A Bruisyard Hall wedding in September, with the whole site to themselves for the weekend and a golden retriever who turns up in roughly every third photograph. Leanne and Tom married in the Suffolk countryside near Saxmundham, in a barn with the frame showing and fields running away from it in every direction.
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: exclusive use, and an unhurried start
Bruisyard is exclusive use, and you feel it first thing. There is no other wedding finishing off down the corridor and nobody chivvying anyone along, so the morning takes as long as it takes. Both sides got ready on site, which meant I could move between them without losing either.
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 Bruisyard Hall
The ceremony space at Bruisyard has the timber showing and light coming in from the side, which is a gift — it means I can work from the back and the edges on a silent shutter without a flash going anywhere near the vows.
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
Confetti at a Bruisyard Hall wedding works best as two lines rather than a ring around a door, using the run of ground away from the barn. It gives everybody somewhere to stand and it gives the couple somewhere to walk.
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 Bruisyard Hall 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.
At Bruisyard the best ten minutes are down the track away from the buildings, late in the day, once the light has dropped off the fields. That is where the frames people end up printing tend to come from.
Speeches, and the people listening
Speeches are the richest twenty minutes of a Bruisyard Hall 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 barn holds the noise well once the floor fills. I stayed until it was properly going, which is how I shoot every Bruisyard Hall wedding. There is no overrun charge for that, because I do not sell hours and nobody is counting them.
Planning your own Bruisyard Hall wedding?
If you are looking at Bruisyard Hall, the venue’s own site is bruisyardhall.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 Bruisyard Hall wedding is written up in more detail on my Bruisyard Hall 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.
Leanne and Tom 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.
Bruisyard Hall wedding photographer FAQs
Where is Bruisyard Hall?
Bruisyard, near Saxmundham in Suffolk — deep enough into the countryside that the site is genuinely quiet, and exclusive use for the whole weekend.
Can our dog be in the photographs?
Yes, and please do bring him. Tell me in advance and he will be in more than the group shot — Leanne and Tom’s retriever is in a good proportion of this gallery.
How much does a Bruisyard Hall 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 Suffolk?
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.
