Lily Farm House Weddings | A Swan Valley Wedding Venue Worth Knowing About
Lily Farm House | Wedding Photography | Wedding Venues Perth
Location
You’ll find Lily Farm House in Baskerville, in the Swan Valley, surrounded by five acres of gardens and established trees.
It’s close enough to Perth that your guests don’t need to plan an expedition, yet once you’re there, it has that lovely feeling of being somewhere away from the city.
For me, that’s one of the things that makes the location work so well. You get the wineries, restaurants and country feel of the Swan Valley without having to travel hours down the road.
It also means your wedding can have that relaxed country atmosphere without requiring everyone to book a weekend away.
Here’s something I really like about the venue.
It’s owned and run by Tracy and Tim.
That sounds like a fairly ordinary fact, but I think it makes a noticeable difference when you’re actually there.
Lily Farm House was their home, and they’ve turned it into a wedding venue without stripping away all of the personality that made it special in the first place.
You can tell when owners genuinely care about their venue.
There is attention to the little things, pride in how the property looks and a much more personal approach to looking after couples.
After photographing weddings for nearly 30 years, I’ve worked at plenty of venues. Some are beautifully run businesses, while others have that extra bit of personality because the people welcoming you through the door are the same people who created the place.
Lily Farm House definitely falls into the second category.
Another big advantage is having Lily and Lilac Styling in-house.
Anyone who has planned a wedding knows how quickly the list of things you need to organise gets out of control.
Flowers.
Tables.
Decor.
Candles.
Furniture.
More flowers.
Then someone asks what colour the napkins should be and you start questioning every decision you’ve ever made.
Having the styling handled in-house takes a lot of that off your plate.
Better still, Lily and Lilac know the venue, so the styling complements the building rather than trying to turn it into something completely different.
From a photography point of view, I love that.
The venue still looks like Lily Farm House when everything is finished.
It just looks like Lily Farm House dressed for a wedding.
There is plenty here for a photographer to play with.
The house has character, the gardens give us greenery and space, and the surrounding Swan Valley landscape provides a completely different backdrop.
I can photograph you somewhere quiet when you want a few minutes together, then move back into the middle of everything once the formal photographs are finished.
That balance matters.
I’m not interested in taking you away from your wedding for hours because I’ve decided I need 47 versions of you standing in different locations.
We’ll get the beautiful portraits.
I’ll give you direction when you need it.
Then you can go back to your friends and family.
That’s a much better use of your wedding day.
This is probably my favourite thing about photographing Lily Farm House.
I remember it when it was new.
At the Swan Valley Wedding Open Day, couples were walking through the property for the first time, trying to picture their own wedding there. The venue was introducing itself to the wedding industry and starting to build its reputation.
I’ve since watched that reputation grow.
More couples discovered the property, weddings started filling the calendar and Lily Farm House became a name that couples actually sought out when looking for a Swan Valley wedding venue.
I’ve been lucky enough to document some of that along the way.
It’s a nice feeling walking into a venue now and remembering what it looked like when it was just getting started.
The weddings I’ve photographed there haven’t felt like carbon copies of each other.
That’s partly the venue and partly the couples.
Some people want beautiful, relaxed portraits and then want to get back to the party. Others are happy to spend a little more time with the camera. Some couples are calm and organised, while others arrive with the sort of energy that makes you realise the day is going to be interesting.
I like all of it.
My job isn’t to make everyone photograph the same way.
I’ll work with what you’ve got.
If you’re naturally affectionate, I’ll photograph that.
When you’re the couple who spends the whole day laughing, I’ll photograph that too.
I’ll make sure you have beautiful portraits.
What I really love, though, is everything happening around them.
Your dad watching you walk into the ceremony.
Your friends laughing during the speeches.
Someone fixing your dress.
Your grandmother dancing.
The look on your partner’s face when you walk down the aisle.
Your bridal party behaving exactly as badly as you expected them to.
Those moments don’t need much direction.
They just need someone paying attention.
That’s why I don’t want your wedding to feel like one long photography session.
You should be busy getting married, catching up with people you haven’t seen for ages and enjoying yourself.
I’ll be looking for the photographs while you do it.
Wedding planning can become very serious.
Suddenly everyone has an opinion about flowers, menus, seating plans, timelines and whether Great Aunt Margaret should be sitting three chairs closer to the dance floor.
Then the wedding day arrives.
At that point, I think you should forget most of it.
Eat the food.
Drink the champagne.
Laugh with your friends.
Cry if you want to.
Dance badly.
Stay on the dance floor for one song longer than you intended.
The photographs will be better for it.
People who are genuinely enjoying themselves are much more interesting to photograph than people worrying about whether they’re doing everything correctly.
There are plenty of beautiful wedding venues around Perth.
What makes Lily Farm House memorable to me is the combination of the property, the people behind it and the fact that I’ve had the privilege of watching it grow.
Tracy and Tim have created somewhere that feels personal rather than corporate.
Lily and Lilac make the styling side considerably easier for couples.
The Swan Valley location gives you that country feel without putting you hours from Perth.
Then you’ve got the actual wedding.
That’s where the magic happens and why I have Lily Farm House listed on my top 10 best venues in Perth.
If you’re considering Lily Farm House for your wedding, go and see it for yourself.
Meet Tracy and Tim.
Have a look around.
Imagine the place filled with your family and friends.
Then picture the end of the night when the formalities are finished, everyone’s had a few drinks and somebody has inevitably decided they’re an excellent dancer.
That’s the part I want to photograph.
Not just how your wedding looked.
How it felt.
If you’re planning a Lily Farm House wedding, have a look through my real weddings on this blog post and see how I photograph the venue.
You’ll see plenty of beautiful photographs.
More importantly, you’ll see real people having an actual wedding.
And that’s what I’m interested in.
Beautiful photographs without making your wedding day feel like a photoshoot.
That’s my kind of Lily Farm House wedding.
