Canterbury · Kent · tipis and woodland
The Wilderness Wedding Photographer
Giant tipis in a wildflower meadow on a two-hundred-acre eco-farm outside Canterbury, with ancient woodland and a private lake around them. Documentary photography, unlimited hours, one all-in price.
What a The Wilderness wedding photographer is working with
The Wilderness is a field, a wood and a lake, with tipis put up in the middle of it. That sounds like a limitation and is the opposite: there are no corridors, no function rooms and nothing to work around, so the day spreads out and people wander — which is exactly where documentary photography wants to be.
The tipis are the one fixed thing. Canvas overhead means the light inside is warm and even all afternoon, with none of the hard contrast you get under a marquee window, and the open sides mean I can shoot into them from the meadow without anyone noticing.
Nothing here is polished, and that is the point. It is one of the few venues where the photographs look like a day out rather than an event.
The meadow, the ceremony and the walk between them
Ceremonies happen outdoors, which at a site like this means the weather is part of the story rather than a threat to it. Guests walk out through long grass to get there, and that walk produces more photographs than the ceremony itself usually does.
I shoot it from the sides and the back on a silent shutter. Nobody is asked to repeat anything, and with the sky doing whatever it is doing there is no version of this you could stage anyway.
Under canvas with the sides open. Warm even light all afternoon, and no flash needed.
Guests walking out through the meadow. This is the bit most venues do not give you.
Tipis, long tables and the end of the night
Dinner happens under canvas on long tables, which photographs far better than rounds — you can see the whole room reacting at once rather than eight separate conversations. Festoon lights and the canvas glow do the rest after dark.
There is glamping on site for around sixty, so nobody is watching the clock for a taxi and the evening runs on its own time.
The tipi before anybody is in it. I photograph the room first, every time.
Everyone, in the one place that holds them. Nobody arranged this.
A The Wilderness wedding photographer’s timeline, hour by hour
Every wedding is different, but this is the shape most Wilderness days take. It is a guide for building your own timeline, not a schedule I will hold you to.
What a £2,500 The Wilderness wedding photographer covers
One price, the same for every couple, written out in full so there are no surprises.
Straight answers
Yes. Hayley and Charlie married there in July and their full gallery is at the bottom of this page.
The tipis are the plan, not the backup — they are up either way. Wet weather here photographs better than it does at most venues, because everybody is already outdoors and nobody is pretending otherwise.
Late, out in the meadow or at the edge of the wood. Three short slots across the day rather than one long block — fifteen minutes at a time.
Not until the dancefloor. Silent shutter all day, and under canvas there is rarely any need for it at all.
Yes, and travel is included in the price. There is no mileage charge and no overnight fee if I come down the night before.
Real weddings at The Wilderness
One full gallery from my work as a The Wilderness wedding photographer, shot as the day happened. No posing, no staging, no repeating things for the camera.
The venue, and booking a The Wilderness wedding photographer
The Wilderness handles its own bookings and their site is wildernessweddings.co.uk. I am not on a commission arrangement with them, so nothing on this page is a recommendation I have been paid to make.
There is more of my work in the portfolio, an explanation of how I actually work on the day, and other Kent venues I know well. I take one wedding a day and a limited number a year — if your date is free I will tell you straight away.
Tell me your date
If you are getting married at The Wilderness and this is how you would want the day recorded, I would like to hear about it.