Quiet, unposed wedding photography for couples marrying in Garstang and the Wyre villages around it.
I'm Thomas — Tom Carter, trading as Alfred Thomas Photography — and I photograph weddings in Garstang from a base in Leyland, about sixteen miles down the A6. I cover the town and everything that leans on it: Bowgreave, Bonds, Churchtown, Catterall, Scorton, Bilsborrow and the Over Wyre villages. A full day is £1,063, a half day of around four hours is £623, every fully edited photograph is included with no per-image charges, and your gallery arrives within six weeks. There's no travel charge anywhere in Lancashire.
The business traded as Johnston Photography until 19 June 2026 — same photographer, new name. I stay out of the way rather than running the day like a sergeant major, so the pictures are of things that happened. There's more about how I work.
Garstang has no single dominant wedding venue, which is part of its appeal. The licensed premises nearest town are Garstang Country Hotel and Golf Course at Bowgreave and Wyrebank, the banqueting suite on the edge of town. Further out, the wedding barns at Wyresdale Park in Scorton sit under the western slope of Bowland, and Wyreside Hall at Dolphinholme is a few minutes north. West across the Fylde, Marsh Farm Hall at Great Eccleston is licensed for ceremonies; south down the A6 is Barton Manor Hotel and Spa at Barton, which older Garstang couples still call Barton Grange.
All are approved premises with Lancashire County Council, so a registrar can marry you on site. I'm on no venue's supplier list — a ballroom, a barn at Scorton and a marquee in a Wyre field are equally welcome, as are the Ribble Valley venues east of here.
For a church wedding, St Thomas' Church sits in the middle of Garstang, a short walk from the Market Cross. Two miles north-west, St Helen's at Churchtown is the ancient parish church people here call the Cathedral of the Fylde — older and far bigger than its lane suggests, with a churchyard that photographs beautifully in low sun.
For a civil ceremony, Garstang is in the borough of Wyre, so the register office is the Civic Centre on Breck Road in Poulton-le-Fylde, twenty-five minutes west. You can marry in Poulton at eleven and be eating in Garstang by one, but somebody has to plan that drive. Full day coverage has no time limit, so both ends are in the price.
Garstang sits on a hinge. West of the town the land runs flat and open across the Fylde to Morecambe Bay, nothing taller than a hedge in the way. East, the Forest of Bowland lifts up within a couple of miles. That geography decides more about your photographs than the venue does.
The flat west means uninterrupted sunsets — no ridge cuts the last half hour off — and farmland exposed enough that veils misbehave, so I keep a sheltered corner in reserve. The fells east mean weather arrives in lumps: showers off the Irish Sea pile against Bowland, so the High Street can be dry while Scorton is soaked. I check the fell forecast, not the town one.
Timing matters more here than couples expect. In mid June the sun doesn't set until about a quarter to ten and you get over seventeen hours of daylight, so you can eat, sit through the speeches, dance and still walk out for ten minutes of gold at nine. In late December it's gone by around ten to four, barely seven and a half hours of light, so a winter Garstang wedding wants an early ceremony — or a decision to shoot the evening lit and warm instead.
You don't need to travel far. The Lancaster Canal runs through the town: stone bridges, moored narrowboats and a towpath that's quiet on a Saturday, minutes from the High Street. It works in flat light, drizzle and dusk. The Market Cross and old High Street put the town's name in the frame, and Thursday market — a tradition since the early 1300s — gives unstaged pictures if your date falls right.
Greenhalgh Castle, the ruin Thomas Stanley built in 1490, stands on a rise east of town over the Wyre; it's private farmland, so it needs permission arranged in advance. And with half an hour and wellies in the boot, Nicky Nook above Scorton is the best view within ten minutes of Garstang — a short, steep fell with the whole Fylde below. Not a heels option. Gentler: the riverbank by the old Wyre bridge.
One price, nothing designed to be upgraded out of. The pricing page has the rest.
Leyland to Garstang is about sixteen miles and half an hour, up the A6 through Preston or out on the M6. It's comfortably inside Lancashire, so there's no travel fee — the same goes for Leyland, Longridge on the other side of Preston, and venues like Brockholes on the Ribble. Send me your date and venue and I'll check I'm free; the contact page has every way of reaching me.
A full day is £1,063, a half day of about four hours £623. Both include every fully edited photograph with no per-image charges, and the gallery arrives within six weeks.
No. Garstang is about sixteen miles from Leyland and there's no travel charge anywhere in Lancashire — Bowgreave, Churchtown, Catterall, Scorton, Bilsborrow and Over Wyre included.
All of them — Garstang Country Hotel and Golf Course, Wyrebank, Wyresdale Park's barns at Scorton, Wyreside Hall, Marsh Farm Hall and Barton Manor. I'm on no venue's supplier list, so a marquee near Pilling is just as welcome.
Yes. Garstang is in the borough of Wyre, so the register office is Poulton-le-Fylde's Civic Centre, twenty-five minutes west. Full day coverage has no clock on it, so ceremony, drive and reception are one price.
The canal towpath is public and minutes from the High Street. Greenhalgh Castle is on private farmland, so it needs the landowner's permission arranged in advance.
Not at all, but timings matter. In late December the sun's gone by around ten to four, so aim to be out of the ceremony by early afternoon. In mid June it doesn't set until a quarter to ten.
Send me the date and venue and I'll tell you straight away whether I'm free.
Check your date