It has been many years since I attended the wedding of some dear friends of ours at Upwaltham Barns in West Sussex. I have to say, that apart from our own wedding (of course), it was the best wedding I have ever attended (that I haven’t photographed at). So when James and Claire asked if we were available to shoot a wedding there, we jumped at the chance. We met Claire and James in Brighton on a very hot day a couple of months ago to discuss the day. We really had a great few hours with them over coffee, looking over our albums and getting to know each other.
Upwaltham Barns is still the same place with tons of character, great location and run wonderfully – it must be the best barn wedding venue in the South.
Claire certainly has to be the most relaxed bride we have ever met. She was a quite a few hours late due to a missing taxi. When she did arrive with her bridesmaid Julie, her mum and her make up artist she was not at all flustered, the opposite in fact. How cool to arrive in Jeans and T shirt whilst her guests had already arrived! James and the guests took all this in their stride too. In fact it meant more time to enjoy the hospitality at the barns and to sit around in the sun chatting. This how the day unfolded really it was just such a friendly relaxed affair.
After the lovely ceremony we made use of Upwaltham Barns idilic setting, grabbing a bottle of Champagne we had an unforgettable hour with Claire and James taking some great shots of the newly married couple. We took some in the grounds and then took to the fields to get the shot with the rolling hills and sheep in the background. Claire had brought some boots so that she could get across any wetter patches to a photo location. We love to see brides mixing their wedding dress with biker style boots or colourful wellies and it all adds to the fun!
We then made our way back to the barns for the wedding breakfast. We like our food here at Simpson Towers and enjoy cooking a lot. It amazes us however that you can feed so many people with such restaurant quality food in such a short space of time. I think it might be magic or something similar, something to do with Harry Potter perhaps!
The evening entertainment was a great band called ‘The Hound Dogs’. There was also a few Shisha Pipes bubbling away in the stylish snug which had been decked out with beautiful Morrocan style lanterns and decoration. Claire was making the most of this and was having a ball with her friends, with lots of laugher, and just a little coughing and spluttering. She still looked absolutely stunning, as she had all day, and what a day!
We wish James and Claire all the best for a very happy future together.
barn wedding venue
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