A Beautiful UK Outdoor Wedding in West Sussex

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Paul Fletcher very kindly shared his images of the wed­ding with me for the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog. You can read his full wed­ding blog post with images here.

Abi and Mikael have writ­ten a great wed­ding report and reviewed some of their favorite wed­ding sup­pli­ers for you. I love their advice… par­tic­u­larly the bits about the danc­ing swan, the impor­tance of hir­ing a good pho­tog­ra­pher, and remem­ber­ing to eat the food!

I’ll hand over to today’s beau­ti­ful bride and gor­geous groom to tell you more about their out­door wed­ding. Huge con­grat­u­la­tions to Abi and Mikael, and thank you for being on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog! All images are by Paul Fletcher Pho­tog­ra­phy.

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Abi and Mikael — a UK out­door wed­ding from West Sussex

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UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
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UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">
UK outdoor wedding in West Sussex')">

Wed­ding venue

Dunc­ton Vil­lage hall, Dunc­ton, Pet­worth, West Sussex

Wed­ding photographer

Paul Fletcher Photography

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Sim­ple, fam­ily and close friends cen­tred wedding.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony

We had the wed­ding cer­e­mony out­side in the grounds of the hall we were hir­ing. We had already been to the reg­istry the day before so the wed­ding cer­e­mony was really recon­firm­ing our vows in front of our friends and fam­ily and also hav­ing the bless­ing from our church pas­tor who led the cer­e­mony. We didn’t have any wed­ding read­ings. The pas­tor spoke for about 10 min­utes on the bible’s per­spec­tive of mar­riage and we had two peo­ple from our church who prayed for us.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details

The wed­ding venue was a mid-sized hall with large out­side grounds in the mid­dle of Dunc­ton coun­try­side at the foot of the South Downs. We hired it out for the week­end (Fri­day to Sun­day), which gave us time to do the dec­o­ra­tions and cook­ing, the wed­ding cer­e­mony and the tidy­ing up.

The care­taker was really kind and he was avail­able to help with any­thing we needed. One of the most fan­tas­tic things about the venue was that it was so relaxed and every­body said how com­fort­able they were there. We were able to do our own dec­o­ra­tions and even make use of the kitchen at the venue to do our own cooking.

The views around the venue were fan­tas­tic and there were no short places to take our wed­ding pho­tos. It was just an over­all great place to have our wed­ding but most of all it did not break the bank.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery

Our invi­ta­tions and recep­tion sta­tionery were all hand made. The dec­o­ra­tions (such as the drap­ing and fairy lights) were all bought as that was more cost effec­tive. We have since been able to use the fairy lights as Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions so it hasn’t gone to waste after the wed­ding. We did how­ever hire table cloths, plates and other kitchen and din­ing equipment.

Wed­ding music and entertainment

A per­sonal friend of mine did the cer­e­mony music and DJ-ing for the wed­ding so it wasn’t expen­sive. He was there from about 11 in the morn­ing to 10:30 at night. It also felt more relaxed as we could tell him to change the music or lower the vol­ume if we wanted. One of the pos­i­tives about hav­ing a DJ who is per­son­ally known to you and some of the guests is that he also knows the kind of music to play to make every­one dance.

What did you wear?

I wore a sim­ple off white slim gar­den dress with sil­ver san­dals and sim­ple pearl ear­rings. I wore my hair up with a sil­ver clip.

My hus­band wore a black suit with a sil­ver waist coat and green hand­ker­chief and tie, and a white shirt.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments

The speeches. Just see­ing how much peo­ple cared and loved us was truly inspir­ing and heart-warming.

Wed­ding day advice

• Invite peo­ple who truly care and love you both (it will make the day go eas­ier and make you feel more relaxed.
• Try not to spend too much money on things you do not need because the day goes really quickly and you won’t even see that danc­ing swan you thought you had to have and spent lots of money on!
• Get a really good pho­tog­ra­pher because your pic­tures are all you have left of that day.
• Don’t for­get to eat the food you spent so much money on.
• Be flex­i­ble as not every­thing goes to plan.
• But most of all enjoy your day.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

• Paul Fletcher wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy: www.paulfletcherphotography.co.uk/photoblog
• Flaw­less makeover: Lisa Grif­fiths Makeup artist: www.flawlessmakeover.co.uk
• Dunc­ton vil­lage hall, Dunc­ton Pet­worth: www.dunctonvillagehall.co.uk
• Hire­all: (Cater­ing equip­ment hire): www.cateringequipmenthire.net: Address: Unit 4, Hove Busi­ness Cen­tre, Fonthill Road, Hove, Sus­sex, BN3 6HA.
• Afro Caribbean hair dresser: CJ hair (bintu): Tel 07951522059

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