Real French Wedding Dream for Shona & Marc

real wedding:

A French Wedding Dream for Shona & Marc

18/06/24
Wedding Venue: Chateau Gassies in Bordeaux
Photographer: Alexandra Palombi Photography

Shona and Marc’s enchanting wedding at Chateau Gassie in Bordeaux had a neutral colour scheme and minimal decorations. They managed everything without a wedding planner and incorporated personal touches like a quaich ceremony. The hardest part was finding English-speaking suppliers. Their advice: “Savour every moment as it goes by quickly.”

They tell us their love story…

How did you meet, and when? We were High School sweethearts, we met 21 years ago and have never looked back!

How many dresses did you try on before you found the one? 13 lol

What made your one your ONE? The Style suited my shape perfectly

What did you do for your hen do? We went to York (had the time of my life)

Was there a theme or colour scheme for your wedding? Yes neutrals (cream, beige, champagne & ivory)

How did you decorate your venue? The Venue alone was spectacular so there was very minimal decoration required (mainly just flowers)

What were your best decisions for the wedding? The venue ( was 2^nd to none after visiting a few in the Bordeaux and Dordogne region)

Did you make any cost savings, and how? Never hired a wedding planner we did it all ourselves, but the Chateau provided a coordinator on the day.

What were your favourite moments? To hard to choose was amazing from start to finish

Did you follow all the traditions? No but we added in a quaich ceremony in the Scottish tradition, and also a beautiful candle-lighting ceremony before exchanging vows in honour of my mum who is no longer with us.

What did the mums wear, and from where? Grooms mum wore a blue dress & fascinator from Phase Eight

What were the challenges of planning and organising? The hardest thing was trying to find suppliers like our entertainers, celebrant, caterers and photographer who all spoke English in the region – We did our whole food tasting with the help of Google Translate on our phones, but it was all part of the fun!

What are your honeymoon plans? Travelled directly from Bordeaux to Athens and onto Mykonos.

Any regrets? Anything you would have done differently, or included with hindsight? No regrets the day was perfect and everything fell into place

What advice do you have for other brides? Enjoy every moment as it passes so quickly, We had the celebrations over 3 days, which we felt gave all the guests time to gel and really made the whole experience magical, it just wouldn’t have been the same without them.

SUPPLIERS

Wedding ceremony venue: Chateau Gassies in Bordeaux
Photographer: Alexandra Palombi Photography
Wedding dress: Orchidee, by Le Papillon by Modeca, supplied by Amy King Bridal in Fife Scotland
Shoes: (Shona) Dune, (Marc) Gucci
Accessories: Liberty in Love
Hair: Lesley Kilpatrick (LK Hair)
Makeup: Skin23 (Linzi Buckley) (based in Bordeaux)
Cake: Supa Dupa Muma, based in Bordeaux
Bridesmaids: Quiz
Menswear: Suit Culture
Band/Musicians/Entertainment: James Carr Dj, Kyrisax
Caterers – Les 5 Sens Bordeaux
Celebrant – Michelle Roberts (based in the Dordogne region)
Wine Supplier- Greig from Bordeaux Classique (based in St Emillion), Domaine NJC Languedoc
Beer Supplier- BDQ Beer Co, based in France

Thank you so much to Shona and Marc for letting us feature your beautiful French wedding, what a wonderful day.

Wishing you a long and happy marriage, with love from Bridal Buzz.

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