So one of the things I love the most is shooting weddings in beautiful Somerset, where I grew up. The county is home to some truly STUNNING wedding venues - most of which I looked at while I was planning my own wedding! There are so many to choose from; whether you’re after a big country house, a rustic barn, or an outdoor location to hold your celebrations.
One of the prettiest venues, and somewhere I’d wanted to shoot for ages, is Priston Mill, just outside Bath and Bristol. The venue offers two locations for your wedding; The Watermill (pictured below), a stunning and ancient building, and rustic Tythe Barn, dating from the early 1700s. It was the latter where Lola and William held their intimate family wedding in September.
The Tythe Barn is ENORMOUS, and certainly creates an impact! There’s heaps of room for your wedding ceremony, recepton, and evening do - and there is a bar built right in, which can be handily hidden by screens during the ceremony. There’s also lots of light - always great from a photographer’s perspective - and oodles of character everywhere you look.
The couple had decided to have a smaller wedding; mostly family with a few close friends, and there was a wonderful relaxed feel to the day, with everyone so obviously delighted for the bride and groom. I really fell in love with more intimate weddings during the pandemic, when 30 guests felt like a huge number! It’s lovely how the couple getting married actually have a chance to talk to everyone and spend time together, rather than trying to get around 200+ people and giving them 30 seconds each!
When I arrived for Lola and William’s Priston Mill wedding, to say it was torrentially raining would have been an understatement. I got soaked just going from the car into the venue, and that was wearing a coat! But fate was smiling down upon them, as shortly before the ceremony the skies cleared into beautiful sunshine, allowing the couple to do a confetti tunnel and family and couple photos outside.
Now, Lola and William LOVE motorcycles, so one thing they requested was to include them in their wedding photos - with smoke bombs! Safe to say, I was very much on board with the idea and I love how these came out. The bike and the smoke bomb were a great contrast to the beautiful, rustic venue - so if you’re thinking of adding a bit of a twist to your wedding day/wedding photos, here’s some inspiration!
Back inside, Priston Mill’s team had been turning around The Tythe Barn for the wedding breakfast, which looked stunning! I loved all the little touches the couple had thought of, like their motorbike cake topper, rustic wooden pallet wedding timetable sign, and cute test tube favours for their guests. The autumnal flowers, fruit, and macarons around the wedding cake brought it all together!
Typically, the rain restarted itself the moment I’d sat myself down outside in the sunshine to eat my own meal (which then got rather wet), but stopped again around the time the wedding breakfast was finished - talk about good luck! We were blessed with half an hour of blissful dry weather to enjoy the end of the golden hour before the heavens opened once more and it was back inside to cut the cake!
Rather than having a traditional wedding guest book, Lola and William had decided to have guests sign a motorbike helmet, which I thought was such a cute and original touch! I love it when couples include things special to themselves in their day, or twist a tradition, to really make things personal.
With it well and truly torrentially pouring outside again, we thought we’d do some cool rain shots! I had not anticipated that it was SO WET that my flash and transmitter would completely stop working within a couple of minutes. The battery compartments ended up being full of water so I had to submerge them in a bowl of rice to try to save them (thanks kitchen team!!) - and luckily they’re still working to this day!
I absolutely loved working as a wedding photographer at Priston Mill, so if you’re thinking of getting married there and looking for someone to shoot relaxed wedding photos for you (or just have any questions about the venue), drop me a message!