Mercedes and Edward married on 16th August at Bentley Estates in Sussex, after changing their plans from a wedding at home to a celebration at the estate owned by a family friend. Bentley was already a place deeply connected to their lives and somewhere they’d spent time together over the years whilst keeping family sheep there, so after their wedding plans evolved, the change ended up making perfect sense for them both.
With a marquee by Sussex Marquees set within the grounds, the day brought together the atmosphere of an Italian inspired gathering with the softness and charm of the English countryside. Green and white flowers filled the space alongside antique garden pieces, vintage planters and homegrown plants gathered from family gardens and antique collections.
Much of the styling and organisation came together through the efforts of parents, siblings and close friends, including Mercedes and Edward’s mothers, who arranged the flowers themselves.
Mercedes wore a Maggie Sottero gown discovered at a Sussex bridal boutique she’d driven past for years before finally stepping inside. Their sweet daughter Iris was flower girl and joined nieces, nephews and close family members during a ceremony led by family stories, personal vows and a hand-binding ritual, using keepsakes brought forward by the people closest to them.
These beautiful images were captured by Love My Dress recommended photographer Lucy Dracott, whose work we adore. Enjoy!
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We wanted a mixture of an Italian style wedding and a English countryside wedding to match our aesthetic. We wanted green and white as our main colours and lots of flowers and antique garden pieces.
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The Venue & Location
Bentley Estate was a last minute change of venue as we were planning to have our wedding as a surprise for guests in our garden. However, as we are lucky enough to call the owner our friend who was invited to our wedding and she kindly offered us the opportunity to get married infront of her beautiful home.
It was such a dream come true! Bentley also means a lot to us as we kept our family sheep there at the time and spent a lot of time there.
The Ceremony
Edward and his groomsmen arrived to the venue in convoy in a 1950’s MGA and Mercedes’ uncles series 1 classic Landrovers for the groomsman. I arrived in a vintage VW camper van with my family.
My dad and stepdad walked me down the aisle. We had six bridesmaids, our niece Chelsea and Nephews Brandon and George who were flower girl and page boys and our daughter Iris our little flower girl who walked down with my brother/bridesman, Red.
We had a hand-binding ceremony where six couples including our parents, grandparents, siblings and friends chose a piece of material to hand bind us.
Each couple came up and shared words of wisdom and left their piece of material. The material included a piece of Ed’s sisters dress, my grandad’s tie from his and my nans wedding, a bow string, a dog lead! And a handkerchief which was improvised as my mum had left the material behind!
Our dear friend Travis was our officiant. He travelled from Australia to be there which we will never forget. Travis, Edward and Ed’s dad John planned all of the words at our ceremony so it was completely personal to us.
How They Met
Our mums were both antique dealers and we met through my mums shop and fairs we all did. Our families became friends and years later we got in touch talking about books and catching up.
Two years later, we already had our first child and were engaged. Edward asked me to marry him at The Priory, in Lewes, which is also a very special place for us.
The Reception
We styled and organised the wedding ourselves. It was such a big team effort of our close family and friends who made our vision come to life! Our mums, who run Liza Barnes Decorative Antiques and Harriet’s Attic, are both so talented with decor and arranged all our flowers.
It was more than we could ever have imagined.
We had lots of antique vintage (very heavy) planters and pots from Nutley Antiques. Home grown plants from mine and my mums garden. We planted 1000’s cosmos, daisy seeds, and bought hydrangeas and ivy to decorate.
We also had Edwards wonderful cousin Tor on board who organised us, the bar staff and made sure the day went perfectly! Our dads, brothers bridal party and friends all put such a huge effort in to this special day.
Our flowers were a mixture of home grown, wholesale, Our local garden centre, Stavertons and my bouquet was from Go Botanica in Lewes.
Our friend Lucas designed and printed our name places.
We had Twisted toppings Pizza, who we highly recommend. We loved having laid back pizza – the pizza was delicious and they were so efficient getting the pizzas out. We also got to choose and name our pizza which was great! We also had a Marks & Spencers Cheese cake & Tiramisu. These are our favourite desserts.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Stay true to you and focus on what’s really important to you both. We knew what parts of the wedding meant the most to us and weren’t afraid to bend the rules!
We definitely spent more than our budget. Organising your own wedding from scratch doesn’t always mean you’re going to be able keep costs down!
And, we would have invited more guests!
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