English Country South Stoke Barn Wedding with a Bee Theme

What an absolute treat you are in for. It’s such a delight to be featuring WWW readers, Lottie and Doug’s South Stoke Barn wedding in West Sussex.

They envisioned a traditional English country wedding and their whole day was set in one village which made it all the more special. They also hoped to DIY much of their day, with a sweet bee theme and gorgeous homemade stationery.

I love the pretty seasonal wildflowers, the magical fairy lights in the barn, the super stylish outfits and all the happiness.

Thanks ever so much to Gemma Vaughan Photography for sharing with us these utterly darling images. Wow!

South Stoke Barn Wedding

The Proposal

Douglas proposed to Lottie on Christmas Eve 2022. He had spent many weeks planning how he would do it, including creating the engagement ring himself. The ring was created at Vashi in Covent Garden. It was very special as Doug invited Lottie’s family to visit the store with him to put the finishing touches to the ring, including setting the central diamond himself.

After making Christmas dinner Douglas was frantically lighting candles around their flat! The ring was placed in Lottie’s stocking amongst her other presents. Afterwards, they Facetimed their friends and family to share the news!

The Vision

The vision for the wedding was to keep it as a traditional English country wedding. We wanted to make sure that we kept it as DIY and eco-friendly as possible, to save on money but also add our own personal touches.

The Venue

We decided to get married in Lottie’s family church in South Stoke, nestled in the South Downs near Arundel. The views from the church look over the River Arun in West Sussex and the reception venue was held at the barn opposite the Church.

The 11th-century church has no electricity so we filled it with candles, which was magical. The village of South Stoke is tiny and we hired the cottages next to the church for some of our guests to stay in, so we felt very excited to have basically a whole village for our wedding!

The Styling & Decor

The key theme of our wedding was bees. Douglas had previously studied and worked with bees in his undergraduate degree in environmental science. Our family members always joke that we are bee-obsessed and it made it very personal to have this theme flow throughout of day.

All the tables were named after a different species of bee, with watercolour drawings of the named bees. Even the wedding cake had little bees added amongst the flowers decorating it.

Lottie hand-made all the stationery for the day, including invites and menus. Hand-cut bees were made out of golden paper to be scattered onto the table with confetti. All the textured paper used was all recycled and purchased locally.

We wanted to make sure all the flowers used for the decor were local and bee-friendly. We used a lot of wildflowers from our family’s gardens and from around South Stoke Farm. A three-day set up was organised at the barn and church in preparation for the wedding day, so it was all hands on deck. We are so thankful to all our family and friends who came and helped.

The Ceremony & Music

The ceremony took place at 12 o’clock that afternoon. Lottie arrived in Douglas’ Grandad’s vintage Riley car, driven by Doug’s uncle Ian. It poured with rain on the journey through Arundel towards South Stoke, so many umbrellas were rushed about to help the congregation down the path into the church!

The music was performed by the amazing Bossard Quartet. Pieces were specifically chosen by Lottie and Doug. Lottie entered into the church to Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’. Then we processed back down the aisle to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beetles.

The service was taken by Reverend Julie Price, a close family friend of Lottie and Doug’s, which made the whole celebration even more special. A key moment during the service was added to have the mothers of the bride and groom light a memory candle, to remember all those who could not be with us on our special day.

Your Outfits

Lottie wore a bespoke dress designed by Stephanie Allin. The dress was made of Italian crepe and covered in wisteria lace petals with delicate dropped sleeves. A matching lace veil was added and white suede heels with a silk bow tied at the back.

The bridal appointment was very special as both Lottie’s parents attended and helped design the dress. Accessories included hand-made bespoke ceramic floral jewellery from Vivi Embellish that matched the dress.

Douglas and his best man Mark wore navy tweed suits purchased from Jermyn Street in London. They both also wore sage green ties, cuff links and pocket squares to match the bridesmaids. Floral buttonholes with blue thistles were added also.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Gemma was an amazing photographer. We loved meeting her before the big day to discuss how the day would run, what photos we wanted and of course find spots around South Stoke village where we could take our couple’s photos.

We remember saying after looking back on the day how we enjoyed the moments of clarity and calmness we had with Gemma, we had our personal photos taken just the two of us after sharing such a special moment in the church and it was made all the more special by Gemma just following us about and being so calm and kind.

The Honeymoon

We spent our first night as a married couple at The Pig in Madehurst near Arundel. We stayed in the Hayloft, with a four-poster bed and free-standing brass bathtub. It was lovely to walk around the gardens the next morning and have breakfast before heading back to the barn to help with the clear up!

We are planning to do a ‘mini moon’ to the Cotswolds this year with our new addition to our family, wirehaired dachshund Peggy. We are staying at The Fox in Oddington, which is a dog-friendly pub. We hope to do lots of country walking, visit the Diddly Squat Farm Shop and The Cotswold Wildlife Park, which is dog-friendly!

Memorable Moments

Seeing all our family and friends gathered together in the church during the service, led by Rev. Price. Listening to the speeches, including each of ours to each other. We loved cutting into our amazing wedding cake that Emily from Big Spoon Bakery made. All the special details of the day came together and it was wonderful to celebrate with everyone – even if it went by so fast!

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy the process of planning your day together as a couple. It goes by soo fast, always take a second to pause to remember those special moments during the day. If you can take the gift/card box away with you to the place you are staying after the big day – we enjoyed sitting up in bed late at night with a glass of champagne and opening all of our cards.