The one thing i have realised about the amazing weddings we have been to over the years is that all the little details that the brides have stressed over are things that when you are a guest and just taking in how amazing the whole day is you dont actually realise..i tried to keep this in mind when planning ours but its so hard not to get carried away with endless pinterest insipration and you feel you like you have to have all of these details to make your wedding a wedding.... i am telling you now you really do not need these things and its not worth stressing over, a few personal touches yes but there is really no point going overboard, unfortunatley it is one of those things you can only see in heinsight.
So my main starting point was i wanted to make booklets for every bedroom with information about the Chateau including the history and location, it would also have information about the wedding, the running order ect this took me weeks and the only thing i wanted was a sketch of the chateau as the front cover, thankfully a lovely lady i used to work with Fran is a very talented artist so i got in touch with her to see if she could create something that would work and the end result was stunning -
My wonderful bridesmaids put them together for me whilst we were at the chateau and made sure every room had one, we loved that we had something our guests could keep as a memento of the weekend.
Another concern of mine was that we had let our guests pick their food and that they would forget what they ordered and i would be the most pestered bride ever, so i decided to merge the place names with that persons food option and to tie it all in together i used the same image of the chateau (the waiters actually found it really useful as they memorised where all the food was going before everyone sat down) and i also threw in some nicknames and titles for good measure
My OCD went as far as favours which included glass milk bottles (because of Louis running a Dairy) filled with the Haribo milk bottle & heart sweets and each bottle was topped with lace with a bit of twine tied around the top just to really stay true to us -
I wanted hanging jars, vases filled with floating candles and the day just flowed so perfectly that even i didnt realise these things, thankfully my wonderful bridesmaids did remember them and set them up everywhere for me (i seriously had THE best bride squad a girl could ask for) but in the run up to the wedding i was like a mad woman ordering candles left right and centre (with endless trips to Ikea for their candles), buying every large vase i came across i ended up with waaay too much stuff but one our wonderful guests Mandy went round in the evening and lit candles absolutley everywhere, and it looked so magical and completley not what i had planned but i loved it
So another thing i stressed about so much was entertaining the children... forgetting the acres and acres of land that comes with the chateau so i ended up stressing thinking i needed to make them activity packs and having things everywhere to entertain them and i didnt even get most of it out of the bag! the only thing that did make it out was the giant bubbles which coincidentley made for perfect pictures of us adults! haha
Another little detail i really wanted to do was have something hanging one each door to identify who was in what room.... after a few drinks and bedrooms being spread across 3 floors i thought things might get confusing and i thought it was a nice personal touch that people could keep... i ended up finding slate hearts randomly in The Works one day for £1.00 each!! So with a chalk pen we could write who was in what room and then it also made it alot easier for us when we were welcoming our guests too and i think it really worked well.....
As a thank you to my wonderful bridesmaids i wanted to get them a couple of little gifts that were a little less traditional, so i had them all bridesmaid hoodies made but just with their names on and our wedding date as i wanted them to be able to wear them anytime, i found the most amazing hoodies from H&M and then took them to a local clothing printers so i knew exactly what the quality would be like as well as the outcome of the designs, We also had one made for our flower girl Ava except hers was white so she could stand out, next i did a little DIY and made them all initial mugs however i dont think i quite baked them for long enough as the ceramic pen has washed off over time and to go with these items was a personalised clutch bag from the amazing HA Designs which you can find here, again i wanted the gifts to be things they could use all the time so the clutch bags with their initials on were perfect, Erin as she was only 16 at the time and wouldnt use a clutch bag so she had a personalised marble phone case instead; I also found the cutest macaroon pill boxes just to tie in the french theme, a dangling necklace from H&M to compliment their dresses and lastly my friend Emma from the amazing Paperlace Invites created cards with the bridesmaids names on so i could write them all a personal little note to say thank you.
I also asked Emma to make 2 extra cards for our mums so i could write them both a little note and i also go them both a keepsake Pandora charm and then i also decided to get a card made for Louis that said 'just before we say i do' so i could send him a little wedding morning note, i just love personal touches and i wanted to make sure that my special people knew how much they were loved and how much i appreciated them travelling to France for us.
I knew straight away i didnt want to have a proper bouquet im not really in to flowers and its one extra stress i didnt want, so they day before i decided i wanted a few hand picked flowers from the grounds of the chateau instead (because you really need something to hold when walking down the aisle just to keep you composed and not looking fidgity) so Mandy one of our lovely guests is so creative so i asked her if she would mind picking me a few and she did such a amazing job it was stunning and simple and exactly what i wanted, i decided no button holes or anything as it was just far too fussy for 'my vision'
Insead of confetti we decided we would like to have flower petals mainly as they are better for the environment and wouldnt ruin the chateau grounds, one of family friends made us the most beautiful box filled with lavender infused pressed rose petals which travelled to France with us, we filled a metal tub with the petals on the morning and then my lovely bridesmaids made lace cones out of doileys so everyone could have a scoop of petals as their confetti and i just love how the colours look on the pictures.
Now there are so many little niggly details i could tell you about like how me and 2 of my bridesmaids spent hours making candles with leftover GU pots, how i made little travel ticket packages for everyone with all their tickets for everything in and even how we had to order and test 3 lots of chinese lanterns to get 1 good batch to take with us... but i would be here forever... However i would like to say how much we loved having chinese lanterns and sparklers (the mess the next morning whilst hungover not so much....) and they really added something extra to the evening and entertained the kiddies too so if you have a venue where you can have these things then DO! Plus they create amazing lighting for pictures
Once again photo credits go to Anna at Bianco Photography
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