Bunny Hill Farm sits down Sand Lane at North Cliffe, out between York and Hull on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. You come in along a long track through open corn fields, and the barn appears at the end of it. That drive matters more than it sounds: by the time your guests arrive they have already left everything else behind.
It runs as an exclusive-use venue. You and your people have the whole site for several days, not several hours, with the accommodation wrapped around a walled courtyard and a shared kitchen off it. For a photographer that changes the job completely. Nobody is watching a clock, nobody is being moved on, and the morning after exists.
"The best thing here is not in the brochure. It is the pine wood on the site."
The VenueWhat Bunny Hill gives a photographer
- iA pine plantation with lights strung through it. Dense, straight trunks, a needle floor, and fairy lights run between them. It gives you a corridor that recedes to nothing, which is a composition most Yorkshire barns simply cannot offer. It is not something the venue makes much of, so ask about it when you view.
- iiCorn fields and post-and-rail fencing. Open horizon and a fence line to lead the eye. In late June the crop is gold and the light at nine in the evening is still worth walking out for.
- iiiA reception room with a wall of glass. The top table runs along windows that look straight out over the fields, so the speeches are lit by daylight rather than by whatever is bolted to the ceiling. Chandeliers and a draped ceiling above it, brick and reclaimed timber behind.
- ivRoom to finish outdoors in the dark. The site is big and private, which is why sparklers and fireworks work here and do not work in a car park. Bring both if you want the last hour to be worth photographing.
The practical numbers, from the venue: the barn seats 200 and takes 300 or more in the evening, and the Garden Room holds 160 for a civil ceremony. There is an outdoor oak arbour draped with white wisteria, and a Sperry tent can go over it. Usefully, they will let you move the ceremony indoors or out as late as the day before, which takes the worst decision in British wedding planning off your shoulders.
On-site accommodation is converted stables and outbuildings round a south-facing walled courtyard: five double suites, two family suites and a wedding suite, sleeping twenty-four in total, with a shared kitchen and a handmade fourteen-seater table. The wedding suite has a first-floor balcony over the countryside, a dressing area, a four-poster and a copper roll-top bath. Bell tents can be added from April to September if you need to sleep more people. Three churches sit within five miles if you would rather marry in one.
The WeddingShannen & Adam, 25 June 2022
Shannen and Adam married here on the longest kind of June Saturday. I had photographed them once already, eleven days before, on an engagement shoot at Newmiller Dam that their daughter and their dog came along to, so by the wedding we already knew each other. That is most of the reason the portraits on this page look relaxed.
The morning ran in the suites round the courtyard: robes, a bedroom with a papered feature wall, hangers with everyone's name on, the dress hung against a wardrobe, and the bridesmaids out on the balcony over the brick gable with their arms in the air. Bright rooms, big windows, no need to drag a light around.
They said their vows indoors at two o'clock, in front of a full-height wall of glass. Then confetti outside under the oak frame, with everyone pressed in on both sides.
Mini burgers came round on wooden trays, the children found the rope swing in the field, and at some point two alpacas turned up. I have photographed a lot of receptions and that was a first.
The WoodThe frames they will print
The pine wood is the reason to book a photographer who has been here. We walked out in the evening, and the whole set of portraits at the top and bottom of this page came from that one visit.
"Dense woodland is the hardest light on a wedding day. The canopy swallows the light and casts everything green, and if you meter for the trees you lose the faces. You light it, or you come out with something dark and grainy."
Which is the honest argument for walking out there rather than staying by the barn. It is a short walk and it produces the frames people actually print.
The TimelineHow their day actually ran
Shannen and Adam had their running order painted on a wooden sign by the decking, which saves me describing it second-hand. If you are building a Bunny Hill timetable, this one worked:
2:00pm — We say I do
An afternoon ceremony leaves the whole evening free. In late June the light lasts until nearly ten.
2:30pm — Fizz, photos, fun
An hour and a half for drinks and groups. Long enough to do the family list properly without anybody feeling herded.
4:00pm — Seating for eating and speeches
Eating and speaking together, at the top table along the window wall, in daylight.
7:15pm — Let the party begin
The gap between speeches and the evening is where the couple portraits go. That is when we walked to the wood and the fields.
8:00pm — Cake cutting and first dance
Both together, in front of the light-up letters on the LED floor.
10:15pm — Let love sparkle
Sparklers outside at proper dusk. Fireworks followed. My last frame of the day is stamped 22:05.
1:00am — Carriages and goodnight
With beds on site for twenty-four, a good number of them did not have far to go.
"Hold some time back after the speeches and spend it in the pines. Everything else here can be photographed at any point in the day. That cannot."
"Perfect from start to finish. I honestly will never ever get bored of looking through them."
Shannen — read the full review
PricingA full day at Bunny Hill
A full day of Bunny Hill wedding photography starts from £1,800, with no travel charge anywhere in Yorkshire. The pricing page has what is included and the shorter options.
SuppliersSeen at Bunny Hill
- VenueBunny Hill Weddings & Events
- CateringThe Hog and Apple Food Co
