Never again will I say “Nothing can surprise me”. I had to double-take the message when the couple asked for me to be their wedding photographer at a Tree House in North Devon. How could I possibly pass on that?!?

The Luxury treehouse is located within the grounds of the Fox and Hounds Country hotel in Chulmleigh, North Devon.

Built on a 250 year old Oak tree, this treehouse is compact but genuinely cosy. The venue has options for indoor and outdoor weddings, but also the option to have the ceremony ‘in’ the treehouse itself. This is the option Drew and Kirsty opted for.

The treehouse is suitable for up to 10 people to be supported safely. This is ideal for smaller weddings.

So, as you’ll see, the room is small and could just accommodate the Bride, Groom, Registrant and myself as the wedding photographer. The guests were on chairs on the balcony, looking into the room.

Enough waffle, let’s look at the photos and see for yourself…

The Bride had a stunning room for her bridal prep. There was plenty of space and the hair and make-up artists both commented how easy it was to work there. For me, bouncing some filler light from a Godox V1 was enough to really enhance the lighting in the room.

Would I recommend a wedding in the treehouse? Yes! It’s a very cosy and welcoming place to get married.

Photography Talk

For the wedding photographer, there are of course a few challenges. In order of complexity, I would say these challenges are:

• Space
• Positional choices
• Dynamic Range
• LED lighting causing banding and flickering
• Limited len choices

As you can see from the above photos, during the ceremony, I was quite literally photographing over the shoulder of the registrant. Because of this, I had already decided to ditch the lighting, switch to mirrorless silent shooting. I didn’t want to interfere with the ceremony in any way.

I could have gone super-wide-angle but decided to go with my fastest wide lens; the 24mm F1.4. On the other camera body, I had the 85mm F1.4. The lens distortion would have been too great had I gone wider. 24mm was the right balance for me.

If the ceremony is in the treehouse, there was just enough room for me, but there would not be enough room for a second photographer or an added videographer.

The ceiling was low so bouncing my lights on the wall’s behind me proved the best option when I was using flash.

Photography Equipment used

• 2x Sony A9
• 24mm F1.4 GM
• 85mm F1.4 GM
• Godox V1
• Godox AD200
• Godox Xpro Trigger