Getting married in Cheltenham?
A handsome, fun and regal town that has everything you need.
Cheltenham is a brilliant place to get married if you want something elegant but not overly formal.
You have Regency architecture, leafy squares, independent restaurants, beautiful hotels and plenty of places where you can have the ceremony, walk through town for photographs and then continue the celebration somewhere completely different.
I’m Eleanor Dailey, a Gloucestershire wedding photographer based near Cheltenham, and I’ve photographed a number of weddings at Cheltenham Register Office, followed by celebrations at different venues around town.
That combination works particularly well for smaller weddings.
You can keep the ceremony intimate, take some photographs around Cheltenham afterwards, then meet everyone for lunch, drinks or an evening celebration without spending half the day travelling between locations.
Getting married at Cheltenham Register Office
Cheltenham Register Office is part of Gloucestershire Registration Service and is based on St George’s Road, Cheltenham, GL50 3EW.
Gloucestershire offers both simple legal registrations and fuller ceremonies.
A basic registration is deliberately very small — the couple, two witnesses and the registration officers — while an enhanced ceremony can include guests, non-religious readings and music, subject to the capacity of the room.
For couples who don’t want a huge traditional wedding, that can make Cheltenham Register Office a really appealing starting point.
You can have the legal ceremony without turning the whole day into a large production, then make the rest of the day entirely your own.
Why a Cheltenham Register Office wedding works so well
One of the things I particularly like about photographing weddings here is that the register office doesn’t have to be the whole wedding.
It can simply be the beginning of the day.
How does getting married at Cheltenham Register Office work?
Gloucestershire Registration Service currently offers different levels of civil marriage.
The most basic legal registration is exactly that: the couple, two witnesses and the registration officers. These registrations currently take place in Cheltenham or Gloucester on Monday or Tuesday afternoons. There are no additional guests, music, readings, ring vows or photography during this simplest legal registration.
That distinction is worth knowing if photography matters to you.
If you want family and friends present and would like your actual ceremony photographed, speak to Gloucestershire Registration Service about its Classic or Enhanced ceremony options rather than booking the bare legal registration.
An Enhanced Ceremony allows couples more choice over the words they say and can include up to two non-religious readings and non-religious music. Guest numbers depend on the licensed capacity of the room.
You also need to give notice of marriage before the ceremony. Your notice is specific to the venue and is valid for 12 months. Gloucestershire currently asks couples to make their provisional ceremony booking before arranging the notice appointment.
For current availability, capacity and fees, I would always check directly with the council because these can change.
Cheltenham Register Office:
St George's Road
Cheltenham
GL50 3EW
Telephone: 01452 425060
Official Cheltenham Register Office website:
Cheltenham Register Office – Gloucestershire County Council
Marriage and civil ceremony information:
Gloucestershire Registration Service – Marriages
Why I like the idea of a Cheltenham Register Office wedding
Small doesn't have to mean insignificant.
In fact, small weddings can be some of the loveliest to photograph because there isn't a huge timetable or production surrounding everything.
You can have the ceremony, walk through Cheltenham, stop somewhere for champagne, have a long lunch with the people you actually want there and enjoy yourselves.
Photography can simply follow along.
Wedding photographs around Cheltenham
Cheltenham gives you an enormous amount of variety within a relatively compact area.
The Promenade and surrounding streets give you the grand Regency side of the town, with pale stone buildings, ironwork and wide pavements.
Around Imperial Gardens and Montpellier, you have greenery, traditional Cheltenham architecture, terraces, cafés and more intimate streets.
You can then move into one of the town’s hotels, bars or restaurants and suddenly have a completely different look again.
That means a small town-centre wedding can still produce a really varied wedding gallery.
And because you’re walking rather than constantly getting in and out of cars, some of the nicest photographs often happen in between the places you originally planned to photograph.
Where can you celebrate after a Cheltenham Register Office wedding?
This is one of Cheltenham’s real strengths.
You don’t necessarily need to hire a traditional wedding venue at all.
For a smaller wedding, you can have your ceremony at the register office and then book a private dining room, hotel or restaurant afterwards.
A few places worth looking at include:
Pittville Pump Room
If you want something considerably grander, Pittville Pump Room is one of Cheltenham's most recognisable wedding venues. The Grade I-listed Regency building overlooks the lawns and lake of Pittville Park, around two miles from the centre of Cheltenham. And it looks suitably impressive.
There are huge columns outside, sweeping lawns, chandeliers, a domed interior and the beautiful park surrounding it. For weddings, the main hall can accommodate up to 220 seated guests, with smaller spaces also available for more intimate ceremonies.
The Cheltenham Trust currently offers weddings at both Pittville Pump Room and Cheltenham Town Hall. Photographically, Pittville has almost everything in one place. Architecture. Huge interiors. Columns. Gardens. Trees. The lake. And enough space that we can create some dramatic photographs without you having to disappear halfway across Gloucestershire. It's also one of those buildings where you really don't need to overdo the posing. Put two people in wedding clothes underneath those enormous columns and the architecture does most of the work. Official Pittville Pump Room wedding website:
Pittville Pump Room weddings – The Cheltenham Trust
Cheltenham Town Hall
Another option worth knowing about is Cheltenham Town Hall. Despite the name, this isn't the register office. It's a grand Grade II-listed events venue on Imperial Square, surrounded by one of the nicest parts of central Cheltenham. The Cheltenham Trust offers several spaces here for civil wedding ceremonies and receptions.
The Main Hall can accommodate up to 450 seated guests, while smaller rooms such as the Drawing Room and Holst Suite are available for much more intimate ceremonies. This could make a particularly good option if you want a proper Cheltenham town wedding rather than a country-house wedding. You're right beside Imperial Gardens and close to the Promenade and Montpellier. That means we can walk out of the ceremony and immediately have some of the best bits of Cheltenham available for photographs. No driving to a viewpoint. No convoy of wedding cars. No disappearing for an hour. Just a walk.
Official Cheltenham Town Hall wedding information: Cheltenham Trust Weddings
Manor by the Lake
If your idea of a Cheltenham wedding involves slightly more greenery, Manor by the Lake is almost the opposite of a town-centre wedding. It's a Victorian manor house on Hatherley Lane with around seven acres of grounds, including Italianate gardens and a natural spring-fed lake.
The venue specialises in exclusive-use weddings, which is one of its big attractions. You aren't sharing the building with another wedding or a hotel full of people wandering through reception. Instead, the manor becomes your space for the day. It's licensed for both indoor and outdoor civil ceremonies, and the venue says it can accommodate up to around 180 guests for a ceremony and wedding breakfast, with larger numbers possible for evening celebrations.
From a photography point of view, this is exactly the sort of venue that makes my life easy. There are big formal spaces when you want them, but also gardens, water, smaller corners, old architecture and plenty of places where people can simply wander about and enjoy themselves. And because everything happens in one place, you can spend more of the wedding actually at your wedding.
Official Manor by the Lake wedding website:Manor by the Lake Weddings
No.131 Cheltenham
For something stylish but very much in Cheltenham itself, I really like the idea of No.131. It's made up of Georgian townhouses on The Promenade, and its wedding space, The House, feels much more like holding a brilliant private party than hiring a conventional function room.
The House is licensed for civil ceremonies, with space for up to around 60 ceremony guests and 110 for the reception. Eight bedrooms within The House can be hired as part of the exclusive-use experience, with further bedrooms elsewhere at No.131. There's a Dining Room, Lounge, private bar and terrace, so the day can naturally move from one part of the building to another. This is the kind of wedding I can imagine working particularly well if you want things to feel grown-up but not overly formal. Get married. Drink champagne. Walk along the Promenade. Take a few photographs. Have an excellent dinner. Then turn the music up. It also works beautifully for a smaller wedding because the building has enough character that you don't need 150 guests to fill it.
Official No.131 Cheltenham wedding website:No.131 Cheltenham Weddings
The Queens Hotel Cheltenham
At the other end of the Promenade is The Queens Hotel. If you're looking for classic Cheltenham, this is pretty difficult to beat. It's a grand historic hotel overlooking Imperial Gardens, right in the heart of town. The Queens is licensed for civil ceremonies for up to 120 guests, with its Regency Suite providing the main wedding space. It has floor-to-ceiling arched windows, chandeliers and the sort of period architecture you'd expect from one of Cheltenham's landmark hotels. And again, the location is a huge advantage. You could have preparations upstairs, the ceremony and reception at the hotel, then slip across to Imperial Gardens or the Promenade for some photographs. Everything remains within a tiny radius. If you have guests travelling in, the hotel setting also solves one of the most boring but important wedding questions: Where is everybody going to sleep?
Official Queens Hotel Cheltenham wedding website:Queens Hotel Cheltenham Weddings
Ellenborough Park
If you're looking for a luxury Cheltenham wedding venue with more of a country-house feel, Ellenborough Park is well worth considering. It sits on Southam Road, on the edge of Cheltenham near the racecourse and Cotswold hills. The estate offers both indoor and outdoor weddings, exclusive-use possibilities and accommodation, with 62 bedrooms and wedding spaces ranging from rooms for just 16 people to spaces accommodating around 120 guests. One particularly interesting feature is the Stone Gazebo, a restored 19th-century neo-Gothic structure that is licensed for civil ceremonies. There's also the Old Chapel, De La Bere Court and smaller historic rooms within the house. This one has quite a different feel from central Cheltenham. You still have easy access to town, but the wedding itself feels much more like escaping into the countryside. From a photography perspective you've got old stone, gardens, architecture and views — lots of possibilities without needing to manufacture anything.
Official Ellenborough Park wedding website:
Ellenborough Park Weddings
The Greenway Hotel & Spa
On the southern side of Cheltenham, The Greenway Hotel & Spa is another good choice if you want the country-house atmosphere without travelling far from town. The hotel sits in around eight acres of grounds and is licensed for civil marriages and civil partnerships. There are several different ceremony options, ranging from intimate rooms to outdoor weddings and marquee celebrations. Its Panel Room can host up to around 40 guests, the Garden Room around 58, and its outdoor Hide or larger marquee options can accommodate bigger celebrations. The hotel has 21 bedrooms and can also be hired exclusively for a wedding. I think this could work particularly well for couples who want the whole weekend to feel relaxed. Everybody arrives. Nobody needs to go anywhere. You get married, eat, drink, walk around the gardens and stay overnight. Simple.
Official Greenway Hotel & Spa wedding website:The Greenway Hotel & Spa Weddings
Which Cheltenham Wedding Venue Is Right for You?
What's nice about Cheltenham is that these venues genuinely offer very different sorts of weddings. If you're planning a small civil wedding, start by looking at Cheltenham Register Office. If you want a grand Regency wedding, Pittville Pump Room or Cheltenham Town Hall are hard to beat. For a stylish town-centre wedding, I'd look at No.131 or the Queens Hotel. If you want an exclusive-use manor house, Manor by the Lake is a particularly strong option. And if you're looking for more of a country-house Cotswold feel, Ellenborough Park or The Greenway might suit you better. There isn't really a right venue. There's just the one that fits how you actually want the day to feel.
Wedding Photography in Cheltenham
One reason I enjoy photographing weddings in Cheltenham is the variety. The town is elegant without everything looking identical. You have Regency terraces and grand hotels, but also parks, little streets, modern bars, old buildings and countryside almost immediately outside the town.
It means your wedding gallery can have a real sense of place without every photograph needing to feature the venue. And my approach to photographing it is fairly simple. I don't think you need to spend two hours posing. I want to photograph the things you'll actually want to remember. Someone pacing before the ceremony. Your mum seeing you dressed for the first time. The person who cries when nobody expects them to. Children becoming bored halfway through the vows. Friends arriving. Confetti. Champagne. Speeches. Hugs. People dancing rather badly.
And the tiny moments happening around the edges that you don't even see at the time. We'll make time for the family photographs that matter. And we'll disappear for a short walk and some photographs of the two of you. But then you get your wedding back. Because ultimately you're getting married — you're not attending a photoshoot.
Small Weddings and Cheltenham Register Office Photography
It's worth saying this separately because you don't need a full-day photography package simply because you're getting married. A Cheltenham Register Office wedding might only need a couple of hours.
For example: Getting ready → ceremony → photographs around Cheltenham → champagne or lunch. That can make a brilliant little wedding story.
If you're having a simple legal registration rather than a Classic or Enhanced ceremony, remember that Gloucestershire's basic registration does not currently permit photography during the legal registration itself. We can still photograph before and afterwards, or you can ask the Registration Service about one of the ceremony options that allows guests and photography. That is something I'd establish before booking your photographer.
Planning a Wedding in Cheltenham?
I'm Eleanor Dailey, a Gloucestershire wedding photographer based just up the road in Tewkesbury, with more than 25 years' experience behind the camera. I photograph weddings throughout Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds, as well as further afield. Whether you're planning a tiny wedding at Cheltenham Register Office, a Regency celebration at Pittville Pump Room, a townhouse wedding at No.131, or a full country-house weekend at Manor by the Lake or Ellenborough Park, I'd love to hear what you're planning.
