2026 Winner - Photographer @Saraanngreenphotography
No – this is not a 2026 brides but a 2025 bride. BUT – I do want all of our 2026 brides to make sure that I have been sent your photo galleries from your wedding so that we can create our traditional “Best of” photographs lists for this year. With our business winding down before our official closing, I want to get this list done sooner than normal this year.
How to Double-check
Most of the time, I have followed up with each of our brides to thank them for choosing us, to ask if they would be so kind as to leave us a review, AND to beg for gallery photo link so that we can view them and select our best photos from your wedding. If you have not responded to that email with a link (and often a password), then just shoot me an email with it.
2025 Winner - @Adventurewiththelamberts
What Makes A Photograph Contender
This contest (more or less) is a way for us to celebrate the talent and creativity of our brides’ photographers. We do like to share on social media a few photographs of our weddings during the year, but the contest is looking at a photograph from a professional standpoint. We call them “Magazine Worthy” photos. It means the photograph has to standout; the location of the photographer; what details are included within the photograph; the angle of the lighting effects; and sometimes even the bride and groom (but not always). This isn’t a beauty contest. This is an artistic picture that one could easily imagine showing up in a magazine advertising who knows what from a bridal gown to a vacation destination or even deodorant!
2023 Winner - @Urso.photography
outside the box
Of those “outside the box” photographs are the best. Like Kate in the photo above, she was willing to actually walk into the creek for this photo. Granted, it was post-ceremony, but still a gutsy action for a bride in her special gown. It paid off. Fortunately, there are so many photographic options around the farm, that the choices are endless. It boils down to attitude to just “go with it” as your photographer takes you from place to place.
2022 Winner - @Honeyrootphoto
Right Place Right Time
Some of those special photos are nothing short of being in the right place at the right time. In the photo above, what started with a disappointing shows that popped in and out on wedding day, was an opportunity for the couple to embrace whatever the day brought them. In their case, it was cute adorable green boots for the bride and an umbrella, then a quick reaction by the photographer when an amazing rainbow appears. The rainbow, as special as it was, was only part of the attributes of this photograph. The balance of the trees on either side and the beautiful flower gardens in the background set the stage, but the frolicking and “happy”nature of the couples makes the day! All great features came together to make this an easy choice in 2022.
2021 Winner - another @honeyrootphoto
Knowing how to dance with the light
Surely there are some cardinal rules about photography that I do not know, but surely the concept of “knowing how to dance with the light” is one of them. Lighting is key, but it applies differently from photo to photo. Sometimes you want the light and sometimes you want less of it. Sometimes you want the light directed at the subject, and sometimes you want the light to be directed at aspects around them. With this sunset photo above, the bride and groom are making a perfect subject matter as the groom seems to effortlessly hold up his bride and kiss her (no small feat, as I have watched many grooms struggle with this). The sunset lighting is giving their hair that halo effect and letting the bride’s gown turn translucent. It is the lighting on the hay stalks that make this one extra special. You can almost see each strand of grass as it adds such depth and interest to this photo. With High Point at the peak in the background, we used this photo on our Homepage for many years as a great representaiton of our venue.
2020 Winner - @honeyrootphoto three years in a row!
It Factor - You Know It When you see it
There are two of three of us who make these choices. For sure, me and Jill, but often we recruit Laura (our coordinator) or someone on our staff to help with these judgement calls. It, frankly, can be a grueling experience as we want to try to include as many brides’ photographers as possible, but stand out photos are just obvious most of the time. Some photos aren’t outside the box or “right time right place” or even dancing with the light. Some photos just have an it factor. We will find ourselves going back to a photo time and time again and not sure exactly why. I think we just know it when we see it. Here, this bride it not in an unusual spot. It is a misty rainy day, but there is no rainbow. Something about the contrasting colored vintage tiles on the floor and brick columns with the white elegant bridal gown plus her beautiful long train being showcased helps immediately. The various foliage on all sides contributes. Even our funky original porch ceiling boards add to this along with the bride’s face angling down. I could easily imagine flipping through a magazine and see this one – can’t you?
2020 Contender - @Honeyrootphoto
A Blessing both directions
When we commit to our couples and make our efforts to make it as amazing as possible, we are automatically connected to each of them. We, then, are always curious about the photos, so curiosity is part of our quest for photos. We love to share a few of these also to social media to celebrate the couple and their photographer too. Fortunately, most photographers are happy to let us share on social media AND to even post on our website these photos as long as we show due credit which I think I have tried diligently to do over the years. My hope is that by showcasing them on our website, helps provide a blessing in both directions. For us, obviously it helps to visualize to our potential future couples what a wedding here at The Barn at High Point Farms could look like. It can show our many assets and features where sometimes words don’t describe it as well. Who wouldn’t want to be the subject on each of these photos that I have displayed here in this blog to you today? We do get the blessing of these amazing photographers making us and our venue look stunning and desirable. Even photos that didn’t make the winner but were contenders have often been used on our website like this one above. Our position here in the shadow of the highest peak of Lookout Mountain has certainly made for some amazing sunset photos. By showcasing these photos and showing credit to the photographer, my hope is that they too have received a blessing, a future contract, and even a return visit to the farm.
Looking Ahead
As the wedding business ends, the flower farm will continue. Jill’s creativity and talent with not only growing flowers but creating floral masterpieces will continue. Future local brides can continue to contact her for floral needs at their weddings elsewhere. Some of these photos we will transfer to the flower-side website. So, for all of you High Point Farms fans, please feel free to encourage your friends to utilize her talents with their weddings as well. These pictures just live on despite us closing. I love to scroll through my files of photos and see the many interesting weddings. Also, very interesting to see our evolution throughout the years. Even from our primitive beginning years, there were so many stunning images that are pierced into my memory and into our farm history. You guys are a part of that and again, thank you for sharing all of these photos with us over the years.
~Margie
(Please feel free to comment below. I’ll miss this interaction from you guys – truly.