Crowcombe Court Wedding Photographer
Natural, documentary wedding photography by Patrick Newnham
Crowcombe Court is the big amber-brick house you glimpse from the A358 between Taunton and Minehead, sitting in the lee of the Quantock Hills with the village church beside it. Built in the 1730s and Grade I listed, it’s run as an exclusive-use wedding venue with eleven bedrooms in the house and apartments alongside, and it’s forty minutes from my front door on Exmoor. I photographed an October wedding here, and it’s one of the houses I’m happiest to be sent back to.
What makes it work for photographs is the mix. The Great Hall, with its staircase and tall windows, is the formal heart of the house and the usual ceremony room; the Carew Room and the Undercroft give you two more spaces inside; and the gardens run out from the terrace towards the hills, so the drinks reception, the group photos and the evening all have somewhere to go whatever the weather does. The Quantocks are right there behind the house for a twenty-minute escape, and the village church, Holy Ghost, is a few hundred yards away for couples who want the ceremony there.
How I photograph a wedding
Documentary first. I don’t run the day or stage it; I pay attention to it, and I keep the formal part to ten minutes of group photographs and twenty minutes of portraits in the best light we can find. Natural light, no flash during ceremonies, and editing that will still look right in twenty years. I take a limited number of weddings a year, which is partly how I get to give each one my full attention.
Good to know about Crowcombe Court
Ceremonies. Licensed for civil ceremonies indoors and out, for around a hundred guests, with room for a hundred and fifty in the evening. Light. The house faces east towards the village, so the front is lit in the morning and the garden side holds the sun in the afternoon; the terrace is the place for portraits in the last hour. Getting ready. The bedrooms upstairs are big and bright, which makes the morning easy to photograph. Travel. Crowcombe is inside Somerset and inside my normal range; nothing to add. The Taunton and Minehead pages cover the area either side.
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.
