Higher Eggbeer Farm Wedding

I was really chuffed to be asked to be Katherine & Jake’s photographer for their Higher Eggbeer Farm wedding. Not just because they had booked this beautiful venue. Mostly because Katherine’s dad is a well-known South West wedding photographer and he shortlisted me to be his daughter’s photographer. Needless to say this is a huge compliment!

I first met Katherine & Jake during their engagement photo shoot in Bath. This gave us the chance to get to know each other and for Katherine & Jake to get more comfortable in front of the camera. On the wedding day itself this made the couple photo session very relaxed and Katherine & Jake knew exactly what to expect.

Higher Eggbeer Farm is a rustic wedding venue near Exeter. It’s set on top of a hill with views of rolling Devon hills in all directions. Katherine & Jake both got ready at the Farm before their wedding ceremony in one of the barns on site. It being a gorgeous late summer day, everyone was able to have drinks outside after the ceremony. I took Katherine & Jake aside for a few quick photos and a handful of group photos with their nearest and dearest. Shortly afterwards everyone sat down for the wedding breakfast in another beautifully decorated (and rustic!) barn.

But enough from me, the photos below do a much better job at telling this story than I ever could in words. And if that’s not enough, scroll down to below the photos for all the day’s details provided by Katherine and Jake themselves.

How we met… When we were babies our mums’ friend baby sat us at her home. We then didn’t see each other until 2015 when our families and our old baby-sitter went camping together. We got to chatting and shortly after returning home I decided to get on a train to visit Jake in Southampton and the rest is history!

The proposal… Jake went to my mum to request her old engagement ring which he knew I loved, and even asked my dad for permission! He proposed on the 1st of December, by placing the ring in the first door of my advent calendar. I knew straight away. The funny part to our story is about 5 minutes after Jake proposed our new washing machine arrived! That day we went and picked up a Christmas tree and decorated the house.

The venue… Higher Eggbeer Farm was actually the only wedding venue we viewed. I had my heart set on a rustic barn wedding and after seeing photos we knew it was the one. We’d decided before even leaving the viewing that it was the place for us. With two separate barns for the ceremony and reception, a farm house for guests and an outdoor pool it was more than perfect.

The attire… – My dress came from a small business called Aisle Alter Hymn. It’s a lovely lady who collects second hand and last seasons dresses. She has so many to try! I thought I knew the style I wanted but ended up with something the complete opposite. Chris who owns the dress shop couldn’t have been any better at helping me chose the perfect dress as well as how best to accessorise. Jake and the ushers wore suits from Marc Darcy suit which fitted in perfectly with the rustic/autumnal theme of the wedding. I knew I wanted the bridesmaids to be comfortable on the day so I bought some made to order dresses from an Etsy shop called Radiant Rooster. The beauty of these dresses is the top is two long pieces of fabric which can be tied in over 100 different ways. I let the bridesmaids chose how they wore them and they all looked beautiful.

The decor… I had a whole Pinterest board full of rustic weddings and knew that was the theme from the day Jake proposed. We didn’t have a big budget so I had to get savvy with decorating. Everything was either second hand or handmade. I spent months in the lead up just crafting and sourcing items we could use from either charity shops or Facebook marketplace. It really helped that we had our venue for two nights. This meant we could use the day before to set everything up. The barn was filled with candles, twinkly lights and eucalyptus. It was like a dream!

The cake… Our cake was from Little Buttercup Cakery. Tib is incredible at what she does. We will definitely be ordering some cupcakes in our wedding flavours for our 1 year anniversary. We wanted a simple cake with semi naked buttercream and a few flowers. Tib worked with our florist and really bought our vision to life. The cake was three tiers, lemon and blueberry, strawberry and prosecco and vanilla.

The flowers… Charlotte at Fleur Amour was incredible through out the whole process. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted but knew there needed to be eucalyptus and burnt orange. When my bouquet arrived on the day I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Charlotte completely understood the theme of our wedding and got the flowers spot on. She also made button holes for the men, two smaller bouquets for our mums as well as providing the eucalyptus for the tables and some smaller flowers for the cake.

The ceremony… Our ceremony was short but sweet, held in the smaller barn lit up with fairy lights. I cried the whole way through which was expected!! I don’t think you could ever describe the feeling of walking down the aisle to your future partner, nerves and excitement all rolled in to one. We had a lovely registrar who at one point handed me a tissue for my tears.

The photographer… We found Judith via a Google search and straight away knew her style would capture our wedding best. We met with Judith in Bath for our engagement shoot. It didn’t take long to feel comfortable in front of the camera. When we received our photos back we followed Judith’s advice, put on a slideshow and listened to our wedding songs, and we were taken right back to our wedding day.

The videographer… For our videographer we used a friend of my dads, Lois Heal Videography. Lois captured our Higher Eggier Farm wedding perfectly. A lot of married couples had told us that the best thing they did was booking a videographer. Not only does Lois put together a full length video, she does a highlights trailer which is so lovely to watch and share with family.

The reception… This was held in the main barn, a three course meal cooked by the amazing Laura’s Customised Catering. Followed by a disco with Kieran Clarke Entertainment providing the music, by far the best DJ out there! He’s so interactive with the guests, making jokes and taking requests. He really made the evening even more special and unique. Across from the barn was a games room where a lot of guests spent their time, and also where the after party was held after midnight!

The best bits… It sounds cliche but the whole day was incredible, it went off without a hitch! It was so lovely to have all our family and friends in one room. Especially after the year we’ve had. If I had to pick one best bit, it would be when everyone joined in during our first dance and I remember looking around the room and feeling so full of love. Jakes best bit was the speeches, although he was nervous he did great. He loved seeing everyone’s reactions to his, my dad’s and his best man’s speech.

Any tips for future bride and grooms? Jake: “Make notes for your speech.” Katherine: “Take in every last second of the day, it really does fly by! And don’t worry if you don’t get much sleep the night before, I had 3 hours and the wedding magic will keep you awake all day!”