Cider Mill Barns

There’s a big open oak frame at the end of the paved terrace at Cider Mill Barns, and it’s the thing we’d want ten minutes for. It looks out over rows on posts and wires and then open Worcestershire fields. They light the frame up once it gets dark, so going back outside after dinner gets you a portrait with it lit above you and a bit of blue still in the sky. The terrace in front of it is where we’d stand everyone for the photo with all the guests in it, with the frame behind you. Those rows are the other reason to be here. There are grass paths running between them, so two minutes’ walk puts you somewhere that looks like a proper vineyard and nothing like the rest of the day. The ceremony room has a big window behind the celebrant, so it stays bright the whole way through and your ceremony pictures come out soft. Dinner and the band are under a white pitched roof with lights strung across it, and it goes warm as soon as the sun’s gone.