Some weddings arrive with orchestras, elaborate installations and three-day programs carefully choreographed down to the final minute. And then there are weddings like Katie and Sam’s. Forty people. A beautiful castle. Their closest family and friends. Good food, heartfelt speeches, an excellent cake and enough time to actually enjoy where they were.
Perhaps that was precisely what made this intimate castle wedding at Galicia Nueva feel so lovely. And for us, it came at quite an extraordinary moment.
Katie and Sam married on Saturday — exactly one day before another, considerably larger celebration was about to begin at the same castle. We had arrived at Galicia Nueva on Friday evening and would eventually leave on Wednesday. In other words, for several days, the castle became almost a second home.
But while the following wedding involved more than one hundred guests and an extensive three-day program, Katie and Sam wanted something wonderfully simple. They wanted to get married in a castle they already knew and loved. And they wanted to share it with the people who mattered most.
A British-Slovak Love Story
Katie is British, while Sam — or Samuel, as they might call him back home — is Slovak, although he too has lived in Britain for many years.
Galicia Nueva was not simply a castle they had found during their search for a wedding venue. They had already visited it. So, they knew the place. And they liked it enough to decide that this was where they wanted to bring their families together.
For their wedding weekend, they reserved ten of the castle’s finest rooms and suites, allowing their closest guests to stay within the estate itself.
The celebrations unofficially began with dinner on Friday evening. This was something the couple organized independently, but it meant that by Saturday morning everyone had already settled into castle life.
And there is something rather special about this. A destination wedding does not always need an endless itinerary of organized experiences. Sometimes simply waking up in a castle together is already an experience.
A Quiet Morning in the Royal Suite
Saturday began with Katie getting ready in the Royal Suite. There were no bridesmaids and no large bridal party. Just Katie, her mother and her sister. The rooms of the suite created the most natural setting imaginable for the morning.
One photograph in particular summed it up perfectly for me: Katie’s wedding dress hanging inside the historic apartment, surrounded by the proportions and details of a proper European castle. Nothing staged beyond what was necessary. Just a wedding dress exactly where a wedding dress ought to be. And this wedding had another slightly unusual detail. I photographed it myself.
Katie was also a distinctly fashion-forward bride. You could see it in the dress, the accessories and the way she carried the entire look, so we allowed the photography to follow the same direction — a little less traditionally bridal, a little more editorial. Some of my favorite images from the day came from that freedom to play with the architecture, the dress and a slightly stronger fashion sensibility.
After spending years as a destination wedding photographer, photography has gradually become a much smaller part of what I do. By the time Katie and Sam married, I had not photographed a wedding for exactly one year and one month. But Katie wanted me to photograph hers.
With only forty guests and Tatiana leading most of the wedding planning and coordination, it was one of those rare occasions when it was still possible for me to do both. Admittedly, part of my mind was already occupied by the enormous wedding program beginning the following day.
But the moment I had a camera in my hands again, something familiar returned. And Galicia Nueva is not a particularly difficult place in which to rediscover one’s love of photographing castles.
A First Look Beneath the Chandeliers
One thing made me especially happy. Katie and Sam wanted a First Look. Although increasingly common elsewhere, First Looks are still far from automatic at European weddings. Personally, I have always loved them.
There is something wonderfully private about allowing the bride and groom to see one another before everybody else does. We chose the grand interior staircase of Galicia Nueva. Beneath the crystal chandeliers, surrounded by the historic architecture of the castle, Sam waited for Katie.
It could hardly have felt more appropriate. From there we had almost an entire hour for portraits. And part of the session took place inside the castle, using its staircases, corridors and historic rooms. The remainder we photographed outside, in front of the château and throughout the grounds.
The weather was almost suspiciously perfect. And of course Nana, their dog, joined us for several photographs too. As she should have.
A Ceremony in the Castle Chapel
The ceremony took place in Galicia Nueva’s chapel. It was symbolic rather than religious, but the intimacy of the chapel suited this wedding beautifully. And, rather wonderfully, Katie and Sam chose to read their own vows to one another. After quite a long stretch of European weddings where personal vows were absent, it was genuinely lovely to hear them again — particularly in such a small and intimate ceremony.
Tatiana conducted the ceremony. I have watched her do this many times now, and one thing never changes: she never performs ceremonies mechanically. She genuinely cares about the people standing in front of her. And you can feel it.
For this wedding, she had also prepared a new ceremonial folder, beautifully printed and designed, which she leaves with every couple afterward as a small keepsake from the ceremony.
Once Katie and Sam were married, we stayed inside for family and group photos before everyone stepped outside for cocktail hour. The sun was still shining. Guests spread themselves across the front of the castle.
There was nowhere anybody particularly needed to be. Which, at a wedding, is sometimes the greatest luxury of all.
Dinner in the County Hall
For dinner, all forty guests moved into Galicia Nueva’s historic County Hall. Two long tables ran through the room. The adjoining Barrock Hall remained connected through the open doors and became the dance floor later in the evening.
The flowers were intentionally restrained. There was no need to compete with the room. The walls themselves are approximately three centuries old, richly painted and filled with the visual character that modern event spaces spend extraordinary sums trying to imitate.
This is one of the great pleasures of a genuine castle wedding. You do not always have to decorate history. Sometimes you simply allow it to be present.
During dinner, we also tried something that eventually became rather important for us. Because the wedding was small, we asked the service team if they could pour the soup individually at each guest’s place rather than bringing it already plated.
It looked superb. So superb, in fact, that the following day we convinced the same team — under Milan’s watchful eye — to repeat the service for more than one hundred guests. It was considerably more ambitious. And absolutely worth it. One wedding quietly teaching us something for the next.
Speeches, Sunset and the Upper Terrace
Dinner continued with several speeches. There was laughter, there were tears, and there were the sort of warm smiles that tend to appear when almost everybody in the room genuinely knows one another.
Before the light disappeared completely, I stole Katie and Sam away once more. We went to the upper terrace above the castle for their final portraits of the day. The sun was dropping behind the landscape and, for perhaps fifteen minutes, the wedding became completely quiet again.
No guests. No schedule. No announcements. Just the two of them above the castle at sunset. Those small pauses are often my favorite parts of weddings.
Cake, Dancing and Nothing More Than They Needed
Later, everybody moved into the adjoining hall and dancing began. Katie and Sam had originally considered not having a DJ at all. They were not looking for a huge party production. No special performances. No dramatic surprises. No sequence of carefully manufactured “wow moments”.
We persuaded them to extend things a little. And we are glad we did. The dance floor filled quickly and remained that way until roughly one in the morning.
The only proper interruption came for the wedding cake — a simple round Italian-style cake covered with fresh raspberries. It looked beautiful. More importantly, it tasted every bit as good. Then everybody simply went back to dancing.
Sometimes the Castle Is the Experience
Katie and Sam did not come to Galicia Nueva looking for a wedding full of extraordinary additions. They did not need fireworks, performers, or elaborate experiences. They wanted something much more straightforward. Just an intimate castle wedding at Galicia Nueva.
To marry one another in a castle they loved. To have their families staying nearby. To sit around long tables with forty of their favorite people. To eat well. To dance. To take photographs in rooms that have existed for centuries. And to wake up the following morning still inside the castle.
There is a tendency in destination weddings to keep adding. Another experience. Another installation. Another moment designed for a photograph.
But slow luxury can also mean knowing when nothing more is required. Katie and Sam already had Galicia Nueva. They had their people. And they had time together. For this particular wedding, that was quite enough.
Venue: Galicia Nueva
Planning: Castle Weddings
Bridal dress: Katy Corso Couture
Bridal shoes: Prada
Florist & Decor: Eventia
Celebrant: Tatiana Klopcekova Weddings
Photography: Jan Freire
Cake: Lollipops
