Wedding bells

Annie and Gaius, 22 June 2024

Gaius Ghinn, who has built or upgraded many houses in the neighbourhood, and Annie Cauchi, who has been a leading light on the Lavington Federation School’s Parent Teacher Association, were married at St Giles Church on Saturday 22 June.

It was a culmination of a summer of more ‘wedmin’ than most couples have to contend with – for Annie’s second daughter Rebekah had married a few months before in Hampshire. Annie and Clive have eight children between them.  Three of Annie’s six live with them at The Laurels, two attending Midhurst Rother College and one in his last year at Duncton Junior School.  Her elder three and his two boys, both Seaford College alumni, all have homes of their own now.  But the entire octet had a role to play in their parents’ wedding.

Rebekah and her two sisters Hannah and Poppy were bridesmaids – with the family dog, also Poppy, an attendant, wearing a specially made floral collar and lead!  Boys Jack, Charlie, Isaac, George and William acted as groomsmen. Annie and her bridal party, including her parents and best friend Joy Stringer, drove from her home up The Street to St Giles in a vintage bus. She wore a cream lace bardot-style dress and carried a bouquet of English garden flowers and herbs with pink roses – her favourite flowers – entering the church to How Long Will I Love You by Ellie Goulding.

Gaius, who was in a blue suit, was supported by best man Jonathan Frost.  The rings the bride and groom exchanged during the ceremony, conducted by the Rev Vivien, were made by a friend, Rod Smart.

After the new Mr and Mrs Ghinn left the church, to Handel’s The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, the bells rang out as the newlyweds drove off in a Corvette to their reception at home, with a cream tea and band for their 100 guests.  For their honeymoon, they will be heading for a sailing trip around French Polynesia, with a stop off en route in Los Angeles.

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Kathryn and Callum, 2 September 2023

For the second time in summer 2023, a local lad married a bride from the USA at Graffham’s St Giles Church. After Rowan Mason, of Gallows Hill, Selham Road, exchanged vows with Emily Drake, from Atlanta, Georgia, in July, come 2 September and it was the turn of Callum Macqueen, who grew up in the village at The Old Rectory, to slip a ring (featuring diamonds passed down from his great grandmother) onto the finger of Kathryn Girskis, who hails from near Detroit, Michigan.  The couple met in London, where they both now live (in Wandsworth) and work – he as a chartered surveyor, and she as an executive manager with internet giant Google.  They chose to marry at St Giles because Cal spent most of his younger years right next door, where his parents Sandy and Georgie still live.  He also proposed to her up on Graffham Down above his old stomping ground, eight months ago, so this is a special place for them both.

The date was chosen to coincide with the long Labor Day weekend in the USA, to make it easier for her family and friends to travel across the Pond to be with them on their big day, swelling the ranks of the congregation to a near capacity 131.  As friends and family took their seats, the bells of St Giles rang out.

Wearing a white wedding dress and a family heirloom as a head piece, Katie walked the 100 yards or so from The Old Rectory to the church, with her father Dr Michael Girskis and, as her matron of honour, her sister Kelly Seinfeld. 

She carried a bouquet, made by Cal’s mother Georgie, of English roses, peonies, Sussex flowers and greenery. As she entered St Giles, which Georgie had decorated too, helped by florists Fig + Flower, with white woodland flowers and greenery, joint best man Dougal Williams walked ahead playing Highland Cathedral on his bagpipes.

Cal, kitted out in black tie, was at the chancel steps to meet her, with the other joint best man Edward Bromley-Martin. 

As the register was signed, two of Cal’s nieces sang a number of duets.  The piano and organ were played by St Giles’ former organist and Seaford College teacher, Richard Bailey. After being showered with confetti in St Giles’ churchyard, the new Mr and Mrs Macqueen were marched back to The Old Rectory by a full bagpipe band for the wedding reception.

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Emily and Rowan, 14 July 2023

For a couple who met in Wimbledon – even though not exactly at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – holding their wedding as this year’s championship reached a crescendo could hardly have been more appropriate.

As it was, Emily Drake was walked down the aisle of St Giles by her father Bob Drake to take the hand of Rowan Mason on Friday 14 July 2023 – as Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner were battling it out on the hallowed Centre Court for a place in the 2023 men’s finals, although that was the last thing on the minds of bride or groom.  And, with the Wimbledon championship in full flow, of course the weather was far from perfect – not that it mattered, either. Emily and Rowan both live in London now, working in sales. 

As it was, Emily Drake was walked down the aisle of St Giles by her father Bob Drake to take the hand of Rowan Mason on Friday 14 July 2023 – as Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner were battling it out on the hallowed Centre Court for a place in the 2023 men’s finals, although that was the last thing on the minds of bride or groom.  And, with the Wimbledon championship in full flow, of course the weather was far from perfect – not that it mattered, either. Emily and Rowan both live in London now, working in sales. 

He was raised in Graffham, as son of Alex and Ceri Mason, who still live at Gallows Hill, Selham Road, while she hails from Atlanta, Georgia, USA – so St Giles welcomed a healthy contingent of her fellow countrymen at the wedding.  They met in 2019 and have been engaged now for a year. 

For their wedding, she and her four bridesmaids wore dresses from her favourite clothes shop, Anthropologie.  Hers was in white, while theirs were in navy blue – matching Rowan’s suit.  She carried a bouquet of beautiful white peonies.  Besides the bridesmaids, she was attended by a maid and a master of honour – her sister Alice and best friend Michael Gaytan. Not to be outdone, Rowan had two best men – his closest friends Ali Lines and Tom Wheeler – and two other groomsmen.

The church was decorated in white – with hydrangeas, roses, lizianthus, lilies and more peonies.  Almost 100 members of their families and friends witnessed the ceremony, conducted by the Rev Vivien, with the  bride entering to the gentle piano of River Flows In You, by Yiruma, while the newlyweds left to the uplifting Heaven, by Avicci, before the church’s bells joined in the celebrations. The Rolls-Royce Phantom that drove Emily to the church with her Dad and sister was there to ferry her and Rowan to their wedding reception, at Ramster Hall, on the way to Chiddingfold.  They left later to honeymoon in Seville.

Georgia and Ted, 27 May 2023

Rather than leaving St Giles to the sound of its bells after their wedding there on Saturday 27 May 2023, Georgia Reynolds and Ted Polkey were serenaded by a brass band playing Katrina and The Waves’ Walking on Sunshine – a perfect match for the wonderful late spring bank holiday weather.  Georgia had entered the church, on the arm of Dad Paul Reynolds, to more traditional church wedding music – Jeremiah Clarke’s Prince of Denmark’s March, played by organist Brian Lanaghan.  During the ceremony, conducted by the Rev Vivien, the 140-strong congregation belted out a couple of Georgia and Ted’s favourite hymns, Jerusalem and Lord of the Dance.   While the register was signed, the brass band played other favourites, including Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered, The Rembrandts’ I’ll Be There For You and The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).  The newlyweds walked out of the church to The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love. Graffham’s  Meadow  Brook  Farm  had  been  the  family  home  of  Georgia’s  Dad Paul and Mum Serena since she was four years old.  Her wedding was their last big hurrah in Graffham before making a downsizing move at the end of June to a town house in Petworth.

Georgia and Ted live in London, where she works as a communications manager for a software company that supports the NHS and he is an associate partner at  a  leading  firm  of surveyors.  They met more than six years ago, set up by a mutual friend.  Their first date was at The White Horse – not the Graffham pub, but its namesake in London’s Parsons Green.  Ted popped the question 18 months ago while they were in Whitby.

On their big day, Georgia wore a Suzanne Neville dress and veil,  carrying a bouquet of white roses, while Ted sported a traditional morning suit.  She was accompanied by two maids of honour and a pair of bridesmaids.  He chose a friend from school days at Oakham as his best man, supported by eight groomsmen. The new Mr and Mrs Polkey drove from St Giles in a white vintage Mini to their reception at her family home – and then on to a honeymoon in South Africa and Mauritius.

Lucy and Ed, 24 September 2022

A blind date four years ago that led to a 4,300-mile courtship resulted in the marriage of Ed Agnew to Lucy Lesley at St Giles Church on 24 September. Back in 2018, Scots-born Ed was visiting London from Nairobi, where he was working for a climate technology and clean energy company, when one of his best friends match-made him with Lucy, whose family home is just across the Downs from Graffham, at Strettington, close to Goodwood House. 

They recalled: “It was a bit of a long shot, but a lot of initial travel and then time together in Scotland during lockdown made the distance no barrier.”

Interior designer Lucy moved to the Kenyan capital to join Ed after that and the rest, as they say, is history.  He proposed a year ago – presenting her with a plain silver band he had made for his mother when he was 14.

They chose St Giles for their big day because she wanted to marry in a rural church and the local connections to her family home.  Ed explained: “The fact that Graffham is at the foot of the South Downs, one of Lucy’s favourite places, made it really appeal.  It has been lovely to get to know the Revd Vivien and the local community in the run up to the wedding.  Graffham is a wonderful parish, and will now always be particularly special to us.”

The bride, dressed in a long white gown which she designed and had made in Putney, was walked up the aisle by her father, Robin, and attended by three of her closest friends and younger sister Sophie, plus three young bridesmaids and two pageboys, in a church packed with some 160 guests. As the service concluded, the newlyweds walked out into autumn sunshine to the sound of The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun and St Giles’ bells, then jumped into the old LandRover Defender that had delivered Lucy to the church, and headed to their reception in a marquee at Haylands Farm.  They honeymooned for a few days in the South of France before settling down in London – with regular visits promised to Graffham.

Purdy and Craig, 27 May 2022

Two lynchpins of Graffham pubs, Purdy Walker and Craig Baldwin, were finally married at St Giles Church on Friday 27 May – after two delays because of pandemic restrictions and a nine-year engagement.  They first met around a decade ago, when both worked at The Foresters Arms, where Craig returned recently as head chef before moving to the same role at Pulborough’s British Garden Centre, while Purdy is housekeeper at The White Horse, where they hosted their wedding reception.

The date for their big day was chosen because 27 is Purdy’s lucky number – and it turned up trumps with the sun beaming all day.  St Giles was the only choice for their wedding, as Purdy, whose family home is Eastwood Stud Farm, East Lavington, explained: “I always wanted to be married in the church I was christened in and attended whilst at Graffham Primary School.”

The bride wore an off-the-shoulder dress with pleated bodice and full A-line skirt and train with button detail down the centre back, in ivory satin.  She carried a bouquet of white peonies, white roses and thistles made for her by her friend Francesca Sharpe.  Attending her were her and Craig’s twin daughters, Lydia and Michaela, wearing ivory dresses to match their Mum, but, in their cases, with a pretty blue print. She was walked down the aisle by her father Russell Walker, to join Craig, sporting a smart navy three-piece suit, waiting for her with his best man and brother Stevan Baldwin.   To match the bride’s bouquet, the church was decorated by Purdy’s sister Lara Walker with peonies, roses, thistles and stocks arranged in suitably rural milk churns.
During the service, conducted by the Revd Vivien, Lara and other sister Kirsty Booker read, respectively, poem Maybe and 1 Coronthians 13’s famous verses on love.  For hymns, they chose Jerusalem, which is included at all the family’s church services, along with One More Step Along The World I Go and Lord of the Dance, accompanied by organist Martin Ridley. Purdy’s grandmother insisted that they newlyweds should leave the church to a peal of St Giles’ bells – but she sadly she is no longer with us to have witnessed it all herself.