Pennard Hill Farm Wedding Photographer
Natural, documentary wedding photography by Patrick Newnham
Pennard Hill Farm sits on the ridge above East Pennard between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, with the Mendip Hills across the valley and the Glastonbury Festival fields laid out below. It’s exclusive-use for the whole weekend: a restored farmhouse and three cottages for the people closest to you, fourteen yurts and a safari tent for the rest, and two grass fields for a marquee, a tipi or a festival-style wedding with the view as the backdrop. I photographed a July wedding here, and it had everything I like about a Somerset summer wedding: a long golden evening, a field full of people, and nobody in a hurry.
The farm is a blank canvas in the best sense. Couples build the day they want, from a ceremony on the hillside to a tented village, and the photographs come out of that: the walk up the field to the ceremony, the drinks at the top with the view behind, the sun going down over the Mendips during the speeches. It suits weddings of a hundred and thirty to two hundred, and it suits couples who’d rather their guests stayed the weekend than drove home.
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 Pennard Hill Farm
Light. The farm faces north-west towards the Mendips, so the sunset is the show and it lands on the view; plan the speeches or the first dance around it in summer. Wind and weather. It’s a ridge and it’s exposed; tents are tied down for a reason, and I bring a plan for rain. Festival weekend. If your date is near the end of June, check the roads; the whole valley changes for a week. Travel. An hour and a half from Exmoor, within Somerset; the farm and marquee page is the natural companion to this one.
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.
