A Vintage French Chateau Wedding

Hi dolls, I have a beautiful Vintage, French Chateau Wedding to share with you featuring the lovely Jenna and Darren!

It’s been a little while since I’ve featured a wedding on Show The Bride, instead I’ve featured a number of ‘How To’ posts and posts that focus on planning etc. I love featuring weddings on here as I find that these are often the most inspiring for you guys. So sit back and enjoy Jenna and Darren’s beautiful story.

 

 

The Proposal

Darren proposed beautifully in the lake district on 31/7/11. It was my birthday the next day so he had taken me away for the weekend. He had planned a picnic and had a birthday cake box, gotta love a bit of birthday cake. When he opened the box there was cupcakes inside, so obviously I went to take one, but when I turned around Darren was on one knee, I looked at the cakes and they read ‘Marry me’. In my defense, who see’s cupcakes and thinks ‘read’? I saw cupcakes and thought eat!

The Venue

The venue is an interesting story. We had a whole wedding planned for 22/8/15 at Meols Hall in Southport where we’re both from. We were to be married in the church across the road near to botanic gardens where we both used to play as children. In the graveyard there’s a real life pirates grave! Which we both remembered from when we were kids. It was going to be spectacular. Then it all just got so BIG. So expensive and huge and overwhelmingly not what either of us wanted. Funny isn’t it? How all your dreams of the perfect wedding just turn out to be exactly the opposite of what you want?

One Sunday Darren turned to me and said ‘You sick of this?’ I replied ‘Yeah, you sick of this?’. He was and so we cancelled everything. EVERYTHING. We have been together since we were 16, just under 9 years at the point when we cancelled, so cancelling getting married was never going to happen, we just needed to find what we wanted. So off we went searching.

We started to think about what we wanted. We wanted the people who were important to us there. We wanted to keep a traditional vintage style day and we didn’t want a beach. That’s how we came up with France. I already had my dress. My Nana had passed away the year before, when we found out she was poorly we (My Mum, Nana and I) went dress shopping and she chose my dress, which made it so special. So wherever we ended up, my dress needed to come too. We found ‘Chateau de Reignac’ a hotel chateau and the rest is history. It was perfect. It could house the 30 guests we wanted, and it could deal with the whole wedding in house. To top it all off it had a chapel on site!

French Chateau

 

 

What planning tips can you share with our Brides-to-Bes?

When it comes to planning a wedding, there is no right way or answer. All the magazine articles and pinterest boards shall not save you, though they surely help. My best advice to fellow brides out there is to truly think about what matters to you and what are your priorities for the day.

My wedding was filled with love and laughter- My little brother read a poem, my best friend sang, my dad turned his speech into a pantomime, my groom made everybody cry with his brave honesty.

So much went wrong too! The favours weren’t on the table, a little French man was hiding downstairs with my flowers! My flower girl’s hair went from gorgeous curls to a matted mess after a couple of rolls down the hill outside of the chapel! If you’d asked me ‘Do you want a football at you french chateau wedding?’ I would have used some choice words in my response, but it was great! Everyone had a blast, football and all. Don’t sweat the small stuff, ey? None of it matters!

What mattered was that all of those people that we love traveled to be with us. We had the most magnificent few days, we laughed until our sides hurt and ate until they did too! It was perfect, and imperfect all at the same time!

Jenna and Darren

Having a blast! Page Boy and Flower Girl

Bridal Party- The Girls

Time for a Kick About!

Vintage Inspired Seating Plan

A Couple that eats together, stays together!

Jenga style messages to the Bride and Groom

Table Setting

Bride and Flowergirl

Hair

My gorgeous sister Chloe McVeigh did my hair, having had some super help and teaching from Sam at Ruby Slippers.

Make-Up

Bride and Bridal Party Make-Up was done by the Bride’s talented Mother.

Flowers

Supplied by French company, Niveole.

Photography

All shots were captured by Philip Stephenson who captured exactly what the Bride asked for, “love and laughter”.