was a lovely surprise for both of us.

What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?

We choose Lover (first dance remix ) by Taylor Swift

How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?

We were very fortunate: in October 2020 when we first met with Powderham we agreed on November 2021, We had it confirmed for the outset that if any rules or regulations were to change with guest numbers we would receive a certain percentage of all the costs refunded to us, thankfully the wedding went ahead with just over 100 people and we had no restrictions in place

Favourite wedding suppliers

https://evolvephoto.co.uk/