Eggbeer Farm Wedding Photographer

Higher Eggbeer Farm sits above Cheriton Bishop on the edge of Dartmoor, ten minutes off the A30 west of Exeter, with views across the Devon countryside and a sixteenth-century barn at the heart of it. It’s a weekend venue, Friday to Monday, with a seven-bedroom farmhouse, a pool, a Chapel Barn for ceremonies, a main barn with three bars and no curfew, and room for bell tents and camping in the fields. I’ve photographed two weddings here, one in December and one in July, and the same barn felt like two different places.

In winter Eggbeer is all candlelight and woodsmoke, with the barn doors shut and the party glowing inside; in summer the doors are open, the ceremony can happen outdoors, and the evening spreads out across the grass with Dartmoor going purple in the distance. Either way it’s a venue that rewards a photographer who watches rather than directs, because the whole point of the place is that nobody is on a schedule. The farm was voted one of the best party venues in England by The Times, and it has earned it.

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.