Elena&Tom

Ninety-six guests, no marquee, no amplification after ten — a house-party wedding the way the manor was built for.

Vows in the walled garden under the first blossom, dinner at long tables through the drawing rooms, and dancing in the stair hall until the house called time. Twenty-six of them slept upstairs.

The morning after is the part they talk about: eggs and champagne in the garden, the pear espaliers just opening, the goodbye taking three unhurried hours.

“We had breakfast in the garden the morning after, all ninety-six of us in yesterday’s clothes. Nobody wanted to leave. That was the whole point of the place.”