Cissbury Barns is a beautiful barn wedding venue in Findon, West Sussex. It's an exclusive venue with lots of private land and stunning backdrops for your photos. It's one of my favourite venues to work at!
Accommodation
Cissbury has a two bedroom apartment called the North Wing Apartment available to use on the Cissbury Estate. If you don't live near the venue, this apartment would be ideal for you to use for getting ready in the morning. You can also stay there the night of the wedding. Alternatively, a 5 minute drive away is The Vale House, they have 5 boutique lodges available at very reasonable prices. View the Vale House Lodges here.
Ceremony Spaces
They have two spaces licensed for wedding ceremonies; the East Barn and The Glade. The East Barn provides a beautiful indoor setting for your wedding ceremony with the stone walls, white drapes and large windows either side. The barn can seat up to 120 guests. They provide the chairs and decorative white drapes. The Glade is an outdoor ceremony space, your guests will sit underneath the trees overlooking the rolling fields. This is a great option for outdoorsy couples getting married in the Summer. As the UK weather is unpredictable it's great that Cissbury Barns has both an indoor and outdoor ceremony space. After your ceremony in the barn you will exit through the doors onto the patio and grass, Cissbury only allow real petal confetti.
Drinks Reception
They have a beautiful flint walled garden which provides the perfect place to hold your drinks reception and take photos. There's a bar, space for lawn games, outdoor seating and some under cover seating areas. The venue don't charge corkage for your drinks reception. If you're looking for caterers I would highly recommend Rens Kitchen who work at Cissbury Barns a lot, they're brilliant and have lots of different options.
Wedding Breakfast + Speeches
The West Barn is used for the wedding breakfast and evening reception, it opens out onto the patio where there's covered seating next the bar and under the stretch tent. It has large windows either side of the barn which lets in lots of natural light in the centre of the room. The top table is usually placed in the middle of the barn so you get the best light for speeches. The West Barn can seat up to 120 guests. The venue provide round or long tables and chairs.
Couple Portraits
There are plenty of great locations to use at Cissbury Barns for photos as there's lots of private land. You could use the outdoor ceremony area, the horse fields, the driveway or the walled gardens, all of these areas are separate to where the guests will be so you'll have lots of private space to use. The sun sets over the hills so it looks beautiful for couple photos as it makes the fields golden.
Evening Reception
The team at Cissbury will turn the West Barn around between food and the evening reception. You and your guests will go outside during this time, you can use the bar, chill out in the seating areas with outdoor heaters, or you may want some entertainment. There's an area for playing bowls, there's also plenty of space at the front of the venue for food trucks if you want evening food, or an outdoor photo booth like the VW camper below from Bus and Bug Vintage Weddings. Inside the barn is where the evening dancing will happen, there's plenty of space for a DJ or a band as well as your guests.
I hope you found this guide helpful, I have photographed quite a few weddings at Cissbury now and it's always a joy. If you're looking for a photographer for your wedding at Cissbury please get in touch!