Philippa & Phil

Our gorgeous bride today wears not one, but two beautiful gowns from Phase Eight, but being a wedding dress designer for the brand I could imagine she wanted to wear them all. I know I would have! The low back & beaded bodice of her ceremony gown is exquisite and the multi straps on her evening gown is the perfect detail to get the party started. The location for all this style is the beautiful Chateau Riguard in Bordeaux, France which has the perfect mix of elegance and rustic charm with it's greenery and candle light decor. I love that groom Phil stays true to his origins too, opting for a tartan kilt in his clans cloth. Bringing all this sentiment and fashion alive is Real Simple Photography, so sit back relax and enjoy all this destination wedding has to offer

Bride

Philippa the Bride: A perk of being the Bridal designer at Phase Eight meant I was lucky enough to be able to have two dresses for the day. My first had a beaded bodice, covered in silk-wrapped pearls with ivory sequins, silk skirt and an open back. My second dress, which I wore for the evening, had bugle beaded horizontal straps across the back, with a frill at the back skirt leading into a long train.

Grooms Fashion

Phil wore his own kilt in his family tartan, Campbell, with a jacket and waistcoat in Arran Navy Tweed to match the ushers, all hired from McGregor McDuff in Glasgow, who also did a pop up in London. They provided all the accessories and gave an amazing service, sending kilts all over the country without concern.

The Venue

We chose Chateau Rigaud in France, close to Saint-Émilion. We visited once and fell in love with it, then couldn't look anywhere else. We had three major criteria: not having to end the party at midnight; Being somewhere we could have a party the day after (preferably with a pool!); and a venue where a large group of the guests could stay on site. And Rigaud more than covered them all.

Colour Scheme/Decor

As someone who is not big on bright colour(!) a natural, paired-back colour scheme was always a given, but also seemed to work perfectly with the venue. We went for dove grey, ivory, navy and soft greens.

Flowers/Florist

Our florist Heidi, who looks after the weddings at Rigaud, did an amazing job. We had several Skype chats and many shares on Pinterest, but she was incredible at understanding what we wanted. We were keen to keep the flowers and colour scheme quite natural to reflect the venue, and not to clash with the kilts! We had foliage runners which weaved between candles down the long trestle tables. My bouquet had lots of olive leaves, green foliage, poppy heads and blue thistles, giving a nod to the Scottish side.

The Wedding Party Fashion

My gorgeous bridesmaids wore navy silk slip dresses which I designed. They wore different shapes to suit, but both wanted something simple and light, as we were unsure how hot it would be on the day! Unintentionally both my mum and mother-in-law wore navy too and it worked so nicely! The groomsmen all wore Black Watch tartan kilts and Arran Navy Tweed jackets and waist coats all from McGregor Macduff kilt hire.

Ceremony

We asked one of Phil's close friends since school to be our celebrant. We knew immediately he was the man for the job and he did not disappoint. He put together a perfectly personal, funny and thoughtful service. We felt it was important to have someone marry us that knew us and Fraser was just that. Phil's sister Jenny did the first reading, which was the lyrics to Van Morrison's 'Someone like you'. We love the song, my dad is a huge fan of Van Morrison, and the words fitted us perfectly, so it worked really well. My close friends Vicki and Diveesha did the second reading, which was an adapted version of 'You Got The Love' by Candi Staton, they swapped a few words around to make it personal and extra entertaining. We loved it.

Entertainment

During the canapés we had a great friend and very talented musician, Harry Pane, sing and play guitar. He was amazing, he played a list of our favourite songs and set the perfect tone for the afternoon. As a couple who love games we knew we wanted something immersive and active to break up the time between the meal and band starting. We nominated a couple of our friends who are equally competitive, to take on the role of the games masters. They put together a photo scavenger hunt where teams had to perform tasks and upload a photo to our Instagram handle in categories to be judged - it was hilarious. In the evening we had a Scottish Ceilidh band called 'Ceilidh Minogue' who were incredible! Everyone really entered into the spirit regardless of dancing ability, were a lot of laughs and a lot of tumbles! After the band, we asked an Usher and Best Man to be DJ's for a few hours which was brilliant, let's just say they more than rose to the challenge.

Food

Our canapes were amazing, we had Cap Ferret oysters, scallops with barbecued chipolatas, beetroot arancini, gazpacho, beef tartar with a quails egg and many more. For our mains, we had home cured salmon to start, followed by confit of duck and a trio of deserts to finish, washed down with an espresso martini. We are incredibly lucky to have a very talented chef in the family, James Souter, who made us a gorgeous macaroon tower as a wedding cake. Phil's mum made our favours, which were Scottish tablet and shortbread, beautifully presented in a small white box wrapped in striped string.

Photographer

Jacques Lloyd and his lovely wife from real simple photography were amazing at capturing our day. They had photographed our friend's wedding and we loved their photos, so brought them over to France to work their magic once more. We didn't want anything too posy or staged and they did a great job of being there at the right time but not being noticed. They were also lovely people to have around on the day, and it was a bonus that they knew so many of our guests from previous weddings!

Videographer

Yet another useful and incredibly talented friend Jen helped to video the day. She had been given strict instructions to film to a minimum, as we wanted her to be part of it rather than behind the camera the whole time. Being the hard working perfectionist she is, she persisted to film from all angles until dark.