At home wedding in Loire Valley

We’re heading to central France for a sweet at home wedding in Loire Valley. Anna and Andy tied the knot on a summer’s day in August with all their closest family and friends. Anna’s parents purchased a medieval castle 25 years ago and they celebrated Anna’s wedding in the stables that they renovated just for the event.

There to capture Anna and Andy’s gorgeous day was FWS vendor and talented photographer Zephyr & Luna. Amber offers enchanted wedding, elopements and adventure photography in Dordogne, France and around the world. “I take your lead, quietly following you – taking pictures of the big and small moments. Smiles. Touches. Hugs and the in-betweens. It’s my honour to thoughtfully capture the depth of your intimate wedding.”

We’ll now hand you over to our bride and groom who will be walking us through their wedding in Loire Valley…

We met at a friend’s birthday party in 2005. We had been together for over ten years so on New Year’s day 2016 we decided to get married! We got married at Anna’a parent’s medieval chateau in France. The setting is beautiful and there is a big barn on the property which was perfect for the evening celebrations. All in all the venue was perfect for the type of day we had in mind.

Anna had her dress made specially by a dressmaker in Cheltenham (England), and Andy chose a morning suit with an ivory tie and handkerchief to match Anna’s dress. We wanted our outfits to be traditional and relatively simple.

We did not want to spend too much on flowers, and August is quite a difficult time for fresh flowers, so we ordered dried flower hair accessories and buttonholes, and Anna made decorations for the candle sticks from dried flowers also. Anna’s sister then made the fresh flower decorations and the bouquets from white roses, baby’s breath and lavender.

We had the most beautiful humanist ceremony in the vaulted entrance hall of the chateau. It was completely tailored to us and incorporated a poem written by Anna’s mother, and a reading by a close friend. Andrew prepared his own vows and Anna read a passage from Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass. We had a violinist and a cellist who played pieces of music selected by us.

For photography, we are thrilled to have chosen Amber. We chose her because we love her style and we did not want our photos to be cliched wedding photos. We wanted something a bit different that reflected our personalities and that captured our day, and Amber managed to do that perfectly.

Our first dance song was an acoustic version of “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen. It is Anna’s favourite song and Andrew was willing to humour her! We then ended the dancing with Bruce Springsteen singing “Dream Baby Dream”, which was an absolutely perfect ending.

We would not have changed anything about our day – it was absolutely magical! Our advice to couples is to work out exactly what kind of day you want early on and then plan every detail plenty of time in advance, and then do as much as you can yourselves. It is a lot of work, but it means you will end up having a really personal and relaxed day. Also, listen to each other and make sure that your future spouse is on board and comfortable with everything that is being planned. Also, do whatever you can to take your family and loved ones with you and avoid conflict with parents, siblings, bridesmaids etc at all costs. Hardly anything is so important it is worth having a massive family row over.