Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Castle Weddings in the Czech Republic

An Affordable Way to Be King and Queen For a Day


Loket Castle
Brides to be, take heed!  Indulge your inner princess with a castle wedding. You can be a princess for a day and your fiancé can be your knight in shining armor. To be sure, castle weddings are completely out of reach of most commoners like us. To hold a castle wedding in the UK, you'd have to be royalty—or a surviving member of the Beatles. But there is hope!  You can fulfill your castle wedding fantasy by holding a castle wedding in the Czech Republic.

For the price of a traditional wedding in your home country, you can have a grand castle wedding in the Czech countryside. People traditionally spend 10-40,000 bucks on a wedding in The West. For that amount, you would get a church, flowers, a dinner and a photographer. But what would you do if you found out that you could spend a lot less than that to have your wedding in a castle in grand style? You'd do it, right? Let me tell you how.


Choosing a Castle for Your Wedding



Červená Lhota
As a wedding photographer I have photographed weddings in several castles in the Czech Republic. An obvious choice is Karlstejn Castle, the iconic Czech castle everyone visits on their trip to Prague. But some of my favorite castles are the ones nobody knows about, the ones sitting stoically in the rolling hills of Bohemia, or perched on a rock amid hundreds of miles of forest. The advantages of choosing a Czech country castle are many. Firstly, the price can't be beat. Prices for castle weddings outside of the Prague area drop dramatically. But the best advantage of having a castle wedding in Czech is the exclusive quality of having unique wedding images in a fairy tale setting.


Karlstejn Castle


The most popular castle in the Czech Republic by far is Karlstejn Castle (1348), located just 45 minutes from Prague. King Charles IV, the most famous king of Bohemia and namesake of the Charles Bridge in Prague, had his countryside castle residence there. Nowadays, you can easily arrange a castle wedding in Karlstejn. As the most popular castle in Czech, it is best to contact them well in advance, especially for summer weddings. To take all the pain out of the process, I recommend hiring a professional wedding planner to help with the planning and the paperwork. Ask for Thelma at Prague Wedding Planners. Tell her Craig Robinson sent you.

Karlstejn Castle

Loket Castle

Loket Castle

If you like your castles old and Gothic like I do, Loket Castle (12th century) is just the ticket. Loket Castle stands majestically on a hilltop near the spa town of Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad). Loket offers several wedding packages at extremely reasonable prices, so you can afford to be knight and princess for a day—and have plenty of ducats left for a royal feast for your family and friends.





Červená Lhota



Červená Lhota Castle
Červená Lhota Castle
If ever there was a picture perfect little castle, 14th century Červená Lhota is the one. This salmon-colored castle rises up from a rocky island in the middle of a lake. A stone bridge is the single entry point to the castle. This charming little castle is located 20 km northwest of Jindřichův Hradec in south Bohemia. Contact the castle directly for wedding inquiries. In case of any language barriers, let Thelma's team at Prague Wedding Planners be your voice.




Zbiroh Castle



Zbiroh Castle
Zbiroh Castle
Zbiroh Castle (12th century) is a large, aristocratic, Romanesque / Gothic castle located an hour's drive southwest of Prague. Its oldest point is a ancient tower jutting out of a rock in the inner courtyard. Various royal residents renovated the castle in various styles over the years, so you can see elements of the Gothic nestled in amid Renaissance facades and Art Nouveau era fountains and gardens. Artist Alphonse Mucha lived in the castle for 20 years, and you can still see traces of his presence on the walls and in the decorations.



Hrubá Skála


Hrubá Skála

For a real kick in the aesthetics, Hrubá Skála (1353) can't be beat. Words can't do it justice, but I'll try anyway: it's an imposing castle, built on a rock, sticking out of a vast forest. Hrubá Skála is the picture-perfect location for a romantic castle wedding in the Czech Republic. You'll be treated to a royal atmosphere, surrounded by stone walls and towers with a sweeping vista of Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj), an area with more castles packed in per square mile than most of Europe. There's even a hotel, spa, and wellness center on the premises. Need I say more?





Hrubá Skála

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I've photographed weddings in dozens of castles and chateaux in the Czech Republic, too many to list here. Just do a Google map search for Czech Castles for the rich visual feast of castles in store for you.


For more information about my wedding photography in Prague and beyond, contact me today.