Amberley Castle

The ceremony happens inside the stone. The Great Room, entered through an archway that dates back to 1103, seats up to 56 with views across the courtyard and doors that open straight onto the gardens. For something smaller, the King Charles I Room is a jewel: wood-panelled walls, a fireplace, leaded windows looking out over the Downs, and space for twelve of your nearest and dearest. Both are licensed for civil ceremonies, as is the Queen's Room, so the vows are made within the castle rather than in a hotel function suite pretending to be one.

What Amberley does that few castles can is comfort. This is a Relais and Chateaux hotel, and it shows in the detail: 19 individually designed rooms and suites, each one different, furnished with antiques and fine fabrics, some tucked into the ancient walls beneath gothic-arched windows, all with crisp linen, Vispring beds and L'Occitane bathrooms. Taken exclusively, the whole wedding party sleeps inside the castle, which turns the day into a weekend and the morning after into breakfast within the walls.

Dining is by the castle's own kitchen, refined and contemporary, drawn from the seasons and the produce of the South Downs. Canapes and Champagne open the celebration in the medieval courtyards, and the three-course wedding breakfast is served in one of three characterful dining rooms, from the vaulted stone hall with its painted armorial panel to the intimate King Charles I Room. Catering is in-house throughout, and the menus are built with each couple rather than handed to them.

For larger parties, exclusive use unlocks the gardens, where a marquee can be raised for up to 170, the castle's floodlit towers rising behind the canvas. Smaller weddings keep to the rooms, up to 56 seated inside; the very smallest, an elopement or a ceremony for two, begin at a couple of thousand pounds. It is a rare venue that scales from twelve guests to a hundred and seventy without losing its character, because the character is the castle itself.

For a couple who wants a real castle, not a country house dressed as one, Amberley is a rare thing: nine centuries of stone, a working portcullis, gardens with a white peacock, and the comfort of a Relais and Chateaux hotel behind the walls. Vows in a candlelit room, a feast beneath ancient beams, and a whole fortress in the South Downs that, once the portcullis is down, belongs to you alone.