Rebecca & Sam

Let's make no bones about it, I'm the first person to fall in love with absolutely EVERY wedding we feature that takes place in France. And Rebecca and Sam's is no exception, think permanent September sunshine over rolling hills and romantic vineyards. Rebecca looks beautiful in her Charlie Brear gown and her relaxed up-do is a thing of your wildest pinterest dreams. I love the simplicity of the decor and the chateau makes the most enchanting backdrop, altogether the whole affair looks like the perfect fairytale.

Location

Rebecca The Bride: Sam and I hadn’t spoken before we got engaged on the type of wedding that we wanted. Sam proposed on New Years Eve 2013 in the French Alps on top of my favourite point in the world, overlooking Mt Blanc. It was perfect. I think the idea of getting married in France stemmed from here, and for our love of wine, cheese, french countryside, the simple way of life and hopefully sunshine! (mine more than Sams’s). Sam and I being who we are, we googled “weddings in France” and Chateau du Puits es Pratx was the first venue that came up. It looked great on paper, so we booked a trip out, and with no other arrangement to see any other venues, unless Chateau du Puits es Pratx had burnt down we were pretty much sold before we even boarded the plane at Stanstead. Once we had arrived in the South of France and we were driving through fields and fields of vineyards up to the Chateau it felt so right. The Chateau was perfect, it epitomised everything we wanted and enabled us to spend a whole weekend with our favourite people on earth. Once we had signed, sealed delivered on the venue everything else just fell into place. We weren’t getting married until the following September, so we had plenty of time and slowly started ticking things off the list. To be honest, we wanted our wedding to be simple, most of the typical wedding stuff were either done by us, or the Chateau. The wedding accesrories weren't that important to us, what mattered was spending quality time with our friends and family somewhere beautiful, somewhere different and a place we would never forget.

The Dress

In terms of the dress, I look back and laugh at how laid back I was about the whole thing. I found my dress in one day of looking properly. I hear all these stories of brides going from shop to shop, dress to dress and still not finding the dress! I was the complete opposite. I wouldn’t even say I had a strong idea of what I wanted, I had a small idea. I wanted something romantic, vintage-y looking, simple, potentially lacy and something with a revealing back….I had gone wild on Pinterest, but still felt a little overwhelmed. I booked an appointment at Mirror Mirror and then straight after at Charlie Brear (again, I had googled vintage wedding dresses and Charlie Brear came up). Mirror Mirror is fab for an hour or so total wedding dress consumption. I tried on so many different designs; I walked out even more confused! However Charlie Brear was a totally different experience, as soon as I walked into the showroom, I knew this was where I was going to find my dress. My dress was the first one that I tried on; it was a combination of a simple, white, figure-hugging but in the right way gorgeous dress, with a lace overdress on top. I liked the idea of being able to have two dresses and took the lace off after dinner for our first dance. Sams mum made my lovely sash, it had gorgeous beading which I thought tied in nicely with the beaded bridesmaid dresses. I wore a pair of diamond stud earrings that Sam had given me and a diamond necklace that my Mum had lent me.

Bridesmaid Dresses

The bridesmaid dresses were from Adrianna Pappell, which is stocked in House of Fraser, these were an absolute find. I had seen the dresses on Pinterest and thought they were beautiful. I luckily found them stocked in House of Fraser and they were in the sale, and only 6 left! It was a sign. I quickly consulted the bridesmaids, slept on it and bought them the moment I woke up. I loved them from the moment I saw them 11 months before the wedding, and they looked absolutely gorgeous set against the background of the chateau.

Groomsmen

The groom again not being particularly fussy wore a three piece suit from Racing Green, a tailored shirt with his initials sown in and preferred lining from itailor and a bow tie from a vintage shop online. His shoes were from Russell & Bromley. Sam bought all the ushers personalised shirt and bowtie.

Stationery

Sam my wonderful, creative husband designed and made our entire wedding stationery. I am biased but I think they are the best wedding stationery I have ever seen!

Decorations

In terms of decorations, a lot of the props were already at the chateau, the main thing that we created (my sister Joss, Joe and my Mum) was the table display boxes. They were really simple, but with the personalised stamp they looked so unique, rustic and were perfect.

Flowers

I didn’t have a colour scheme in mind but after we purchased the grey/blue dresses along with the blue Chateau shutters I decided that our colour scheme was pretty much chosen. Blue, white and green! The chateau supplied and put together the flowers.

Ceremony

Neither Sam and I are religious and we so knew straight away that we didn’t want a religious blessing (we had to legally get married in England). So we asked my Godfather Don Wild if he would be our celebrant. Don was brilliant, completely unique and light hearted (which we wanted) He focused the ceremony on love and friendship; he got everyone to give each other hug and really engaged our friends and family. It was perfect. Our two readers Imogen Wild and Dom Pia both read readings that they had chosen which followed the same theme.

Food and Drinks

We had a champagne reception on the lawn in front of the chateau in the beautiful sunshine with an acoridiam player (very French!) followed by a 3 course wedding breakfast in the courtyard, which consisted of an array of French starters, Steak and again a plateau of French dessert’s. Our wedding cake was a tiered cheese cake. At midnight we served the cheese with Croque Monsieurs which went down a treat.

Entertainment

Sam and his mates had spent many Friday nights in the Piano bar in Farringdon, and that where he met our main wedding entertainment. Nick Reeve was excellent, kept the party going and played Wonderwall by Oasis as a first dance (Sam and I met in Ibiza and didn’t really have a song so to speak that wasn’t techno! So we had this, which is my favorite song of all time - I’m a proud Mancunian and now its Sam’s favorite too)

Photographers

The best money we spent was definitely on our amazing photographers Giulia and Ben from On Love and Photography. They were so easy going, we met the day before the wedding and they put my mind to ease straight away. Giulia spent the day with me getting ready at the Chateau where my parents and family friends were staying and Ben with Sam at the wedding venue. It was perfect how Giulia encaptured the day getting ready with all my family and family friends. I have spent pretty much all our summer holidays with this group of family friends since I was born and these holidays had inspired Sam and I to get married in a big house, with all our mates, preferably somewhere hot and with a pool! It’s a winning combo.

Advice

The best bit advice I can give any future bride, is to do things your own way! There is so much choice out there and it can be completely over whelming but trust your gut, don’t sweat the small stuff and I guarantee, you truly will have the best day of your life.