The Wild Boar Wedding Photographer & Videographer

A woodland hotel in the Gilpin Valley

The Wild Boar is a hotel in the Gilpin Valley near Windermere, on Crook Road near Kendal in Cumbria (LA23 3NF). The venue's website now calls it Wild Boar Estate and says it is in a rural woodland setting near Kendal and Bowness-on-Windermere, with 32 individually styled rooms. We use the name it carried on Emma and Josh's day.

We filmed Emma and Josh's wedding here on 29 October 2021. Their booking was for film, so the photographs on this page are stills from their highlight film, not photographs from the day. Our Lake District guide shows The Wild Boar beside other Cumbrian venues, and here we stay with the venue itself. What we say about the hotel and grounds comes from the venue's own website, and what we say about the images comes from watching the film.

For current venue details, explore The Wild Boar. We have filmed one wedding here, in late October, so ask the venue about its woodland and ceremony rooms in other seasons.

01 / The spaces / From the venue's own description

Log fires, a smokehouse and 72 acres of woodland

The venue describes a traditional Lake District hotel with roaring log fires, relaxed spaces and a Grill and Smokehouse with slate floors, open fires and its own home-brewed beers. For weddings it offers an intimate option in the Undermillbeck Room, which it describes as an exclusive use space with wooden flooring, exposed beams and a large fireplace, for small weddings of up to 22 guests, bookable Monday to Friday, with four hotel bedrooms taken as part of the package.

It also lists an elopement package for the couple plus up to six guests, available Monday to Thursday. The wedding pages we found do not give a figure for larger celebrations, and they say to contact the venue's wedding and events co-ordinator, so ask it directly about ceremony rooms and guest numbers for a bigger day.

For photographs the venue says couples are free to use the adjacent 72 acres of private woodland, which is also open to guests. It describes a 4x4 Land Rover with a driver to take the couple up to the tarn, a falconry hawk walk with your wedding photographer, and activities such as clay pigeon shooting and axe throwing for guests.

02 / October 2021 / Emma and Josh

Emma and Josh: autumn bracken, a green Land Rover and a night of sparklers

Emma and Josh married at The Wild Boar on 29 October 2021. The image at the top of this page is a still from their highlight film: Emma in a sparkling headpiece and a pink feathered wrap sits close to Josh on the back of an open green Land Rover with a WILD BOAR number plate, a bouquet of pastel flowers in her lap, with golden autumn grass behind them. Every image on this page is a still from that film.

The highlight opens on red berries on a branch, then moves through the morning: hair and make-up in a bright room, a table card with their names and the date, and the ceremony in a low-beamed room with guests seated in rows. Afterwards the portraits move out into the woodland. Josh and Emma kiss among golden bracken and bare trees.

They walk side by side across open parkland dotted with bare trees, Emma carrying her bouquet, Josh with a flower on his jacket.

From above, the woodland is a patchwork of reds, oranges and yellows with a small pool of water at its edge. A green Land Rover appears in other aerial shots on a track through the trees.

The front of the hotel is white with gold lettering reading The Wild Boar above a gable window, under a grey sky. Back on the Land Rover, a MARRIED number plate hangs below a rear window with raindrops on the glass.

In the film the day carries on with speeches in a room of tall windows, the cake being cut and dancing. It ends outside in the dark, where guests hold sparklers in a circle and Josh and Emma kiss in the middle of them.

03 / Staying at The Wild Boar / From the venue's own description

32 rooms and a smokehouse

The venue says it has 32 individually styled rooms in three room categories, and describes itself as a five star inn. Its Grill and Smokehouse serves a seasonal menu with ingredients from its on-site smokehouse, and it also has The Brewhouse, which it describes as a celebration of food and ales.

For photographs, ask which rooms you can use for getting ready and when they are available, so we can plan the morning around where each of you is.

Planning your photographs at The Wild Boar

A few things worth asking the venue, and how we would plan around the answers:

1. Timing: Ask the venue which ceremony room suits your guest numbers and what start time it recommends. Tell us your timings once you have agreed them and we will plan the portrait walk around the light.
2. Autumn light: Emma and Josh married on 29 October, and their film shows golden bracken, bare trees and a grey sky, with the evening finishing in the dark. Daylight is short at that time of year. We check sunset and light times for your date in advance and agree the plan with you before the day.
3. Rain: The weather in the hills can change quickly, and the film shows raindrops on the Land Rover's window. Agree an indoor or sheltered option with the venue when you confirm the order of the day. On the day we settle it together with you and the venue.
4. The woodland: The venue says couples can use its 72 acres of private woodland and describes a Land Rover with a driver to the tarn. Ask whether that is included with your booking and how long it takes, so the time is in the timetable.
5. Group photographs: We do as many as you like and typically recommend around 15, which usually take about 20 minutes. Ask a groomsman or bridesmaid who knows everyone to round people up.
6. Getting ready: If you and your partner are in different places, we move between you together, splitting our time as a team. Groom preparation typically takes about 15 minutes.

One team for the photographs and the film

Cam and Beth have photographed and filmed over 400 weddings together, so a woodland hotel, a stretch of parkland and an evening outside are familiar territory. You get one conversation about the timetable, one set of questions for the venue and one plan for the portrait walk.

The photo and video team package carries a £120 deposit and a £400 saving over booking photography and videography separately. We are based near Cardiff, and travel across England and Wales is included in standard full-day packages. When the drive is over two hours we always stay in a hotel the night before and cover it.

Questions about a The Wild Boar wedding