Helen and Peter's Wedding at Battle Abbey School

I think I'll start by re-winding to December, which got rather busy in a usually quiet time, with three wedding in seven days in the last week before Christmas. The first of which was Helen and Peter's wedding at Battle Abbey School.

Being in the middle of December it was, as you would expect, a chilly and overcast day. Helen got ready at her Mum's house in Hastings, which is only a few minutes drive from Battle Abbey.

Helen and Peter are both very organised people (Peter is an event manager) and there was even a plan for the makeup:

I somehow managed to resist the temptation to colour it in "Coco the Clown" style when no one was looking!

After having her hair and makeup done, Helen and her Bridesmaids went through their "Human Maypole" dance routine:

and I discovered that I was not attacked by vampires during the night - yes the mirror still works.

Fantastic looking flowers arrived, although I wish I had noticed the holly before plunging my hand in...

With the preparations covered and positively twitching with the endless cups of coffee (thank you), we were off to Battle Abbey to find the Peter and his team just arriving.

and everyone has a go at arranging the tie...

Battle Abbey is a stunning looking venue and even more importantly it has very efficient under floor heating, they certainly didn't need to put the log fire on. With everyone nicely defrosted, the ceremony got under way.

Then it was outside during a brief break in the overcast weather for a very swift group photo.

The group shot over in record time, we let everyone shiver their way back inside except Helen and Peter, as I wanted them for a few quick shots before the cold turned their skin blue.

We actually got even luckier a few hours later, the sky cleared completely for about 20 minutes just before sunset and we managed to whip off a couple of nice shots before it got dark.

The wedding breakfast is held in the school library, which is ideal if the speeches go on too long. I noticed that the upper shelves on the book cases are not used, probably a Health and Safety issue...

Peter looking as though he's about to burst in to song... Helen looking worried that he might... Helen's Mum hoping it's something by Cliff Richard...

  

Food for the evening reception was served in the refectory, a lovely pink and white vaulted hall.

Then it was back into the main hall for the first dance.

Hopefully Peter's back was still OK after this...

Then it was time to pack up. There was one last shot to be had though, the entrance to Battle Abbey at night:

Battle Abbey is a great venue for a wedding and obviously comes with a huge amount of built in history. Further information about weddings at Battle Abbey can be found their website

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