Exeter Wedding Photographer
Documentary wedding photography, based on Exmoor
Exeter is an hour from my house on Exmoor, straight down the Exe valley through Tiverton, and the ring of countryside around the city, the Teign valley to the west, the estuary and the East Devon coast to the south and east, has a remarkable number of barns, farms and vineyards that have turned themselves into very good wedding venues. I’ve photographed weddings at a good few of them.
I work in a documentary way: I don’t pose people or run the day, I watch it and photograph what’s true. A relaxed Devon barn wedding, with the ceremony outdoors if the weather allows and the evening spilling out of the barn into the fields, is almost the ideal subject for that kind of photography. You’ll still get the family groups, done in ten minutes, and a short set of portraits in the best light we can find.
Weddings I’ve photographed around Exeter
The Great Barn Devon at Higher Ashton in the Teign valley, a fourteenth-century threshing barn with a courtyard and a view, is where Emma and Alex married in September. Eggbeer Farm at Tedburn St Mary, fifteen minutes west of the city, has given me a December wedding for Jodie and Adam and a July wedding, and the same barn feels completely different in each. Becky and Alex married among the vines at Froginwell Vineyard at Woodbury Salterton, on the East Devon side; Emma and Simon married at Lympstone on the Exe estuary; and Rhys and Bryony married at Humber Barn above Teignmouth, forty minutes south, on a day when it rained sideways and nobody minded.
City, valley or coast
If you’re marrying in Exeter itself, at the register office at Larkbeare House or one of the city churches, the cathedral close and the quay are both five minutes from anywhere for portraits, and the Northernhay gardens are a good quiet corner. For the barn venues, the Teign valley and Haldon Hills give you woods and long views; for the estuary venues, Exmouth beach and the Exe at low tide; and Dartmoor is thirty minutes from the city if you want the big sky for twenty minutes before the meal.
Devon weddings in pictures
Emma and Alex at The Great Barn, and Rhys and Bryony at Humber Barn.
Venues around Exeter
- The Great Barn Devon, Higher Ashton: a medieval barn in the Teign valley, twenty minutes from the city.
- Eggbeer Farm, Tedburn St Mary: a farm barn with the Dartmoor edge beyond it; photographed twice.
- Froginwell Vineyard, Woodbury Salterton: ceremonies and receptions among the vines.
- Lympstone, Topsham and the Exe estuary: church weddings and waterside receptions.
- Humber Barn, Teignmouth: a rustic barn on a working farm forty minutes south.
- Exeter Register Office, the cathedral and the city churches, with receptions at the hotels in the close and on the quay.
- Upton Barn, Deer Park, Rockbeare Manor and the other East Devon venues within half an hour of the city.
Good to know
Travel. Exeter and East Devon are a normal day’s drive for me; nothing added. Light. The Teign valley venues lose the sun behind Haldon early in the evening, so at those I’ll do portraits before the meal; the estuary and the coast keep it late. Weather. Devon barns were built for rain; some of my favourite photographs from Humber Barn were taken in it.
Taking a limited number of weddings for 2027 and 2028
If my way of working sounds like your kind of thing, I’d love to hear about your plans. Drop me a line with your date and venue and I’ll tell you straight away whether I’m free.
