An Easthampstead Park wedding in June, in eighty acres of Berkshire parkland on the edge of Bracknell and Wokingham. Sinead and Jon married at the Grade II listed mansion, a Victorian house built in Jacobean style, with enough ground around it that the day never felt hemmed in.
I photographed the day documentary-style from start to finish. Nobody was arranged, nothing was repeated for the camera, and the only forty-five minutes of direction were the three short portrait slots. What follows is the day in the order it happened.
The morning: a big house, and plenty of room
Easthampstead Park has ninety-odd bedrooms, which sounds like a hotel statistic and is really a photography one: it means both sides can get ready properly, in daylight, without anybody sharing a mirror. The rooms are high-ceilinged and the windows are large, so there is almost always somewhere worth standing.
I arrive about three hours before the ceremony and take almost nothing for the first twenty minutes. That is deliberate — I am working out where the light is coming from, which window is worth waiting by, and where I can stand without becoming part of the morning. After that I stop being noticeable, and the room forgets I am there.
The ceremony at Easthampstead Park
There is more than one licensed ceremony space here — the pavilion, the ballroom and the terrace among them — which is worth thinking about early, because each one gives a very different set of photographs. Wherever it happens, I work the sides and the back on a silent shutter.
I photograph reactions at least as much as I photograph the couple. The vows last about four minutes and there are usually twenty photographs worth having in them, of which three or four are of the two people getting married. The rest are mothers, best friends, and a small child who has entirely given up on the whole thing.
Confetti, and the one bit I do organise
The front of the house gives you a long run for confetti, so two lines rather than a ring, walked slowly. With eighty acres behind you there is no shortage of space to put people.
Ushers hold everybody until the couple are properly into the gap, the walk is slow, nobody looks at me, and it happens once, properly. Then it is done and everyone goes back to a drink. It is the only moment of the day I take charge of, because confetti is over in eight seconds and it is very easy to waste.
Portraits, and the forty-five minutes I ask for
The directed part of a Easthampstead Park wedding comes to about forty-five minutes, and it is always split into three fifteen-minute slots rather than one long block — straight after the ceremony, again before dinner is called, and once more late on when the light drops. Nobody wants to be taken away from their own party for an hour, and you do not photograph any better in the fiftieth minute than you do in the fifth.
The parkland is the point at Easthampstead Park. Ten minutes out into it late in the day, well away from the building, is where the best frames from this wedding came from.
Speeches, and the people listening
Speeches are the richest twenty minutes of a Easthampstead Park wedding for a simple reason: nobody can leave and everybody is reacting. So I work the room rather than the top table. Half the frames I want are of the person listening, and specifically of the two or three who are trying not to cry and losing.
The evening, and why I do not leave at the first dance
A lot of photographers stop at the first dance. It is a tidy place to finish and it saves two hours, and it also removes the best hour of your own party from the story. The first dance is a formality; twenty minutes later the floor fills and the shoes come off, and that is the actual celebration.
The ballroom takes a full dancefloor without feeling empty at the edges. I stayed until it was properly going, which is how I shoot every Easthampstead Park wedding. There is no overrun charge for that, because I do not sell hours and nobody is counting them.
Planning your own Easthampstead Park wedding?
If you are looking at Easthampstead Park, the venue’s own site is eastpark.co.uk — they handle their own bookings and I am not on a commission arrangement with them, so nothing here is a recommendation I have been paid to make.
Everything I know about shooting a Easthampstead Park wedding is written up in more detail on my Easthampstead Park wedding photographer page, including a suggested timeline and what I think the site does well. There is more of my work in the portfolio, an explanation of how I actually work on the day, and the price is one figure with everything in it.
Sinead and Jon got a gallery of over eight hundred images, with more than a hundred previews in their inbox the morning after the wedding. If your date is free I would like to hear about it — send me your date and we will have a call.
Easthampstead Park wedding photographer FAQs
Where is Easthampstead Park?
On the edge of Bracknell and Wokingham in Berkshire — a Grade II listed mansion set in eighty acres of parkland.
Which ceremony space should we choose?
It depends on your guest numbers and the time of year. The outdoor options are wonderful in June and a gamble in April. Tell me which you are leaning towards on the planning call and I will tell you honestly how each one photographs.
How much does a Easthampstead Park wedding photographer cost?
£2,500, all in. Unlimited hours, over eight hundred edited images, previews the next morning, travel included and drone where the rules allow it. There are no packages and no hourly rate to run over.
How long do you need for group photographs?
It depends how many you want. I advise eight to ten groups, which takes fifteen to twenty minutes with a list agreed in advance — then everybody goes back to their drink.
Do you travel to Berkshire?
Yes, and travel is included in the price. There is no mileage charge and no overnight fee if I come the night before, which I often do.
