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Jane Eyre Wedding Photoshoot at Heathy Lea, Chatsworth

6 days ago
5 min read

Here at Heathy Lea, we spend our days celebrating modern-day weddings. So when the chance came along to create a Jane Eyre wedding photoshoot this spring, we couldn’t say yes quickly enough.


The Jane Eyre wedding love story

The shoot was the vision of the incredibly talented Alexandria French Photography, who has loved Charlotte Brontë’s novel since first reading it at the age of 15. To shape her concept she re-read the book and took notes, rewatched the 1996 and 2011 film adaptations, and studied their posters, DVD artwork and behind-the-scenes photography. One thing quickly became clear: the portraits would be heavily one-sided. This was to be Jane’s story, just as the novel is, with Mr Rochester woven through the series rather than playing the lead.


The double exposure used on the film posters inspired another idea. Brontë used floral imagery to reflect Jane’s hopeful feelings throughout the novel, so Alexandria brought flowers into the portraits too. The result is a set of timeless, old-world images that capture the quiet intensity of the romance between Jane Eyre and Edward Fairfax Rochester.


And it all begins, of course, with those unforgettable words: “Reader, I married him.”


Three Jane Eyre wedding portrait themes

Alexandria built her Jane Eyre wedding session around three themes, each telling part of the love story...



The Nightwear. Inspired by the scene where Jane is woken by a noise and goes to investigate, only to find Mr Rochester’s bed on fire. He wraps her in a blanket and tells her to wait in his room. Alexandria loved the charged moment when the two meet again, both in their nightwear, and in her version they finally embrace.


The Flowers. Portraits of Caroline in her nightwear, surrounded by blooms around her face or in a vase beside her. The story then moves to a bridal moment: the getting-ready stage, half in nightwear, half in veil and flowers. Bare feet show that she is relaxed, natural and confident in who she is, as she spends the morning preparing to marry the man she loves.


The Wedding. A few portraits of the wedding day itself, but only a few. What Alexandria most wanted to show was the freedom marriage gave Jane and Rochester to finally live without guilt or shame. The romance needed to go beyond a kiss, so the couple hold each other tightly, lie together in the grounds and pull one another in. The kiss is left to the viewer’s imagination, just as Brontë left her readers wanting to know more about the couple’s love.


Our wash house cottage and the grounds

We opened up the original wash house cottage and the grounds here at Heathy Lea as the first backdrop for the day. With its character and charm, the cottage was a natural fit for a story set in another century, and the grounds gave Alexandria plenty of room to play with soft, romantic scenes.



From there, the shoot moved on to the stunning Chatsworth Estate, just a short distance away. It’s widely believed that Charlotte Brontë drew inspiration from the Derbyshire landscape and from Chatsworth itself when writing Jane Eyre, which made the setting feel even more special. Photographing a Brontë-inspired love story in the very landscape that may have shaped it was a real treat.



Charlotte Brontë and the Peak District

Jane Eyre is often pictured on the Yorkshire moors, but Derbyshire has a strong claim to the story. In the summer of 1845, a couple of years before the novel was published, Charlotte stayed in the Peak District village of Hathersage, and many readers see its influence all over the book. The village is thought to be the model for Morton, and North Lees Hall, once home to the local Eyre family, is widely believed to have inspired Thornfield Hall. Its battlements and three storeys are strikingly close to Charlotte’s description.


Chatsworth sits on our doorstep and is part of the story too. Its gardens appeared in the 2011 film adaptation, one of the versions Alexandria studied while planning the shoot. Exactly which buildings inspired Thornfield has been debated for years, and Charlotte may well have blended several real places. For us, that’s part of the charm: the whole landscape feels like Jane Eyre country.



A different kind of day for us

Working from afternoon into early evening, the whole team created a glimpse of classic, old-world wedding romance. It was such a lovely and different project for us to be part of, and a joyful reminder of how timeless these wedding traditions are, whatever the era.


If you’re drawn to the idea of a Jane Eyre wedding, or simply a more vintage, literary or romantic feel for your own big day, the wash house cottage, our grounds and the beauty of the surrounding Chatsworth Estate offer a wonderful canvas for it.


Plan your own Jane Eyre wedding weekend

Heathy Lea sits on the edge of Chatsworth Park, within easy reach of Hathersage, Bakewell and Haddon Hall, which has stood in for Thornfield in screen adaptations. Our four self-catering cottages and five shepherd’s huts sleep up to 24, which makes a literary weekend away easy to build around a group of friends or family. A weekend might look like this:

  • Friday: settle in. Arrive, unpack and enjoy a candlelit evening in the grounds with a good book.

  • Saturday: follow in Charlotte’s footsteps. Head to Hathersage and walk the Jane Eyre Trail, a 5.5 mile route that starts at the George Hotel (the George Inn of the novel) and passes North Lees Hall. Spend the afternoon wandering Chatsworth’s gardens and parkland.

  • Sunday: a slow morning. Brunch, bare feet on the grass and a last stroll through the grounds, perhaps with a visit to Haddon Hall (check opening times before you go).



How to plan a Jane Eyre wedding

Weddings at Heathy Lea are exclusive-use weekends, typically from Friday to Monday, which leaves plenty of time to weave a Jane Eyre wedding theme through every part of the celebration. Take inspiration from Alexandria’s three portrait themes:

  • Flowers everywhere. Brontë used floral imagery to reflect Jane’s hopeful feelings, so let blooms frame the bride, the ceremony and the tables.

  • A barefoot getting-ready morning. Half in nightwear, half in veil and flowers, relaxed and confident, just like The Flowers portraits.

  • Words from the novel. A reading, or “Reader, I married him” on your order of service.

  • Portraits in the landscape. Old-world portraits at the wash house cottage and in the grounds, with Chatsworth’s parkland as a backdrop (subject to the estate’s own arrangements).



The talented team

A huge thank you to everyone who helped bring this shoot to life:


To see more of the story told through Alexandria’s lens, head over to her Instagram, where she shares the ideas and reasoning behind her three themes. And if you’re a fellow member of the Jane Eyre fan club, she’d love to hear from you.


Dreaming of a Jane Eyre wedding or a romantic weekend away? Get in touch to arrange a visit to Heathy Lea.

 
 
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