3rd March 2015

Vanessa & Oli’s Country Wedding with a Tractor! Bonhams Barn, Surrey

Vanessa and Oli got married at the end of June 2014 (I know, I’m a bit behind with my blogging!) and even though we had pretty stormy weather it didn’t stop us from doing anything we wanted to do and still got great photos!

The day started at St Mary the Virgin Church in Frensham, where it was pouring with rain one minute and sunny the next. When the ceremony ended it was beautiful sunshine, although there wasn’t much hanging about outside the church before big black clouds came over, and we made a hasty exit…

Vanessa & Oli's Country Wedding, Bonhams Barn, Surrey

What I loved was Vanessa and Oli’s mode of wedding transport, which fitted in with their barn reception and country wedding theme nicely – a TRACTOR! Oli drove the tractor from the church to Bonhams Barn near Alton, in Hampshire, by which time we had full on torrential rain and wind, which made for some great photos of Vanessa trying to get out of the tractor!

The only downside to Bonhams Barn if it rains is that there is nowhere other than the main hall for all the guests to hang out and socialise, so everyone hung around the tables for a while before the Wedding Breakfast was served, as it was still pouring with rain outside. This at least meant that I had more time for candid guest photos – I was still hoping for a break in the rain at some point so we could go out and do some group photos outside. When it was time to go off for a little walk for me to take some photos of the bride and groom, we just took an umbrella – Bonhams Barn has another little barn in the field, which is great for photos when it’s raining, and has gorgeous natural light coming in, plus there’s of course the upstairs mezzanine in the main barn itself.

Vanessa and Oli had chosen a bespoke wedding package and had me from the church ceremony up until the end of the speeches. Luckily, just after the speeches, when it was time for me to finish, the rain stopped and I got everyone outside for the rest of the group photos! So it all worked out perfectly in the end 🙂

This is why it’s a good idea to book a photographer for most of, if not the whole day – very rarely does it rain the ENTIRE day and there’s usually a time that we can get everyone outside for some group photos at some point, especially in the summer when there’s plenty of hours of daylight!