Happy Monday and I am starting the week off with some Moroccan and French fusion in the South West France wedding of Emma and Phil captured by Craig George Photography.
Both Emma and Phil have French or Moroccan family living in South West France, and given that they both spent many summers as children with their respective families in the region, they decided to get married in France. The wedding theme was inspired by Bride’s Moroccan heritage + Middle Eastern upbringing, mixed in with Groom’s SouthWest France heritage (eg. Moroccan lanterns, Arabic tent + Wine barrels + traditional SW France food including 3 ways foie gras, and live cooking seafood stations).
The couple really wanted a venue that was truly special, but one that felt informal enough for all their guests to feel relaxed in. Emma says: “We sourced the perfect venue with wedding planners ‘Get Married in France‘. Our wedding planner was called Susan Christie who was absolutely wonderful and the venue was Chateau de Saint-Privat-des-Pres.”
French Wedding Style – Photography © Craig George Photography
“For the stationery we commissioned an artist called Neiko Ng, who is based in San Francisco, to capture the magic of the venue and add a playful twist to it. She created artwork for the invitations and then we used the designs to create all the stationary for the wedding from the welcome signs which were leant against wine barrels, to the order of ceremony to the table name cards which rested in Bordeaux wine corks. We also had our own figures recreated in illustrations which appeared on some of the stationary as a welcome to guests.”
All the signs were done in both English and French for our guests, as well as bilingual speeches.
When it comes to the dress Emma said: “I saw the dress in a blog and knew even before I tried it that it was the one. I loved the off the shoulder sleeves and the corset waist on the Kelsey dress from the So Sassi range by Sassi Holford! Boa Boutique was the only stockist in London at the time. Fortunately Sheila and her team were absolutely brilliant and made the whole experience wonderful!”
Emma and Phil intricately planned elements of their big day including the three readings there were to take place in their outdoor ceremony. “It was really important to make sure that the readings were in English and French and read by important people in both of our lives. We spent a long time finding the right ones to us and balanced the seriousness of the occasion with our playful spirits!.”
“For the music we hired an incredible classical guitarist who played during the ceremony and during the Vin d’Honneur. Walking down the aisle he played ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong, during the signing of the certificates he played ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting, and walking back down the aisle ‘Grand Vals’ by Tarenga.”
Emma really wanted the flowers to ‘pop’ and to be really playful so she wanted a mixture of bright colours and different textures! There was a real mixture of artichokes, nutan, green cymbidium orchid, celosia, gloriosa, dahlias, billy balls, peony, green chrysanthemums, hypericum( redberries) eryngium (blue thistle), purple stocks, succulents and mint + rosemary foliage.
Following the wedding ceremony guests enjoyed Vin d’Honneur in the beautiful Chateau grounds while the couple slipped away to capture romantic portrait shots with their photographer Craig George. “Craig was absolutely wonderful from the word go. We did a 60 min skype call were we discussed everything from Craig’s informal approach to how the photos would be edited. Given we are both really interested in photography, this was fantastic. The engagement shoot was wonderful, it was really fun exploring the streets of London with Craig and finding fun back drops that had a vintage London feel. On the day he was perfect!”
For the wedding dinner each table was named a year from 1981 to 1989 and on each table were photos of Phil and Emma from that year. To find their table, there were photos of each of the guests. Every photo was of the guest with either Phil or Emma. Emma: “This was a huge success as it meant guests were reminded of a specific event or time when they were with the bride or groom. Under each of the photos was the guests name and table number. We wanted guests to know how much it meant for them be with us.”
During the wedding dinner guests were treated to 100 mini pavlovas with summer berries and decorated in flowers. “We also played a fun game during dessert – the ‘How well do you know Phil and Emma’ game where each guest was given a red straw and a blue straw and if they thought the answer of the question was Emma, they held the red straw … and so on … the last person standing is the one who had all the questions right and won!”
Emma and Phil’s memorable moments: “All of it! We wrote the ceremony together months before with our good family friend Colin, who hosted our ceremony, so the ceremony was truly unique and very special to us.
Sliding the ring on each others fingers, 10 mins to take it all in on the horse drawn carriage, photos down by the spa pool, enjoying all the speeches, the wonderful live cooking stations for the starters, our delicious cake, walking through the sparkler tunnel, our first dance, the chair dancing and enjoying the day with the people we love the most in the world!
We rented x2 video cameras and gave one to the girls and one to the boys to film the whole day as they experienced it. We did this for a fun and relaxed approach to capturing the wedding, we can’t wait to see the footage edited together!”
So many wonderful details and thank you to Emma and Phil for sharing their day with us.
Wedding Suppliers & Further Information:
Wedding Planners: www.marrymeinfrance.com/
Photographer: www.craig-george.com
DJ: crystalbeatsdisco.fr
Guitarist: www.danjonesguitarist.com/
Venue: http://trilogis.fr/saint_privat/accueil
Florist: Jenny Moss
Catering/Restauranteur: Domaine des Vignes
Dress:www.boa-boutique.co.uk/, sosassi.so/
Brides Vintage necklace and vintage earrings: Bride’s grandmothers
Veil – bespoke from Joyce (pearl trim with scattered crystals)
Bracelet – Wedding gift from Groom – Astley Clarke, from Liberty of London
Shoes from Piccolo Shoes
Illustrator: neikoart.com/
Grooms Suit, pocket square and tie: Reiss
Shirt: Hugo Boss
Shoes: Kurt Geiger
Vintage cufflinks, a gift from groom’s father
Readings:
- The first one in French read by Phil’s aunt – Robert Desnos – an excerpt from Jamais d’Autre Que Toi
- The second one in English read by Emma’s best friend, Lucy – an except from the House of Pooh Corner by A A Milne.
- The third one in English, read by Phil’s brother in law, Rob – The One by an unknown author.
so romantic!