Charlotte & Julian

Well, bride Charlotte a.k.a The Hand-Painted Bride is not only one beautiful lady in her Yolan Cris lace gown, but is also super talented. Her gorgeous style (which is absolutely incredible) is ALL over this wedding in the form of signs, stationery, customised letter jackets and trainers, and not forgetting the bridesmaids sumptuous satin gowns. Groom Julian also keeps true to his heritage donning his family's tartan, with the rest of the groomsmen following his lead in hired kilts from Slaters. As always the fabulous Samuel Docker has not only captured all the style and decor, but all the emotion, and love. He actually captured the couples first portrait at a friends wedding years previous to their own, so I bet it was super lovely to hear from them years later and see the connection he saw back then had blossomed. The location for all this amazing-ness is the Chateau Malliac in South France, so sit back relax and get ready to be transported into a dreamy wonderland.

Dress

Charlotte the Bride: My dress and veil are by Yolan Cris. They were from The Knutsford Wedding Gallery. I was looking for something completely unique, romantic and bohemian to suit the style of the wedding. I went for statement earrings from BHLDN with no other jewellery. Shoes I had a walkable pair with chunky heels to walk down the grassy hill to the ceremony by Raye, and strappy heels from Kurt Geiger for later on! I did my own make-up. My hairdresser didn’t turn up on the day and so Scarlett my Maid of Honour and my bridesmaids came to my rescue! Luckily, I did a hair trial at home in the UK so I did at least have a plan!

Grooms Attire

We had a trip to Inverness near Ju’s family home to get him kitted out in traditional Highland dress. His family have a lovely tartan which fit in perfectly with the muted natural colour tones. Just as well, red bright tartan fabrics weren’t going with my vision!! He had his kilt made for him and the various accessories were sourced from different local shops in Inverness.

Venue

18 months before the wedding, Ju surprised me with a trip to South Africa where he proposed to me in a beautiful vineyard setting. We loved the idea of an outdoor rustic wedding in the countryside. Franshouk was a bit far to get everyone to and so we decided to get married in France. I must have looked at every wedding venue possible in South West France! Chateau Malliac seemed to tick all the boxes. We went to visit it the summer before. The Chateau itself was able to accommodate all the wedding party which was really special. 6 bridesmaids and 6 groomsmen and their partners and our families. The setting was stunning, surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills. It was a really special place. We loved the history behind the building and the treasures inside the house. The owners were very welcoming of our vibrant guests!

Colour Scheme, Décor

Natural soft earthy green tones with pale rose and peachy shades. The décor was rustic French and bohemian. Wooden hand - painted signs, beautiful flowers in old glass bottles, brass candlesticks, haybales and wooden barrels. We wanted to create a journey for our guests on the big day. Every part of the day was set in a different area. We really made the most of all the different parts of the grounds. The day started at the front of the Chateau where the guests were welcomed with a local drink Puisse Rapier (local sparkling and orange liquor). They were then taken to the secret garden ceremony in the orchid. A folige curtain hung at the entrance and guests were welcomed to the ceremony setting overlooking the vineyard. I hand painted tambourines and maracas for the wedding guest’s favours which were kept in an old wheel barrow at the top of the aisle along with parasols and fans to help with the hot weather! Little jars or flowers lined the pathway down to the foliage archway which framed the scenery. We bought an antique Iranian rug which we found a year before in a carpet shop in Dubai which we got married on. Hay bales with hessian covers were placed in rows for the seating. After the ceremony, for the confetti throwing, guests were lead to a flower tunnel to line up along the sides. The groomsmen handed out musical note paper cones from one of Ju’s old piano books which we made, with dried flower confetti. The reception area was set out under a woodland area. The Chateau allowed us to use some beautiful antique wooden benches for the seating and old wine barrels for high tables. We also used haybales and wooden crates to create table areas. Flowers were dotted around in jars and old bottles. I hand-painted various signs to direct the guests around the venue a long with a hand-painted welcome board and seating plan. The dining took place in the courtyard. We kept the main doors to the courtyard closed up until our M.C announced that dinner was to be served. Guests entered into a rustic French dining setting with long tables and chairs. Brass candle sticks, flowers in old bottles, green foliage running through, miniature log place mats for candles to sit on, festoon lighting over head. We named the tables after some of our favourite travel destinations. I painted small signs to sit on miniature easels on the tables. The place names were hand written on luggage labels with a sprig of rosemary tied in. My Mum picked it from the garden at home and drove all that way along with all the other hand made décor items from Lancashire with my Dad with it in the car!

Flowers

Amy Tyman did an incredible job! She is a British florist living in South West France. She really did make everything that I dreamt of come true. It sounds a bit cheesy but I cried when I saw the bouquets! Amy made the foliage curtain at the entrance to the ceremony, the ceremony arch. The flower arrangements for the tables, the men’s pin holes, the bridesmaids and flower girls crowns. We chose proteas for the bridesmaids bouquets as they represented South Africa where we got engaged. Scottish Thistles, café au lait dahlias and stunning roses, amongst olive leaves and eucalyptus. Amy did a great job bringing it all together. I was really pleased with the flowers!

Wedding Party Fashion

I designed the bridemaids dresses. They were made in Dubai and each individually hand dyed so that they were all slightly different tones of soft green. The flower girl’s dresses were from Monsoon. My Mum and I looked around for dresses that would compliment my dress in the lace and off white colour. They wore ballet shoes with silk ribbon ties. I made green silk dressing gowns for the bridesmaids and Mums which I hand painted the flowers from their bouquets on for them to wear in the morning. I also customized them all trainers with the flowers on. The Groomsmen all wore kilts. They hired them from Slaters, we stuck to three different greeny blue tartans to keep within the colour palette. I’m so glad we went with kilts. It was a little bit last minute. But I think it worked really well, they looked very handsome! They did so well in the heat : ) !! The page boys wore linen shirts, navy shorts, braces, straw trilby hats and brown leather sandals. They looked very cute! I hand painted them trainers with Star Wars Lego characters and Paw Patrol characters on the second pair for their gifts!

The Ceremony

Every aspect of the ceremony was very personal to us. I walked in with my Dad to Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. Ju’s Uncle Mike was our celebrant. He did an amazing job! Ju’s Gran couldn’t attend unfortunately. She is an authoress who wrote a very touching homily for us which his Mum read out beautifully. My bridesmaid Fran, one of my oldest friends, wrote a brilliant and very entertaining poem about us which we hadn’t heard before she read it out. I was in stitches! My sister in law read out a lovely poem about how being in love is like owning a dog! Very fitting as we now have a little puppy called Artie : ) My Maid of Honour Scarlett sung accompanied by my Dad on the guitar, Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. It was just amazing, and a tear jerker I think for a lot of people! And then to top it all off, all of our guests joined in to sing along with the House Family Band Proud Mary by Creedance Clearwater Revival. Ju’s Mum Ali on the keys, my Dad on guitar, my brother Tim and James Ju’s Step Dad on percussion, and Scarlett leading the singing. It was magical! Following that, we danced down the aisle to Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede with our families dancing behind us!

Entertainment

We’re very lucky to have a very talented group of family and friends. Following the ceremony we had two of our professional musician friends Ryan and Ed to take it in turns to perform at the reception singing and playing keyboard. We also had an excitable bunch of Rugby lads singing and dancing on the tables at the speeches which went down well too! My brother is a DJ/VJ. He creates amazing video projections to go with his music. He was set up in the barn and we had projections going around the dance floor. He is based in Palma,Mallorca and does weddings throughout the peak season. The music is a mix from 70’s to current day. He played tune after tune. Nobody left the dance floor! The day after we had a pool party and bbq catered by Finesse. We continued into the early hours of Monday morning with my brother DJing and everyone dancing around the pool.

Food

Caterers – Finesse. The food was really tasty. The caterers did a fantastic job. A mix of canapes at the reception… Starters mixed Mezze platter. A nod to us living in the Middle East. For main, guests selected from chicken, lamb, fish or vegetarian prior to the day we then served sharing platters of potatoes and veggies to accompany their mains. Dessert classic French Tarte Au Tatin. Delish!! Later on we served French cheeses and biscuits in la discotheque! Shout out to our master baker Ange. My sister in law! A three tiered cake, fruit cake on the bottom, then lemon drizzle and then chocolate on the top. We were hoping to bring some them with us but it all got eaten over the weekend. It was excellent!! Amy our florist decorated the cake with dried flowers.

Photographer

The one and only Sam Docker! We met Sam four years before on the same day we met each other! My best friend married my cousin and my husband happened to be best friends with my cousin! We were set up, sat next to each other at their wedding! Sam captured us in quite a few photos on that day. Four years on, he was back to visit our exuberant group of friends and family again, to capture our special day and moments so perfectly!

Videographer

We were recommended to Marriage in Motion by my brother and sister in law. I saw a few of their videos and loved how personal and professionally shot they were. They did a brilliant job! And we hardly knew they were there. They captured beautiful moments and condensed it into a short 10 min film. I’m so pleased we went for it! It’s a really lovely keepsake.

Wedding Planner

Patricia O’Reilly our lovely wedding planner! Brilliant from start to finish. I still miss our skype calls and wedding planning. Patricia helped us with finding all of the suppliers. She provided additional decoration items for us. Supported us on every bit of the journey. Her husband Dan made our wooden dining tables the winter before! They both worked so hard in the run up to the wedding and on the day. They were really lovely to work with and helped our vision come to life.

Parents

A big thanks goes to our parents for supporting us throughout the wedding planning stages and helping us take everything over there! For running around sourcing props and décor and clothing! And for helping our dream day come true.

Family and Friends

Also thank you to our family and friends for all their help setting up. There was a lot to do they day before and on the day running around the grounds of the Chateau! Everyone helped out with various different jobs and we really appreciate all that they did.

Additional

I work as an artist in Dubai. The past year I have been working a lot on customization projects which lead me to customizing a lot of décor and gifts for our wedding. I illustrated the save the dates which Ju wrote a poem for as well as the invites and envelope liners. From a leather jacket with Mrs C.C on to customized trainers and dressing - gowns, wooden musical instruments for favours and wooden signage. I have really missed working on our wedding! I loved every minute of the planning stages. So much so that I am starting to work in the wedding industry with wedding planners and brides to be on their wedding projects! At the beginning of this year, I launched The Hand - Painted Bride to create personalised touches for creative weddings. Being a bride was the best experience and I hope that I can help some brides to be out there to achieve their unique hand - painted wedding.

{Watch the Film}