Wild Garden, The Hyde Estate, Sussex
Isolde & Alex
At the beginning of July this year I was catapulted into Izzy and Alex’s world. They were married at Worth Abbey in Sussex before heading to the Wild Park on the Hyde Estate in Handcross.
I was welcomed at the family home with everyone busy in one way or another before leaving for Worth Abbey.
If you’ve never been to the Abbey before it’s a huge cylindrical space, a bit sci-fi in its design and as such, swallows you up nicely. We had the ceremony, readings and a group photo of everyone outside before heading to the Hyde Estate.
It’s rare that I’ve seen a venue quite like this. Their four hatted tipi sat nicely on the riverbank, shrouded by tall trees making us feel cosy and in one place. But beyond this space there were many others, we went over the bridge to the garden for photos, there was woodland within easy reach for later and even for the family stuff we had the backdrop of the river within a few feet of the tipi.
One of the most standout things which made today so special was the genuinely sweet people there. The happiness of today was a beautiful thing and Issy and Alex were so funny it was infectious (without the rash).
Carefree ruled the day, we lost the bottom of the wedding dress due to a misplaced foot while on the swing and it was laughed off, the dress suffered a red wine incident, meh, who cares – and so on. It was a day when everyone was out to enjoy themselves and nothing was going to get in their way.
In the evening the floor went crazy, we caught the twilight for some extra photos and after 11 we had a silent disco until the early hours.
Their ceremony was in the Great Hall and afterwards we went off out through the conservatory for their reception and photos on the terraced lawns.
You know how sometimes you’ll go somewhere new and yet feel totally at ease with your surroundings? Well this was the case with me on my first outing to Southend Barns.
Alpacas! And cow wallpaper in the loos. I mean c’mon, that’s cool.
It was a beautiful and warm day, not too hot and the sun was sweet to us late in the afternoon. We went over to some cornfields for pictures after dinner before the evening kicked off spectacularly, I didn’t want to leave and stayed until the end.