Being the headstrong 'miss independant' i am, i was adamant we would not need a wedding planner for our French wedding and that it was just a huge unecessary cost.... in hindsight it probably would have made my life alot easier, whether it would have got rid of my sleepless nights is unlikely as i am a natural stress head (in fact i stress if i have nothing to stress about) and as i am a perfectionist i probably would have driven a poor wedding planner crazy with my constant questions and mind changing; thankfully the Chateau Manager Tiphaine (who also runs a wonderful wedding planning company called Chateaux Avenue) was the most helpful human i have ever met, her patience with my endless queries was overwhelming as i can annoy myself with how many questions i have over things, she put me in contact with amazing suppliers and facebook groups, i honestly do not think our wedding would have been any where near as amazing with Tiphaines help and if i was to do it all again i would have her planning it for me without a doubt.
Tiphaine put me in contact with Magali a celebrant in France who runs her own company called Unique Ceremonies who comes highly recommened and features on French Wedding Style (another invaluable source of information for anyone planning a french wedding), Magali was wonderful from the word go she skyped, Louis and I and we chatted for almost a hour we discovered she had spent some time living in Manchester which is only a hour from where we live and that she had actually had her own wedding at the Chateau, i instantly felt at ease speaking to her and we booked her pretty much there and then to be our celebrant, she talked me through my options and felt like a friend always there for us when ever we needed anything.
Another amazing recommendation by Tiphaine was our cater Thomas Guinet of Nomadis Catering, again a poor soul i pestered and pestered when really i should have trusted their repuatation and professionalism i think it is hard when you are planning a wedding for somewhere so far away, there is no food tasting or any way other than through social media you can really get a idea of what everything is going to be like which drove me insane! however Thomas and his team were amazing, the food was on another level and everything was perfect and to be completley honest on the wedding day we had very little to do with the catering team they just came in and did their job fantastically and then left (to the point where in the evening a couple of the team were still there and we invited them to come and celebrate with us but they wanted to get the kitchen spotless before they left)
The entertainment had to be the biggest stress of the wedding, i spent months looking into bands, performers, everything and i just could not find what we wanted locally to the venue it really stressed me out and as Louis loves swing music, acoustic music and anything quite bluesy i just couldnt find anyone that would fit... then one evening i was at my works Christmas party at the Botanist in Chester and i could hear this man signing and it melted my heart, i just wanted to stand and listen to him all night.. the next day i called for information on who had performed and they told me and also said when these acts were performing again, which by a stroke of luck happened to be the same night Louis and i were out in Chester for a friends birthday (the first time in years we had been out to Chester together), so we popped in and as i soon as i walked in i felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, as we wondered over to by the piano there he was this amazingly talented young man playing the piano whilst singing his own version of Ray Charles 'I Got A Woman' and i looked at Louis and i knew he loved him as much as i did and after half an hour of dancing away to his performance i mustered up the courage to go and ask him for his details and if he did weddings, he informed me he was part of a duo called Heerden & Black and that if i dropped them a email they would see what they could, so i obviously did the next day and we came up with an arrangement especially with it being abroad there were alot of things we had to ensure were covered, but Ed & Graham were so easy to work with and im sure were sick to death of me pestering them but their music list was fantastic such a mix for everyone and they did 1 set of acoustic and 1 set DJing and they happily let me go through their music list and make amendments i honestly feel so lucky to have found them and have had them at our wedding everyone raved about them (you can check out their musical talents here)
So with most of the big behind the scenes things now ticked off, i started my major stress which i am sure is the biggest part of any brides wedding stress.... The perfect photographer, i knew exactly what type of images i wanted (i am lucky that Louis completley trusted my vision on this) i didnt want OK magazine pictures, i didnt want cheesy posing pictures (that everyone takes on their phones anyway), i wanted real fly on the wall images nothing too staged (except for our proper little shoot) just really capturing the essence of our day, i trawled the internet for weeks and i just couldnt find any photographers images that i connected with; French wedding style were amazing for this with such a wealth of photographers all so talented but i still couldnt find our 'one' and then i came across Bianco Photography and as soon as i saw Anna's work i cried, i felt the spine tingling feeling i had been looking for and though the images that set me off were of a stunning Italian wedding in a jaw dropping church which would look amazing from every angle, it was just the way she took the images they told a story and i felt like i was there i connected with those people and those images and i knew she HAD to be our photographer; Anna was amazing from the word go and she had herself recently got engaged so we connected on quite a few levels, and as we hadnt actually got a set date she was so flexible (and even offered to change her wedding date so she could photograph ours) you can see some of her amazing images here (Her images are also included in this post)
One of our final decision was whether to have a videographer or not... it seemed initially such a high cost for a wedding video that we might watch once a year tops... but as i got deeper in to my planning i think we realised how this would hopefully be the best day of our lives that we had worked hard to save for and had spent years planning, that of course we wanted that capturing in a way we could relive when ever we wanted and because it was such a small and intimate wedding it would be amazing to have something to show those who couldnt be with us but also to be able to have those moments saved forever, as we had already booked Anna and loved her vision and aesthetic we knew we would have to find some one who could bring the same elements as Anna so that everything would compliment each other and tell the same story, so again after some major trawling of the internet watching many wedding trailers, French Wedding Style saved the day once again; Story of Your Day created stunning wedding films (Emma shouts when i call them videos haha im trying Emma i promise) that created that same spine tingle Annas work did, they were romantic but real you felt like you are on the journey with the couple her films really stood out against anyone elses we had seen, so we got in touch and thankfully Emma was available and from the word go she was straight talking and had such a amazing vision and she was more OCD than me with planning (which is always a winner), and you could just see how strong her drive was not only to create absolutley stunning films but to really make her stamp on the videography world, you can see Emmas amazing work here.
No one ever told me how intense wedding planning could be and because we were planning a wedding in another country it was so hard to visualise how (or if) everything was going to pull together but i am certain if you have a vision and you stay true to yourself and go with your gut instinct you will have the most perfect day even with 18 months of stressing.....
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