Highley Manor | Rhys & Chris

Highley Manor wedding photography
Highley Manor is a wedding venue that sits just near the Sussex village of Balcombe and a few miles south of Crawley. Not far from where the M23 becomes the A23 and the road heads on south to Brighton. Once the home of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, although that particular building was demolished and the present one built in the late nineteenth century. A local wedding venue for me, just a few miles from my house, but one I had not shot at for twenty years until the wedding day for Rhys and Chris. It has changed a fair bit in that time. Not sure why the gap in time. I can only remember one enquiry for this venue in my mailbox over that time. But I was back one Sunday in September at Highley Manor.
Outdoor wedding ceremony
The main difference is the outdoor wedding ceremony area now at Highley, overlooking the Sussex countryside – quite a backdrop for an open-air ceremony! This was the preferred option for the ceremony but the weather forecast leading up to the day was looking bleak. Luckily Highley Manor is flexible and with a 1 pm ceremony, they only needed to have the decision whether to go outside or not by 11 am. Not all wedding venues are as flexible. An outdoor ceremony it was, but drinks back inside. The rain stayed away until the evening but there was a chilly wind. A breeze that made it hard for the guests to actually hear all the ceremony. Voices being blown off across the countryside behind. Going back into the house wasn’t just about getting a drink and some canapes, it was about warming up too. That’s what makes Highley Manor such a special place.
The main reception space at Highley Manor is essentially the large hallway. (One curious thing at Highley, and many wedding venues are like this, is the lack of pictures on the walls. You’d imagine old prints of the estate, maps of Sussex, images of Shelley perhaps?) Dinner followed the drinks reception and a very fine chicken Roast with giant Yorkshire puddings it was too. Rhys and Chris kicked off the party as evening guests arrived. It no longer mattered that it was raining outside.
Here are a few images from this wedding at Highley Manor..
































































