Whitley Hall Hotel Wedding Photographer

Hello, I’m Dave. I’m a documentary wedding photographer working across Yorkshire, and Whitley Hall is one of those places that is ten minutes off the motorway and feels an hour from anywhere. If you are looking for someone to photograph your day there, this page should give you a feel for how I work and what the venue is like to photograph in.

Whitley Hall is a sixteenth century hall at Grenoside, on the northern edge of Sheffield, standing in twenty acres of gardens and woodland with two lakes below it. There is a folly in the secret garden you can be married under, and the hall was the first venue in South Yorkshire to be licensed for civil ceremonies.

Bride and groom at sunset

My Approach to Wedding Photography at Whitley Hall

I photograph the day as it happens. Most of it you will not notice me doing. I will get everyone together for the family groups you want and I will find you both twenty quiet minutes for portraits, but the rest of the day is yours to enjoy rather than pose for.

I photograph weddings across Yorkshire, and at Whitley Hall in particular the planning matters – the garden time is a booked slot rather than an open afternoon. You get 800 or more edited images back within three to four weeks, and there are 72 five-star Google reviews from couples I have worked with.

Happy couple walking outside church on wedding day.

Whitley Hall at a Glance

  • Where: Elliott Lane, Grenoside, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S35 8NR.
  • Ceremonies: The Whitley Suite, up to 110, and the Parker Suite, up to 60. Outdoors at the garden folly in the secret garden.
  • Guest numbers: Up to 110 for the ceremony and wedding breakfast, up to 160 in the evening in the Whitley Suite.
  • Grounds: 20 acres of gardens and woodland, with two lakes and a covered heated terrace.
  • Staying over: 32 en-suite bedrooms.
  • One wedding a day: No other wedding will coincide with yours, and exclusive use is available.
  • Confetti: Not allowed.
  • Dogs: Welcome on a lead for the ceremony and the photographs, then home.
  • Worth knowing: Photographs in the main gardens are booked as a 30 minute slot.
Group celebrating at a wedding reception.

Photographing a Wedding at Whitley Hall

The thirty minute garden slot is the one thing to know before the day. It is not a restriction so much as a schedule, and thirty minutes is genuinely enough – but only if we know when it falls and go straight to it. I will agree it with you and the venue beforehand so nobody is looking at a watch.

Everything else is close by. The folly, the front of the hall with its ivy, the terrace and the two lakes are all within a short walk, so the pictures do not all look like the same corner of the same lawn. The covered heated terrace is the useful one: it is where the day carries on when the weather does not.

Bride and groom kiss under confetti shower.

Indoors, the hall does a lot of the work. Log fires, panelling and small rooms with real light in them mean the getting-ready pictures and the evening ones have somewhere to happen that looks like a sixteenth century hall rather than a function room.

A Short History of Whitley Hall

There has been a building on this site since at least 1406, when it was known as Launder House. Around 1530 Thomas Parker began rebuilding it and his son William finished the job – a stone lintel still reads “Willm Parker: made this worke 1584”, which is the date most people give the hall.

It passed to the Shirecliffe family in 1622 and spent part of the nineteenth century as a boys’ boarding school. William Bingley bought it in 1816 and his family held it until the Second World War, when it stood empty and was then used by military officers. John Fearn bought it in 1962 and spent seven years restoring it; the restaurant opened in July 1969 and it became a hotel in the late 1970s with three bedrooms. The Parker Suite and a further twelve bedrooms came in 2004.

Couple celebrating with champagne spray in forest.

Location of Whitley Hall

Elliott Lane, Grenoside, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S35 8NR. It is on the northern edge of Sheffield, about ten minutes from the M1 at junction 35, which is the trick of the place – easy for guests to reach and completely hidden once you are in the grounds. I am a Sheffield wedding photographer as well as a Yorkshire one.

Couple in wedding attire embracing outdoors.

Real Weddings at Whitley Hall

Emily & Kevin – Whitley Hall Hotel Wedding

You can see a full day at the venue here: Emily and Kevin at Whitley Hall Hotel.

Wedding ceremony in a grand cathedral.

Why Choose Whitley Hall?

Whitley Hall has been standing here in one form or another since 1406, and it looks it. Ivy over the stone, log fires inside, twenty acres of gardens and woodland around it and two lakes below – it is the sort of place that does not need decorating to photograph well, in any weather and at any time of year.

It is also unusually easy to get to for somewhere that feels this remote: ten minutes from the M1, with 32 bedrooms so nobody has to leave. No other wedding will coincide with yours, and exclusive use of the whole hall is there if you want it.

Whitley Hall Wedding Questions

No – confetti is not allowed at Whitley Hall. It is worth telling your guests beforehand so nobody arrives with a box of it.

Photographs in the main gardens are booked as a thirty minute slot, so the timings matter here more than at most venues. Thirty minutes is plenty if we know when it is and use it properly.

Yes, on a lead, for the ceremony and the photographs. They go home after that, so it is worth having someone lined up to take them.

Yes. There is a folly in the secret garden you can be married under, as well as the Whitley Suite and the Parker Suite indoors. Whitley Hall was the first venue in South Yorkshire to be licensed for civil ceremonies.

The Whitley Suite takes up to 110 and the Parker Suite up to 60 for a ceremony. Up to 110 for the ceremony and the wedding breakfast, and up to 160 in the evening in the Whitley Suite.

Yes – 32 en-suite bedrooms, so the wedding party and a good number of guests can stay over rather than arranging cars.

No. The venue is clear that no other wedding will coincide with yours, and exclusive use of the whole hall is available if you want it.

There is a covered heated terrace, which is the part that earns its keep in this country, and the hall itself has log fires and enough character indoors that we are never short of somewhere to stand.

The main gardens are the booked thirty minute slot. Beyond that there are 20 acres of gardens and woodland, two lakes to walk down to, the folly, and the ivy-covered front of the hall itself.

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