Lorna and Ed’s East Sussex Wedding Reception – 21.06.19

Lorna and Ed were married at St Peter’s Church in Ardingly, West Sussex and, just a short hop across counties, saw them hold their East Sussex wedding reception with us at Hendall Manor Barns.

Lorna and Ed

Morning Preparations and Venue Decorations

The wedding preparations took place offsite as the couple were not staying with us in our Bridal accommodation, so, we had a quieter start to the day’s proceedings than we might normally.

In the kitchen, Louise’s Kitchen, the couples chosen ‘approved caterer‘ from our excellent list, arrived and began set up and food preparation.

Louise and the waiting staff set about laying up the tables for the wedding breakfast, ensuring all the finer details were in place, whilst the chefs busied away in the kitchens.

We were delighted to see Charlotte from Flowercraft in Lindfield back here again. Our lovely Bride, Lorna, used to work at Flowercraft so it was only right that they booked Charlotte to provide the flowers!

Lorna and Ed

The table centrepieces for the guest tables featured a collection of vintage china teapots and teacups potted with flowers and vintage milk bottles filled with flower stems; all sweetly laid out on a wooden slice. A Polaroid picture of each guest was used as the table place names – there were some great pictures!

The table plan was created by the Bride and Groom from an old wooden pallet, complete with fairy lights and was positioned on our bar for guests to see which table they had been assigned to.

The top table was dressed with vases which would later be filled with the wedding bouquets.

Lorna and Ed

A lot of the flower arrangements from the Church were brought to Hendall after the ceremony and were dotted around the venue to really make the most of the lovely designs.

Prior to the big day, Not Your Average I Do had returned once again to install a simple, but hugely effective zig-zag of fairy lights in the beams running the full length of the Stone Barn. These twinkly lights shone above the guests, late in to the evening, creating a magical reception space for the evening festivities.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

The wedding couple arrived to Hendall in a silver Bentley courtesy of Sussex Wedding Cars and made their way into the Stone Barn, in readiness to greet their happy wedding guests, as they too, began to arrive from the Church.

Lorna and Ed

Reception drinks were served on the Terrace and Lawn and their guests relaxed in the sunshine, sipping on Pimms, whilst the wedding couple headed off with their photographer, Esther Featherstone for some couple shots in and around the grounds.

Lorna and Ed

The wedding cake, was set up against the brick wall of the Stone Barn and was made by Lorna’s auntie. The couple had handmade a lego cake topper which sat on the top tier and a cascade of flowers ran down one side of the cake.

Lorna and Ed

We have seen some really impressive wedding cakes made by family and friends so far this year; it’s great to see our couples so trusting in their loved ones to create their wedding cakes for them.

The evening party was fired in to action by one of our most visited DJs, Ian from Discofever. Ian was featured in our blog as June’s ‘supplier of the month‘ and for very good reason.

He provided an excellent disco and a photbooth for this couple, their friends and family to enjoy, and they certainly did just that.

Lorna and Ed

The photobooth was positioned against the stone walls on the upper level of the barn which provided an excellent backdrop for the photos.

A box full of awesome props added to the frivolity of the booth and the couple are able to treasure these pictures too, as each photo was added to a personalised guest book for them to take home at the end of the day!

Lorna and Ed