If you are planning your Southlands Barn wedding this post might help with some ideas from both the photographers point of view and as a couple. If you would like to know who some of their amazing suppliers were, they are listed at the bottom of my post. Please let them know how you heard about them if you make contact!
The gorgeous S&D were lucky enough to win the hire of Southlands Barn for their wedding in a Face Book competition, I believe it also included some flowers by the talented Lady Lissy Floristry. Southlands Barn in West Chiltington, West Sussex is a new wedding barn venue and what an amazing job they have done in turning the space around in such a short time. The courtyard is epic and such a brilliant party space, and I loved the little room off the court yard that housed a pool table and sofa. The barn is beautiful and old and they haven’t over done the renovations, it still retains it’s rustic charm. It is a very dark barn if you need to have both sets of doors closed, but they do have some gorgeous lights hanging from the ceiling to add to the atmosphere.
My couple decided to have a hand fasting ceremony lead by Celebrant Hilary Channing out side, with a stunning backdrop of the Sussex countryside and theeeeeee most beautiful flower and macramé arch I have seen to date!! My amazing couple made the macramé together and D’s dad made the arch especially for their wedding. Lady Lissy Floristry then worked her magic and adorned the arch in stunningly bright flowers. It also made an awesome ‘frame’ later on for portraits and afterwards they hung a large picture frame within the arch for their guests to use as a photo ‘booth’ during the evening reception. A really lovely touch of the hand fasting ceremony they had, was to get some close family and friends involved to come and lay a different ribbon each across their hands before they were tied by Hilary.
Their wedding was another scorcher of a day, and outside of the courtyard area, at the moment there isn’t a great deal of shade (I think landscaping the front area is on the cards) so I chose to do their family photos back in the court yard area also where the drinks reception was happening so it also meant not having to take groups of people away which would have added to the time they took, and we all know everyone (including me) wants these photos over as quickly as possible right!? Luckily just outside of the barn in the yard is a nice little stepped area that happens to be in the shade and so makes the perfect corner for group photos.
I then took S&D off to do some portraits. It’s a little tricky at the moment, because as I mentioned before, outside of the court yard area there are no shady areas and it was high and hot sun. I couldn’t really do their portraits in the courtyard because it was full of people enjoying the reception, luckily I had popped to the venue the day before as it isn’t far from where I live and had found a little spot at the end of the lane that offered us some shady options. I spoke with the owners of the land and they were happy for us to come the following day. It was VERY sweaty and hot but gave us some great options and we all just got on with it for the sake ‘Art’ ;) We were all SO pleased with the results, it was worth it in the end.
S&D had a wonderful singer and guitar player during the drinks reception called Luke May who turned into the DJ later on and an amazing food spread supplied by ‘Boxed Weddings’ which was a beautiful picnic/tapas style for guests to pass around and share, stunningly arranged on each table with wooden crates and flowers and in the evening they had pizza YUM !!
In the barn courtyard my couple had a beer pong table set up – ALWAYS a winner!! And so much fun and makes for some great photos too, plus Southlands Barn has small room off of the courtyard that houses a pool table and sofa which again gives guests something fun to do and again makes a fab photo opportunity.
Because the barn is on elevated ground, if you are fortunate enough to have a sunny day you will be blessed with some stunning evening light at the front of the barn – we did very quick few photos at this point, as many of my couples by this point really just want to get on and enjoy the party and I can’t blame them!
Venue // @southlandsbarn
Dress // @angelicabridal (Marylise)
Suit // @mossbros (tailored)
Celebrant // @hilarychanning
Flowers // @ladylissy_floristry
Ceremony Arch // Grooms Dad
Caterers // @boxedweddings
Cake // Grooms Auntie Ali
Hair // Adam @schapmansalon
Makeup // Jana @mrleopardo
Singer & Dj // Luke May @altarnativesmusic
Styling & Props // Bride and Groom
Macramé decorations // Bride and Groom