Farm Wedding Photography

1. TELL US MORE ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU:

Stu is a farmer - he runs our 300 acre poultry and beef farm. He runs the poultry rearing and processing business, as well as looking after approx 250 beef cattle and our small herd of pedigree Limousin cattle. His job is 24/7 meaning we don’t get much time to ourselves, so the wedding was a fantastic day to celebrate our relationship alongside all our friends and family at home on the farm. I work at a horse rescue charity as a corporate, community and events fundraiser. We have a Labrador (Gunner), 2 cats (Sausage and Voldie) and 3 guinea pigs (Noodle, Biscotti and Bertie), so between work and the pets, we don’t get a lot of free time!

2. THE PROPOSAL: WHAT’S THE STORY?

We were on holiday (a very rare occurrence, usually no longer than 5 days away at a time) in the Isles of Scilly (our favourite place). Stu had organised a wildlife spotting boat trip and a hamper with a picnic in to take with us. It was just us two on the tour and the boat dropped us off at one of the uninhabited islands, where we had our picnic, and Stu got down on one knee! Of course I said yes straight away . It was a really lovely day and very thoughtfully organised in secret by Stu - although i did have an inkling when we were the only ones on the boat!

3. WHAT MADE YOUR FARM THE PERFECT VENUE CHOICE FOR YOU?

We are really lucky to have fantastic views over looking the valley over to Bath and Bristol and wanted to showcase this location. Stu has always wanted a marquee wedding and the church is only a mile away, so it was the ideal location for us. It was lovely to have friends and family come to our neck of the woods too, as we don’t often have time to have people over to visit. Everything was local, from the caterers (+ we reared the guinea fowl ourselves) to the flowers (grown a few miles down the road by the amazing Sarah at Compton Garden Flowers).

4. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE SIMON BIFFEN TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR WEDDING?

I found Simon by Googling local photographers - I really liked the type of photos he took and how natural they all were - I dislike the posed, formal photos that you often see at weddings and Simon’s were a great contrast to these - we still had a few formal ones, but only spent a few minutes getting these - the rest were candid and capture our memories of the day perfectly. I met Simon soon after I contacted him, and he really knew his stuff. His website was professional and paying via his payment platform was easy to do too. We’d highly recommend him to future couples looking for a wedding photographer.

5. WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE DID YOU WANT FOR YOUR GUESTS?

We wanted our guests to feel relaxed and for everything to run smoothly without any hitches, which it did! We made sure everyone was well fed and had plenty of prosecco etc and we went for a very British country/rustic themed wedding with handmade wild flower seed favours and table names. I did most of the decoration myself and had help from my mum and bridesmaids to make the floral displays in the marquee. Stu worked hard prepping the outside space and the wedding field, getting it from a churned up cattle field to a manicured lawn in time for the day. We wanted guests to feel at home in our marquee.

6. WHAT WERE THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM YOUR DAY?

All of it! We really loved every second and find it hard to pin point specific moments - I really enjoyed the horse and carriage ride to and from the church, the speeches were really funny and personal, the band were amazing (Blue Lion Band), as was the food from our caterers (A Bit of a Do).

7. ANY TIPS FOR FUTURE COUPLES PLANNING THEIR WEDDING?

Just be organised - I really enjoyed planning and organising the day and would happily do it all over again! (I’m not so sure for Stu, though!). Give yourself lots of time and plan ahead - don’t leave things to the last minute and it will all run nice and smoothly.

AWESOME SUPPLIERS ON THE DAY WERE:

Rings - John Titcombe

Suits - Dfyed Menswear

Flowers - Grown by Sarah Wilson at Compton Garden Flowers (she decorated the church, and me and bridesmaids decorated the marquee and made the bouquets and button holes etc)

Stationary - Designed by Sofia

Caterers - A Bit of a Do, Pizza Rocket, Palette and Pasture Gelato

Bar - The Stag, Hinton Charterhouse (our local pub!)

Cake - made by our niece, Abigail Candy

Band - Blue Lion Band