Northmoor House Wedding Photographer
Natural, documentary wedding photography by Patrick Newnham
Northmoor House is a Victorian country villa in a wooded valley on the edge of Exmoor National Park, a mile and a half outside Dulverton on the road up the Barle. It’s a private house that takes weddings: licensed for civil ceremonies, with a maximum of sixty guests on site, fourteen bedrooms sleeping twenty-eight, a lodge at the gate that sleeps five more, and the sort of relaxed, romantic atmosphere that comes from a house people actually live in. It’s ten minutes from my front door.
I haven’t photographed a wedding at Northmoor yet, which given that it’s the nearest licensed venue to my house is something I’d like to change. I know the valley it sits in, the river below it and the woods around it in every season, and an intimate wedding there, a ceremony in the house, lunch on the lawn, a walk by the Barle and an evening with the fires lit, is exactly the kind of day my documentary photography is made for.
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 Northmoor House
Size. Sixty guests in total, including everyone staying in the house, so it’s a venue for weddings of family and close friends. Light. The valley is steep and wooded, so the house loses direct sun early in the evening; the river and the woods give a soft green light all day, and Winsford Hill is ten minutes up the road for a sunset. Weather. It’s Exmoor; I carry umbrellas and the house has plenty of windows. Travel. Ten minutes; see the Dulverton page and small and intimate weddings.
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.
