A Farmhouse at Redcoats wedding in summer, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Claire and Miles married in church first — a proper one, all arches and stone — then came back to Redcoats for the rest of it, arriving in a classic car and finishing under a wall of fairy lights.
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: beams, a bar, and two sides of the same building
Redcoats is a farmhouse before it is a hotel, and it photographs like one: low beams, odd corners, and rooms that do not match each other. Both sides got ready on site, which meant the groomsmen had a pint downstairs while the dress went on upstairs, and I could work both without driving anywhere.
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 The Farmhouse at Redcoats
A church ceremony changes the job. The light is fixed, the positions are fixed, and you often cannot move once it starts — so the work is all in choosing where to stand before anybody walks in. Silent shutter throughout, no flash, and nothing asked of anyone.
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 happened outside the church door, which is the usual arrangement and works well as two lines down the path rather than a scrum at the porch. One pass, walked slowly.
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 Farmhouse at Redcoats 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.
Back at Redcoats the gardens give you ten minutes of shade and late light without leaving your own party, which is the whole argument for doing portraits in three short slots rather than one long one.
Speeches, and the people listening
Speeches are the richest twenty minutes of a Farmhouse at Redcoats 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 fairy-light wall behind the top table does a lot of work once the room goes dark, and the floor filled early. I stayed until it was properly going, which is how I shoot every Farmhouse at Redcoats wedding. There is no overrun charge for that, because I do not sell hours and nobody is counting them.
Planning your own The Farmhouse at Redcoats wedding?
If you are looking at The Farmhouse at Redcoats, the venue’s own site is farmhouseatredcoats.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 Farmhouse at Redcoats wedding is written up in more detail on my wedding venues 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.
Claire and Miles 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.
The Farmhouse at Redcoats wedding photographer FAQs
Where is The Farmhouse at Redcoats?
Near Hitchin in Hertfordshire — a farmhouse hotel and restaurant with barns alongside it, about thirty minutes from London.
Do you photograph church ceremonies?
Often. Claire and Miles married in church and came back to Redcoats afterwards, which is on this page start to finish. Churches vary enormously on what they will allow, so I check with the vicar myself rather than leaving it to you on the morning.
How much does a The Farmhouse at Redcoats 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 Hertfordshire?
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.
