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WEDDING

A Sunny Sussex Wedding in a 17th Century Oak Framed Barn

By Claire

The very gor­geous Helen and Pete chose sun­flow­ers to cre­ate a won­der­fully vibrant and happy sum­mer wed­ding style. Thanks to Den­ni­son Stu­dios Pho­tog­ra­phy for shar­ing the pho­tographs of their beau­ti­ful wed­ding with us today. I hope you love it! Claire xxx

Sun­flow­ers and sun­shine — a Sus­sex wed­ding blog







How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Laid back, relaxed and for every­one to have a great time.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

We were lucky to be able to get mar­ried in the same church that my grand­par­ents were mar­ried in. Every­one at the church made us so wel­come, and San­dra who mar­ried us was bril­liant. We had two read­ings, two hymns (Lord of all Hope­ful­ness & Love Divine All Loves Excelling). We were so lucky on a cold Octo­ber day that the sun came out for us! Wed­ding read­ings were 1 Corinthi­ans 13 which was read by Pete’s Grandma who is 91, and E. E. Cum­mings’ ‘I carry your heart’ read by our friend Lucy.






Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

We were lucky that the weather meant we could enjoy the canapes and wel­come drinks in the stun­ning gar­dens at Pangdean, we then moved into the barn for the wed­ding break­fast. We picked sausage and mash for this which went down a treat with our guests, then in the evening we had pizza.

We dec­o­rated the barn with var­i­ous lanterns and pic­tures of Pete and I on hol­i­days. The tables were named after places we have vis­ited. We had a sweetie bar in the evening which the younger guests loved, we also had part of the barn set up with sofas and cof­fee tables. We had framed pic­tures of our par­ents’ and grand­par­ents’ wed­dings set up in this area.

One of the high­lights was the guest book area, which we set up with an old suit­case filled with var­i­ous fancy dress items, a polaroid cam­era, the guest book, some glue and pens. The end result is hilar­i­ous and some­thing we will trea­sure. My mom made the beau­ti­ful cake and also put together the table centrepieces.

Invi­ta­tions and wed­ding recep­tion stationery:

I made and designed the wed­ding invi­ta­tions myself. I was lucky to have the help of my best friend and my mom with these. The table plan was cre­ated using a vin­tage map of the world poster from Paper­chase mounted onto a can­vas, and the place set­tings were tags tied to the nap­kins with a sunflower.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

I cre­ated a playlist for the meal of all of our favorite songs, then in the evening we hired Mal­colm from Hoo Hah Party Sound Sys­tems. He was rec­om­mended to us by Pangdean Barn and was fantastic.












What did you wear?

I wore a dress by Ronald Joyce, shoes by Rain­bow Club and my Grandma’s bracelet. My head piece was made for me by Lucy from Lulu Locket Jewels.

Pete’s suit was hired at Moss Bros

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

  • See­ing Pete for the first time at the altar
  • Say­ing our vows in front of everyone
  • Leav­ing for the recep­tion with the roof down on the car then real­is­ing 5 min­utes later that it was far too cold for that
  • Spend­ing the whole day with all of our friends and fam­ily was amazing
  • One of the things that made the day so spe­cial for me was one of my brides­maids who actu­ally flew back from Aus­tralia for 4 days so she could be there. It meant the world that she was able to share in our big day.

Wed­ding day advice:

Enjoy every sin­gle moment. Peo­ple will tell you how fast the day goes and it really does. Take it all in, and make sure you spend some time with each other.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:


The cer­e­mony was held at Cuck­field Church, with the recep­tion at Pangdean Barn. Helen’s wed­ding dress is by Ronald Joyce.

More from Helen and Pete’s Sus­sex wed­ding on the Den­ni­son Stu­dios blog www.dennisonstudios.com/blog/pangdean-barn-wedding-photography-sussex/

Find more images of Pangdean Old Barn, milk­ing par­lour and gar­dens at www.pangdean.com/gallery.html