Browsing for wedding venues in West Sussex? Try Worthing! Sandwiched between the sea and the South Downs, Worthing is not only an awesome place to live, it’s also a great place to get hitched. Whether your wedding vibe calls for a castle, a barn, a vineyard or something else entirely, you’ll find something up your street amongst this top 10 of Worthing wedding venues!
Here are some of the highlights. I have conducted ceremonies in most of these awesome venues, and the others are places I can’t wait to work in (no pressure…)
Most of these wedding venues are licensed for registrar-led weddings, but don’t forget that if you use an independent celebrant then you can have your wedding just about anywhere, licensed or unlicensed. And it will be tailored to reflect you both and your love story perfectly, of course. So you could choose to have your ceremony on the beach at sunrise if you so choose, but that’s another blog post entirely…
So let’s start with the wedding venues in the very heart of Worthing:
Worthing Dome
Situated right on Worthing seafront and looking out over Worthing Pier, Worthing Dome is a gorgeous Edwardian wedding venue with tons of character, which featured in the 1987 film ‘Wish You Were Here’ (fun fact – the film I went to see on my first ever date).
There is a choice of two ceremony spaces: the Whispering Gallery is situated in the actual dome part of the Dome and is a quirky space (with a hole in the middle!) for smaller weddings; and the Main Lounge is a space that you can fill with all your friends and family for a bigger celebration. Both spaces feature the Dome’s iconic arched windows, which, as well as being pretty, mean that you get lots of lovely daylight and a great view of the sea.
Oh and the Dome is a cinema too, with a super cute 3rd screen that you can privately hire – just in case you fancied adding a film into your festivities…
Worthing Theatres
This is a cheat really (or a bonus, depending on which way you see it), as Worthing Theatres actually has several venues on offer. Although they don’t advertise them as wedding venues (because most of them are not licensed for weddings), there are some excellent ceremony spaces available.
You could opt for the kooky Connaught Studio, which has a stage, a screen and an auditorium (I’m picturing a ceremony onstage, with a short film screening about your love story, complete with olde worlde style usherettes with trays of icecreams, then off to the beach for fish and chips…).
Maybe you’d prefer to be on the iconic Worthing Pier at the Pavilion?
Or alternatively, you could invite 500 of your closest friends to a wedding in the enormous Assembly Hall??
If any of these ideas take your fancy, do talk to the lovely team at Worthing Theatres – and they have more spaces up their sleeves you might like too! As they’re not officially set up as wedding venues, there might be a bit more ‘DIY’ involved re the catering and décor etc, but you would definitely have a one-off sort of a wedding.
Field Place
Field Place was the location for the very first wedding ceremony I conducted, so it holds a special place in my heart. It’s a TWIA national award winner (like me, only for wedding venues, not being a celebrant, natch…), it’s in the town yet has tons of parking and feels like it’s miles from anywhere once you’re there! What’s not to love?!?
You can hold your ceremony in the Georgian Manor House, go (elegantly) rustic in the Pavilion Barn, or plump for an outdoor ‘I do’ in the gloriously colourful gardens. There are 8 acres – count ‘em! – of grounds and there’s even a purpose-built wedding ceremony bandstand.
A little further out of town, there are more gems to be found:
Cissbury
Oh my goodness how I love Cissbury! We started our wedding journeys together, when I fell in love with the place and its lovely people. It was shortly after I’d trained as a wedding celebrant and I had heard whispers about this new venue and their barn renovations, so I went up to see them. The warm welcome, the gorgeous house and barns and the excited new-business chatter between us made me realise there was something really special here, above and beyond what an awesome (and adaptable) venue it was.
Since that day, several years ago now, our wedding work has flourished, the welcome there is still unfailingly warm and the place just gets better and better. I have had the privilege of conducting many weddings in the barns and it suits all sorts of styles, from off-the-wall to formal.
There are two barns, one normally used for the ceremony and the other for feasting and partying. There’s also plenty of garden space to spill out onto when it’s sunny, as well as a spacious covered bar area with sofas and heaters for when the weather’s not so kind.
There’s plenty of parking and stunning views which serve as a fab backdrop for your photos too.
Long Furlong Barn
Anyone who’s local to Worthing will probably know Long Furlong – it’s a road that connects the busy A24 and A27 but when you’re on its winding path with the South Downs laid out either side in all its glory, you could think you were miles away from the nearest town. About halfway along, a red brick barn wedding venue is nestled next to the roadside, in the lee of a hill. Long Furlong Barn looks so inviting, tucked away in the stunning landscape, and its pretty looks do not deceive!
One of the weddings I conducted here was for a couple who, when they first got together, had to travel this road to go and see one another. Both of them had separately thought how much they loved the road and both had clocked the barn and thought how lovely it would be to get married there, if their relationship got to that point. Well the short version of the story is that it did and, when they realised they had both had the same thought about the venue, it had to be Long Furlong!
The venue boasts a beautiful cart shed ceremony barn which is adjoined to ‘The Granary’, the main reception barn. You can also choose to get hitched outside under their oak ceremony arch with the backdrop of the South Downs.
With the light ever-changing in this venue, you can be sure of some awesome pictures too.
Castle Goring
Fancy getting hitched in a Grade 1 Listed, architecturally important castle? Of course you do! And Castle Goring delivers…
You can choose to have your ceremony in the double-height ceremonial hall or on the spectacular terrace looking out over the sweeping grounds. The castle itself is Greco-Roman on one side and Gothic on the other, with spiral staircases, a spectacular domed glass roof, artworks galore and classy yet gloriously eccentric touches everywhere. It is most definitely not lacking in personality!
Once home to the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary (author of ‘Frankenstein’), it was also a much-loved place to visit of Queen Victoria, and is now home to Lady Colin Campbell, the socialite, author and much-talked-about ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’ contestant. So you’ve got some historical and modern name-dropping rights with this wedding venue too!
Findon Place
Another gorgeous wedding venue that is tucked away just off the A24 but you wouldn’t know it when you were there, is Findon Place.
With new owners lovingly restoring the jaw-dropping Georgian manor house as I type, this place (complete with oodles of grounds and a real-life, actual ballroom which was made for the Prince Regent, no less) is welcoming new bookings for summer 2021 onwards.
If you want to channel your inner Jane Austen, this is the place for your wedding!
Selden Barns
Tucked away down a country lane just outside Worthing is the very lovely Selden Barns. As you turn in to the property, you see some beautiful old Sussex flint and brick buildings, and the very first one of these is the ceremony barn. This room, with its old brick walls and wooden vaulted ceiling, has bags of character in itself but can be easily styled all sorts of ways to suit your tastes or colour themes too.
The partying happens in the big barn which is super roomy and comes complete with drapery and chandeliers. There are big windows looking out over the countryside and you might even spot a deer wandering by. There’s also a spacious patio area where guests can enjoy a drink and a chat in the sunshine (because it is totally going to be sunny on your wedding day of course…) as well as plenty of grounds to wander through and to give you tons of choice for photo backdrops.
Oh, and when the lights go down and the beats pick up, there’s a raised dance floor just waiting for you to strut your funky stuff…
Highdown Vineyard
If you’re fond of wine, then you’ll want to give your wedding guests the best that you can find. Why not go one better and actually hold your big day at an excellent vineyard that also happens to be a gorgeous wedding venue?
The owners of Highdown Vineyards used to work in film and TV and therefore have excellent knowledge in bringing everything together for the perfect look and experience. It also means they’re super adaptable and full of ideas, so you will be in great hands.
Just off the A259, the venue is super easy to find, has plenty of parking and disabled access in all buildings too.
You could even hold your stag or hen dos here too, as they offer wine tastings and vineyard tours. Pour me another one please… (hic!)
And just a little further out but still close, don’t miss this one:
The Secret Barn
If you’re looking for luxury wedding venues, this one isn’t for you. But if you want (truly) rustic and (truly) authentic loveliness, this may well tick all your boxes…
The very lovely people at Petal and Feast (who, as their name suggests, provide the most awesome flowers and food you could wish for at your wedding) also manage a fabulous barn near Steyning that you can hire for your big day.
Well actually, make that two barns! They have the big threshing barn which has been the site of many a fabulous boho wedding party (with trestle tables groaning under the weight of Petal and Feast’s sumptuous food) and also the wonderfully-named ‘wonky barn’, which you can use as a ceremony space. The wonky barn is properly authentic, by which I mean there are birds nesting in it, oddly angled windows and wildflowers making a constant effort to make their way in through the cracks. I love it there so much!
The wonky barn is often seen as a wet-weather alternative to the other fabulous ceremony space, under an apple tree in the walled orchard. But to be honest, they’re both so fabulous you might have difficulty choosing.
As well as the orchard, there’s plenty of lawn and green space for you to spread out, eat canapés or star gaze in the evening, knowing you can retreat into your bell tent and start over in the morning (Beautiful Bells can provide the ultimate Secret Barn camping experience here and know the place well). And you might as well, because you have the whole place for the weekend, exclusive use.
Oh, and by the way, the Secret Barn isn’t a licensed wedding venue so you’ll have to find a local celebrant to do the honours – I know a good one if you need one!
And if you’re looking for a wedding venue in Sussex but further out from Worthing, give me a shout – I know lots 😃