Jenny & Rob

French destination weddings, and those at Chateau Rigaud, near Bordeaux in particular will always hold a special place in our hearts. Although iconic, every couple manages to bring their personality, love and warmth to the venue. Especially when you have the talented David from Modern Vintage Weddings behind the lens. Bride and Groom, Jenny and Rob opted to have a rustic luxe celebration with lots of white and greenery florals, and the dreamiest of wedding attire. Jenny's Watters gown with romantic tulle skirt and delicate illusion and lace bodice is exquisite, as are the horseshoe waistcoats on the groomsmens Dress2Kill navy suits. Not to mention the bridesmaids billowing Jenny Yoo gowns. As you'd expect the wine was flowing, the love was abundant and everybody was overjoyed. Here are more 'real wedding' reasons we love Chateau Riguad wedding venue.

Ceremony

Jenny the Bride: Our friend Joe Weir married us. He’s an incredible writer and a lovely public speaker so he wrote the ceremony for us and we didn’t hear it until the day. What he hadn’t told us what that he had arranged for the mum’s to hand us our rings and say a few words on what makes a successful marriage. It was very special to have the mums involved in the ceremony. During the ceremony our friend Laura Hubbard played the ukulele while singing an Adele song. Again, we had never heard her perform the song before so that was a wonderful moment.

Traditions

We decided to forego on other aspects such as videographer, printed invites (we emailed our invites and set up a free website with The Knot. We’re so glad we did as it meant we were able to spend our wedding budget on what was important to us; food, booze and our guests having the best time e.g. we had a pool party the day after the wedding with a froze bar – money well spent!

Photographer

Initially we weren’t going to have a photographer and were just going to ask our friends to take photos. We are so glad we didn’t go down that route! As soon as we saw David’s portfolio we wanted him to be at the day. He was fantastic and we adore the photos.

Venue

We weren’t sure initially whether planning an abroad wedding would be straightforward. Chateau Riguad could not have been more brilliant; they made the whole planning process a complete pleasure. We didn’t have to lift a finger and it meant we could just focus the entire weekend on spending time with family and friends.

Flowers, Decor & Styling

We wanted a simple and natural look for the flowers so the barn for dinner was mainly decorated with folliage. Heidi used a palette of silvery green foliages such as Eucalyptus’, Olive and Ruscus which hold well in the summer heat and neutral tones of whites and pale creams like David Austin roses Patience, hydrangea, white wax flower and if temperature allows, white peonies.

Catering

For the wedding meal we had:

Starter: Pork and pistachio terrine wrapped in house cured pancetta with pickled apple and walnut salsa, crispy quail egg, fresh herb salad; Main: Assiette of duck –honey glazed duck breast, confit pithiviers with chargrilled chicory, parsley purée and red wine jus; Dessert: White chocolate mousse with strawberries, honeycomb and bitter chocolate sauce

We still dream about the food at Riguad and the delicious unlimited crement!

Advice

When we got engaged one of our friends said to us that people tend to either treat planning a wedding as a chore or a pleasure and that it’s all in the mind set. We decided to enjoy every minute of the process and it ended up being a complete joy (although I think Riguad played a huge part in making it such an enjoyable experience!) We could not have loved the experience more.