VILLAGE HALL ECO WEDDING
Barcombe Village Hall is a stunning spot overlooking the Sussex countryside, just beautiful for holding your wedding especially if you are into DIY’ing, keeping costs down, having exactly what you want when you want and not having to adhere to strict rules ……….. and if you are into beautiful evening light! This venue really makes the most of the golden hour if you are lucky enough to have it. And excitingly for me (and my couple of course hehehe) we WERE!!
Barcombe Vaillage Hall is also a sustainable and Eco built venue with many energy and water saving features including being able to sell any excess energy back to the main grid.
ECO DIY
My wonderful couple J&L are very environmentally minded as well as creative so they did all their own decorating and creating, with friends helping out to dress the day before. The good thing about Village Halls is that you usually have weekend access, meaning you can set up the day before and take down the day after ….. and you can turn both of these days into fun extra time with your friends and family – sharing the excitement the day before and the hang over stories the day after!
Where they couldn’t DIY such as food, flowers, transport and music they choose local Sussex suppliers which keeps the carbon footprint down …… read on for details …
J&L used old bed sheets sewn together to create drapes for their celling decoration which could also be re used for other future events.
They found lots of coloured glass vases from charity shops and markets for their table flowers and used paper garlands for their top table backdrop and the band backdrop.
They used an old map book for their guest signing book which I absolutely loved as I have always loved maps since I was little – such a great and practical idea that will actually be looked at and used!
Guest name places were Tiddly Wink type playing pieces with letters written on to form names and each guests had a card with a game on as an icebreaker.
Their guest favours were packets of flower seeds to attract and feed the Bees – which is an issue close to my heart too …… so Uummm I might have pocketed a few Sssshhhhh …… ;)
SUPPLIERS AND SERVICES
They used local Eco bus company The Big Lemon to transport guests from Brighton town centre, who’s fleet were originally powered by waste cooking oil from local restaurants but are currently converting their fleet to electric, being charged by solar panels on top of the bus depot.
Bouquets, button holes, table flowers and the Flower Tipi that headed up the ceremony space were created and provided by Brighton based Florist Webb & Farrer, and Hannah Osmond the lovely Celebrant for the day is also a Sussex Local.
Food was prepared and served by Brighton based ‘The Caribbean Kitchen’ with a doughnut tower for desert and sausage roll snacks by Brighton Bakery ‘Ravens’ and as massive music buffs J&L had a band play in the evening called the ‘Long Straws’ who were awesome!
THE PAAARRTAAYY…..
After the ceremony we had a couple of main group shots but ultimately J&L just wanted to get on and have a great time with their friends and family which was perfect for me to be able to get some great docu photos. We did a small portrait session just before going in for dinner which was mostly during the guests getting themselves wee’d and seated ;) but the forecast looked good for the rest of the day so we knew we could chance slotting in another short portrait session later in the day when the light would be softer.
After dinner they had speeches and then their friends helped to clear the tables from the dance floor. After their first dance J&L played their own vinyl DJ set (WHICH I LOVED !!!!!!) … apparently they are well known for DJ’ing at friends parties, and I could see why! And then we snuck off for some more portraits in the fields that Barcombe Village Hall over looks and the sun light was perfect!!
We were lucky because it did actually pour with rain just after we got back into the hall! And then the Band kicked off and the rest is history ………..
