Bruno & Barbara’s Spring Wedding at Highley Manor

Some venues just suit a relaxed, documentary day, and Highley Manor, tucked into the countryside at Balcombe, near Haywards Heath in West Sussex, is one of them. Bruno and Barbara married here on a bright spring afternoon, with wisteria coming into bloom across the manor's red-brick facade and the South Downs rolling away behind the ceremony.

An A-frame ceremony with a view

The ceremony took place in Highley Manor's timber A-frame pavilion: all exposed oak beams and a wall of glass looking straight out over open countryside. It's a gift for a photographer: soft, even light, and a backdrop that does half the work for you. We kept back and let the day breathe, photographing the nerves, the readings and the first look between the two of them as it happened.

Confetti, and a garden made for portraits

Afterwards came one of our favourite moments of any wedding: the confetti walk, with friends and family lining the path and Bruno and Barbara laughing their way through the middle of it. The manor's lawns and mature trees gave us plenty of room for a short set of couple portraits in the grounds, including a striking black-and-white frame of Barbara mid-laugh, her gown caught in the breeze. Ten minutes was all it took; the rest of the evening was theirs.

Photographing weddings at Highley Manor

Highley Manor sits just south of London, easily reached from the capital, Croydon and Surrey, which is how we came to be there. If you're planning your own wedding here, our approach is always the same: calm guidance when it helps, quiet observation the rest of the time. You can read more about how we photograph weddings, see what we cover across Surrey and the South East, or browse our wedding collections. Full-day coverage like Bruno and Barbara's starts at £1,000.