Huntsham Court Wedding Photographer
Natural, documentary wedding photography by Patrick Newnham
Huntsham Court is a Grade II* Victorian baronial mansion in the hills between Bampton and Tiverton, two miles from the Somerset border, twelve minutes from junction 27 of the M5 and Tiverton Parkway, and twenty-five minutes from my house at Exton. It’s one of the largest private-hire country houses in the country: around forty bedrooms and suites sleeping a hundred guests, exclusive use for the weekend, ceremonies and dinners for a hundred and thirty, no corkage and no hidden charges. It’s a house for a wedding that lasts two or three days, with the whole of your family and friends under one roof.
I haven’t photographed a wedding at Huntsham yet, but it’s the big house nearest to me on the Devon side and I know the lanes around it from years of driving them. A weekend wedding at a house like this is a gift for documentary photography: the arrivals on Friday, the morning in the big bedrooms, the ceremony in the hall, the long dinner, and a Sunday morning that looks like a house party, because it is one.
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 Huntsham Court
Size. Up to a hundred and thirty seated and a hundred and fifty standing, with the house sleeping a hundred. Light. The house is high and surrounded by its own grounds, so the lawns hold the sun late in summer; the interiors are grand and dark in the Victorian way, which I photograph by the windows and the fires rather than with flash. Travel. Twenty-five minutes from home; see the Tiverton page.
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.
