Jessica and Joseph’s Summer Farm Wedding in Hertfordshire by Tom Keenan Photography

It’s hard to remember the summer, it seems such a long time ago, especially as this winter seems to have dragged on forever! However all those memories of summer will hopefully come flooding back to you as I share this gorgeous summer wedding that takes place in the beautiful English countryside of Hertfordshire. Jessica and Joseph fell in love with South Farm as soon as they visited it, it had the ethos they were looking for and was perfect for their outdoor ceremony. They picked the hottest day of the year for their celebrations but this only added to the fun and happiness of the day. A day filled with smiles, laughter, pigs and sunshine. All captured perfectly by Tom Keenan Photography

Very hot (hottest day of the year!) but full of love and joy. We didn’t stop laughing and smiling the whole day, it was so much fun!

Jessica and Joseph were married on 12th August 2024 at South Farm in Hertfordshire. ‘We originally were looking for an eco conscious venue, we loved South Farm’s ethos as they grow all their own food or it’s locally sourced. We booked to look round and booked it there and then! We didn’t look at any other venues! We had 70 guests. We booked the wedding years in advance, some big things we booked pretty soon after that but a lot of the smaller things we did in the year run up to the wedding. We also had a baby in those 2 years so it was very full on!’

How they met
We met many years ago at school but got together in 2015 after re connecting at a local festival!

The proposal
Joe decorated our house full of pictures of our years together and lit up the pathway to our front door with fairy lights, it was so pretty! When I came in he had a violinist in the garden playing one of our special songs. She then played me down the aisle at the wedding.

How did you allocate your budget?
We didn’t really have any solid budgets but we had things we knew we wanted to spend more on such as the photographer and food.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We probably saved on flowers as we only had the main bouquets and then foliage for the tables. We then had fake flowers for the arch and garland- we had so many compliments on these! We spent a good amount on photography and videography as these are the things that last a lifetime.

How did you choose your photographer?
I originally just looked at photographer who covered Cambridge on Instagram. I came across Tom and just really loved his work and the way he came across as a person. We definitely made the right decision!

The dress
I decided early on that I wanted to get a pre loved dress and then have it altered to fit me. I went to love sustained bridal studio and found a gorgeous dress that was about 4 sizes too big! I had it completely altered and it was perfect!

The suit and bridesmaids
Joe used Anthony’s formalwear for his and the groomsmen’s suits. They had a great experience and were all over the moon with their suits.

Theme or colour scheme
I really wanted a scheme of sage and burnt orange, we started out with a ‘boho’ kind of vibe but I think we ended up more on the ‘classy summer garden party’ look!

Flowers 
I absolutely love dahlias and South Farm have them in their grounds so it was always the plan to have them in my bouquet, I had copper boys and cafe au lait dahlias with lots of foliage and herbs.

Decoration
My mother in law is amazing at creating things; she created us a big flower and fabric arch which looked incredible! We had it at the start of the aisle and then the staff moved it to behind the top table after the ceremony.

Food
We ate like kings! We went for a full three course wedding breakfast which was all seasonal and sourced locally or grown at south farm. It included filled pasta, caprese salads and a trio of desserts!

Wedding cake
Luckily one of my good friends is a cake maker, she made us a beautiful orange and poppy seed cake.

Entertainment
We had a DJ and a saxophonist.

Who supplied the stationery?
Our sister in law has her own fashion brand and is a whizz at creating designs. She designed our wedding invitations and we created a wedding website to cut back on sending things out.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We went to Sardinia, with our little boy and both sets of parents for reinforcement we then did 4 days on our own in the middle of the 2 week holiday.

Personal touches
We had so many little touches that were very personal such as coming in to the wedding breakfast entrance to our favourite teenage song played on the violin (panic at the disco!). We had crosswords with questions all about us and loads of decorations we did ourselves. We created gift bags for the children to keep them busy too. We tried to keep the look quite minimal but with lots of personal touches.

Special moments 
The highlight for us was the balmy evening sunset and watching the sun go down in South Farms beautiful grounds surrounded by everyone we love.

Advice for other couples
Enjoy it. Don’t sweat the small stuff, we had a few things go wrong on the day but we genuinely didn’t care because we were so swept up with all the love

Biggest surprise 
How calm we were and just how special the day really is. It also goes so quickly!!

Supplier shout outs

• Photographer: www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk
• Venue:  www.south-farm.co.uk
• Videographer: www.heartwoodfilms.co.uk
• MUA:  www.sophiedaly.com
• Celebrant: www.sunflowerceremonies.co.uk
• DJ:  www.elementdjs.co.uk
• Florist: @edenflorists 
• Bunting: www.boomtingbunting.com
• Gown:  www.lovesustainedbridal.co.uk
• Veil:  www.sashandveil.co.uk
• Suit:  www.anthonyformalwear.co.uk
• Violin: www.musicbyviolin.co.uk

Tom Keenan Photography

www,tomkeenanphotography.co.uk / www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk/blog / [email protected] / 07749013538 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST

I’m Tom, a luxury wedding photographer based in Kent specialising in soft editorial, documentary-style weddings. I focus on authentic moments on digital & analogue format, telling your story through my perspective in a way that feels fashionable yet timeless.