Sam and Liam's Wedding at Hazlewood Castle | York wedding photographer | Real Weddings

Sam and Liam were married on October at Hazlewood Castle near York. An activity packed day and evening we were lucky enough to be asked to photograph and film their wedding day. Continue on below to read their wedding story as told by Sam.

“Our wedding day from start to finish was the best day of our lives and the most personal that it possibly could be”

You chose Hazlewood Castle, what made this your ideal wedding venue?

Hazlewood Castle Courtyard aerial view. York wedding venue

We originally had our wedding booked on a cruise ship in 2020. Then, the world changed due to that virus… COVID! When our wedding was cancelled, we decided to not rebook and wait for the covid saga to be over. In 2022, when the world started opening again, we went to visit Hazlewood Castle and we fell in love!

During the pandemic, we had managed to save (as we weren’t allowed out) and we decided to book Hazlewood Castle for our wedding in 2024. Hazelwood is a beautiful historic building and an amazing place for wedding pictures.

We always knew if we had a UK wedding, it was going to be far from traditional and not many venues allow you to go away from their “packages” but our wedding co-ordinator at Hazlewood Castle did and this made our decision even easier.

Please tell me about your proposal, who proposed and where was this?

15^th August 2018, Marmaris, Turkey. We were on holiday with 4 of our friends in a beautiful resort. We had all been up to the bar to get a drink in the evening and everyone went to sit at a table on the jetty overlooking the marina. Liam went and sat by himself in a chair away from everyone. I could see him from a distance sat on his phone. In a rage, I went over to tell him to stop being antisocial and to get off his phone! He asked me to sit down, and he put away his phone. He then just pulled this ring box out and asked me to marry him! I screamed with excitement and obviously said YES! It was the most romantic of settings surrounded by amazing friends!

As well as your amazing shoes, please tell me about your wedding suits and how you chose them.

Suits were one of the last things we sorted. I have always had a love for Christian Louboutin shoes…… my love is the pain to Liam’s bank card though! I knew I had to get the shoes first and then find the outfit. Liam is a joggers and hoody type of guy so getting him in a suit was going to be hard enough, let alone a pair of Louboutin Loafers! Anyway, I managed to persuade him into a pair to match me so now it was time for the suits.

We have travelled to Birmingham, Manchester, York and beyond! All over the country we travelled for the suits and there was always an issue. Too big, too small, not the right fit (Sam – you sound like Goldilocks) , not the right colour and so on. We then found the perfect suit for our ‘Ring Security’ boy and we ended up finding our suits in the same shop. We both decided we had to have something in the wedding colour of sage green. We both ended up with the same sage green waistcoat. Liam then chose a matching navy jacket and trousers. I ended up with black trousers and cream jacket. I’ve never been one to conform to the norm!

Hazlewood Castle weddings. The grooms suit

Your wedding rings are distinctive, please could you tell me about them?

We actually didn’t plan on buying new rings for the wedding. We were just going to get our engagement rings cleaned professionally and have them as our wedding rings. We went to the jewellers to buy our wedding party a gift. Liam was looking in the windows of the shop and said he loved a specific Gucci wedding ring.

We have always been a fan of the brand Gucci. Liam being Liam then asked to try the on. Before we knew it, we had 3 bracelets on order for our wedding party and 2 new wedding rings on order. Both of the rings were not in stock, but the sales associate went above and beyond and had to order them directly from Gucci in Italy as she knew how much we loved them! I am so glad we have them. It is the thing that loads have people commented on saying how different they are and how much they love them.

Gucci ceramic wedding rings for Sam and Liam's wedding at Hazlewood Castle, Yorkshire.

What about your wedding flowers and room styling, please tell us how you found those distinctive rainbow roses?

We visited a wedding fair at Hazlewood Castle and Shindig Event Styling were styling the castle. We loved everything about the way this company had dressed the venue. I contacted them, and we hired them to dress our wedding. We didn’t have much input in the styling to be honest.

We explained what colours we wanted and ideas we had, and we just let them work their magic and it turned out AMAZING! With regards the distinctive Rainbow Roses, we saw an artificial version in a shop in Bridlington of all places. I loved it but wanted a real flower for our wedding day. I contacted Shindig and like magic, these guys made it happen. We wanted to include these into our day as a subtle link to Gay Pride but not in your face if that makes sense. They were just perfect and just how we wanted them!

How did you personalise your wedding for the two of you?

As I’ve said previously, we didn’t want a traditional wedding. We knew we had to have the legality of the declarations etc but we didn’t want traditional. All the way through the planning process, I have said to everyone “I want a wedding that people will talk about after and say they have never been to a wedding like mine & Liams!”.

A major question we were both asked multiple times was “who meets who at the alter”. This got me thinking of how and what we would do regarding entrance to the wedding ceremony. Would one of us walk first and the other follow? Would one of us be waiting at the end of the aisle and the other meet them there? The answer every time was we needed to enter together but separately, and I know that makes no sense as I talk now but it made sense in my head. I had ordered an aisle runner for the centre of the room, but this wasn’t wide enough to get me and my mum plus Liam & his mum down all at once and why should one of us go first? Finally, it clicked… we would walk down together but separately by each walking down one side of the room and meeting in the middle.

Metaphorically, it symbolised to me that we were entering separately and then, when we were married, we would leave as one back up the centre aisle. I know this caused Chris & his amazing team of photographers a nightmare as this meant there needed to be 2 photographers at the front of the room, one on each side, but this was not a problem and Chris just made it work. This was probably the most symbolic personalisation’s of our wedding, but we did do a few out there things that just showed you were at a Sam & Liam Wedding! The ceremony and drinks reception were standard wedding.

I hate a 3 course, sit down formal meal, so the wedding breakfast was afternoon tea which me and Liam absolutely love anywhere we go. We had an amazing wedding magician which blew the minds of our guests throughout the whole day. In my opinion, we had one of the best singers in the world, Jason Allan with us all day. We both love a live, male vocalist so this was very personal to us. Jason also learnt our wedding songs and even professionally recorded them for us afterwards to feature on our wedding highlights video.

We wanted the evening reception to be like a fun party, not a formal wedding so I hired a fabulous event lighting company that transformed our evening reception room into a high class party venue with up lighting, dance floor, sparklers and much, much more. Our wedding day from start to finish was the best day of our lives and the most personal that it possibly could be.

What song did you choose for your first dance and why?

The Best – Tina Turner. Everyone loves this song. I heard an acoustic version of it one day while playing a random playlist on Alexa. Our wedding singer, Jason, learned this version for us and it couldn’t have been more amazing. Some songs you just sing along to and don’t really listen to the words. This song is a lovely song, and the words mean everything to us. This is why we chose it. If you have not heard it song acoustic before, YouTube it NOW!

From your wedding gallery, which photograph makes you smile the most and which is your favourite from the day?

Image 0710 is the wedding photograph that makes us smile the most. (Above)

This image is just perfect. taken during our evening reception in the Marquee at Hazlewood, It shows everyone in our lives that makes us happy. It also just shows us being the fun-loving people that we are. What other wedding picture would you see a group shot featuring a drag queen and 2 butlers in the buff!!

Image 0001 is our favourite picture of them all. (Right)

It shows our 2 loves in our lives… Each other, but more importantly my Christian Louboutin’s. Joking aside, this was one of the only pictures we requested from Chris. We wanted a black and white photo with only the red soles in colour. And this is what we got!

What advice would you give newly engaged couples planning their wedding?

This is a tough question to answer without writing loads and loads… to be honest, I could write a small book on this topic! Some bullet points below are my top wedding planning tips…

Do not rush to get married! Enjoy engaged life. Spend time saving up to have what you want. Do not rush to get married and then sacrifice on things. You should be entering into marriage once, so you must make it just what you want.
Do what makes you happy, do not do something to please other people. Yes, we all have an aunty we see once every 2 years, doesn’t mean she needs to come to your wedding. Yes, all our friends have partners that we have never met, doesn’t mean you have to offer plus ones on your invites. Yes, we all have small children in our families, doesn’t mean we can’t have a child free wedding. Get my point? 😊
Do not settle on set packages offered by your venue. If it is not something you want, ask for what you want and what you have to do to get it. Hazlewood Castle were amazing at catering for our requests.
Get an amazing wedding photographer, you only get one chance to get your wedding pictures, you do not want to be disappointed. You might be reading this blog thinking “I bet Chris Chambers gave him a discount for saying this” Just to clarify, absolutely not! I have agreed to do this blog for Chris as we have built up a relationship with him throughout our wedding process and I cannot thank him enough for the photos and memories he has created for our day. Is Chris going to be the cheapest, no way. Is Chris going to be the best wedding photographer in Yorkshire, in my opinion… YES! Like I say, you only get one chance at your wedding pictures, make sure you choose the right wedding photographer, not the cheapest!
Make sure your guests aren’t bored. We have all been to weddings where you never see the couple as they are busy having photos and mingling. Make sure there is something to entertain them during times where things aren’t planned. For example, at the drink’s reception and the time after the wedding breakfast and before the evening reception. We had a magician who was fantastic but there are other ideas out there.
Spend the whole day together as a couple. This way you have shared memories, not separate ones.
Make sure you get into your head, you are NOT the host of the day, you are the guest of honour!
Finally, enjoy it! It’s the one day of your life that is all about you and it goes so quickly. Enjoy every second!