Some of the loveliest weddings I photograph in Cumbria aren’t held in grand hotels or country house venues, they’re held in fields, on farms that have belonged to a family for generations, where every guest already knows their way around. Ruby & Alec’s wedding was exactly that kind of day: an elegant church ceremony at Cartmel Priory, followed by a relaxed marquee celebration on Alec’s family farm, with horses, an ancient bluebell wood, and a genuinely unforgettable evening of Brazilian samba drumming.
A Cartmel Priory Ceremony
Ruby and Alec married at Cartmel Priory in front of 125 guests, in a service lasting around forty-five minutes. Ruby walked down the aisle with her dad, while a violinist played near the entrance doors throughout the ceremony. A small detail, but one that added a beautifully unexpected layer of atmosphere to the morning. One of the most requested shots of the day was the aisle photo, framed by the priory’s stained glass window, with their daughter Tilly taking on flower girl duties.
Choosing a historic church like Cartmel Priory for the ceremony, before heading out to open countryside for the reception, gives a wedding day two completely different visual stories, formal and architectural in the morning, relaxed and pastoral by the afternoon. As a wedding photographer in cumbria, that contrast is one of my favourite things to capture.
Onto the Family Farm
After the service, the wedding moved to Alec’s family farm near Farleton for the reception. The colour palette was simple and seasonal, sage green for the bridesmaids, checked blue for the groomsmen, paired with easy, relaxed spring outfits that suited a marquee wedding perfectly. Guests sat down to three-course sharing platters from a local Cumbria caterer, a style of dining that naturally encourages a more sociable, less formal atmosphere than a traditional plated meal.
The Personal Touches That Made It Theirs
What made this wedding so memorable wasn’t the scale of it, it was the small, deeply personal details woven through the day. On the way to the reception, Ruby and Alec stopped briefly at home so they could see Diego, their horse, freshly bathed and waiting in the garden. It became one of the photographs they wanted most: the two of them with Diego and their dogs, a genuine portrait of their family unit rather than a posed wedding photo.
Close to the marquee, the farm backs onto an ancient woodland the family calls Bluebell Woods, somewhere they’d already spent years taking photos and having picnics. In full bloom for the wedding, it gave us a setting for couple’s portraits that felt completely unique to them, rather than a generic “pretty backdrop.”
An Evening of Brazilian Drums & Straw Bales
After the meal and speeches, most weddings hit a natural lull while the room is reset for the evening, but Ruby and Alec turned theirs into one of the highlights of the day. Alec’s mum plays in a Brazilian samba band, and thirty to forty drummers took over the farm for an evening set, with a cocktail van serving drinks and guests gathered on large straw bales outside to watch and dance.
It’s a brilliant example of how personalising the quieter part of a wedding day, the bit that often gets overlooked in the planning, can end up being one of the most talked-about parts of the whole celebration.
Why Farm Weddings in Cumbria Work So Well for Photography
There’s a reason farm and countryside weddings keep growing in popularity across Cumbria and the wider Lake District. You get natural light, open space, and a genuine variety of backdrops within a few hundred yards of each other, a stone church, working farmland, ancient woodland, a marquee glowing at dusk. Add in pets, horses, and multiple generations of family, and you have a day that’s rich with the kind of candid, story-led moments I’m always chasing as a cumbria wedding photographer.
Planning Your Own Cumbria Farm Wedding
If you’re planning a similar day, a few practical things are worth thinking about early:
- Build in proper travel time between your ceremony venue and the farm or reception site, especially if photos are planned along the way.
- Keep your group photo list realistic. Up to eight groups is usually plenty, anything more starts eating into time you could spend enjoying the day.
- Trust your photographer with the in-between moments. Some of the best images from a day like this happen in transit, not in a formal line-up.
If you’re getting married on a family farm, in a marquee, or anywhere off the beaten path in Cumbria, we’d love to hear about your plans. Take a look at my Rose, Bluebell and Damson packages, and get in touch to check I’m free for your date.
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