The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Rudge Farm was the smell of fresh rain.
Chickens wandered around the courtyard, little dogs appeared from nowhere and somewhere in the distance someone was already carrying chairs through the trees. I stood there for a minute and thought, quite honestly, that I couldn’t believe I get to do this as my job.
We had come together for a styled shoot, although that somehow makes it sound much more serious than it was. Really, it was a day spent with good people, in a beautiful place, making something lovely together.
Styled shoots can sometimes feel a long way from real life. The flowers are bigger, the tables are longer and everything is just a little more polished than most people actually need. We wanted people to look at these photographs and think, I could actually do that.
Because not everybody wants a castle. Not everybody wants hundreds of guests and not everybody wants to spend a fortune to have a wonderful day.
The brief was simple. A real couple, a beautiful venue and a table people would genuinely want to sit around.
There were no guests, no speeches and no carefully choreographed first dance. Just Nadia and Poppy, a real couple from Devon, and a group of suppliers who all care deeply about what they do.
The fact that they are together in real life changes everything. You don’t need to manufacture chemistry when people genuinely adore each other.
There was no awkwardness and no trying too hard. They laughed constantly, went along with every slightly ridiculous idea we came up with and somehow managed to make standing in the rain beside a lake look romantic.
Some of my favourite moments weren’t planned at all. Walking through the gardens, stopping to feed the sheep and meeting the goats, who nearly stole the show.
Everyone loved the animals.
There were jokes about the goat meme, photographs through fences and a surprising amount of excitement about feeding them. I don’t think any of us arrived expecting the goats to become one of the highlights of the day, but they came very close.
Rudge Farm sits in a fold of West Dorset countryside, surrounded by woodland, meadows and water. With ten cottages on site, it’s the kind of place where a wedding naturally becomes a whole weekend.
The Woodland Sanctuary quickly became everyone’s favourite spot. Tucked beneath mature trees and bordered by the river, it feels peaceful before you’ve even sat down. In spring, bluebells and wild garlic cover the ground and there is something wonderfully unspoilt about the whole place.
One detail made us smile. It’s completely step free. Wheelchair friendly, pram friendly and easy for everyone to access without needing to ask special questions first.
Then there are the things you only discover by asking questions.
The sheep mow the grass.
Owl and kestrel boxes help with pest control.
The lake is kept clean without chemicals.
Solar panels help power the site.
Nobody gave us a tour of the sustainability measures. We simply kept stumbling across them.
Every wedding starts long before the ceremony.
Hair and makeup by the cottage window. Flowers being checked one last time. Chairs being carried through the woods. Boxes being unpacked and moved around. The morning felt wonderfully unhurried.
At lunchtime we all ended up back in the cottage around plates of quiche, baguettes, salad, fruit and far too many cups of tea and coffee. The weather couldn’t quite decide what it was doing, with sunshine one minute and rain the next, but nobody seemed in any hurry to be anywhere else.
It felt less like work and more like friends spending time together.
One of the nicest things about a styled shoot is that suppliers get to see the finished picture together.
At a real wedding, everyone tends to work in isolation. The florist might never see the ceremony set-up. The makeup artist often leaves before the ceremony even begins. Most people only ever see their own little piece of the puzzle.
Days like this are a rare opportunity to stand back and admire everyone else’s work.
The styling took its lead from the venue itself.
With a setting like this there was never any need to overcomplicate things. The look naturally leaned towards something relaxed and a little bohemian, taking its cues from the woodland rather than trying to compete with it.
The outfits came from Laura at Here You Are Bridal in Brighton, whose love of vintage and ethical fashion fitted perfectly with everything we were trying to create. The finishing touches came from Brides of Dorset, who supplied the headpiece and accessories that brought everything together.
Amy from Wild Ginger Floristry created flowers that looked as though they belonged there already.
The table in the woods was dressed with rented and reusable pieces, earthy ceramics, vintage cutlery and soft candlelight.
Looking around it, it was hard to imagine anyone needing much more.
By the time we climbed into the boat, the weather had turned and everyone was feeling a little cold.
There was definitely some complaining.
There was also a lot of laughing.
And by this point Danielle had somehow ended up lying on the ground in the rain, holding a rope to keep the boat steady while Dominic got the shot.
Nobody had “human anchor” on their to-do list that day.
She just did it.
Danielle, who runs Rudge Farm, seems capable of doing absolutely everything.
At one point she was in the goat pen ringing a bell and feeding the sheep. A little while later she was styling the drinks table by the lake. She fed all of us at lunchtime, lent us the cottage for the day and somehow always seemed to appear with exactly the thing we needed before we’d even realised we needed it.
It tells you everything you need to know about both her and the venue.
Days like this remind you why people stay in this industry. Someone fetched chairs. Someone adjusted flowers. Someone else held a boat steady in the rain. People gave up their time, travelled long distances and spent a day making something lovely together.
This day wasn’t perfect.
There was rain.
There was mud.
There was a takeaway van in the background of a few photographs.
People got cold.
The goats nearly stole the show.
And somehow all of that made it feel even better.
By the end of the day there was mud on people’s shoes, rain on the lake and a table in the woods that nobody seemed to want to leave.
Looking around, it was hard to imagine that anyone needed much more than this.
Two people in love.
A beautiful place.
And a group of people who cared enough to make it all happen.
A good wedding isn’t about everybody else. It’s about the couple and what they want.
The people who made it
- Venue: Rudge Farm, Chilcombe near Bridport
- Planning and styling: Jess Darracott, Wild Soul Wedding Co and Gemma Hurlstone, My Wedding Vibe
- Photography: Dominic Williams Photography
- Couple: Nadia and Poppy, The Kelso Braes
- Florals: Amy, Wild Ginger Floristry
- Bridal wear: Laura, Here You Are Bridal
- Bridal accessories and headpiece: Brides of Dorset
- Hair and makeup: Nipona Khan
- Content creation and behind the scenes: Tash and Jess, Afterglow
- Tableware: Fiona, Perfect Party Tents
- Furniture and additional props: Rudge Farm
The gallery
Every frame worth keeping. Click any photo to see it properly.
If you are planning a wedding
You do not need a bigger Pinterest board. You need a shortlist of people who work like this: calmly, honestly, together. That is what we are building here, and our events are where you meet them in person. The next one is the My Wedding Vibe Showcase on 27 September 2026 at the RNLI College in Poole.
If you are a wedding supplier
If you read this and thought “that is how I want to work”, you are exactly who the Vibe Tribe is for. And if you have a shoot or a story of your own worth telling, share it with us and it could be here in the journal next.