Welcome to Wednesday and I have a sultry 1920s style wedding that will knock your socks off! Taking place in the beautiful Dordogne Valley in the height of summer, Nicole and Gregg’s 1920s style was made sultry not only by the brides glamorous style but the 45 degree weather, that greated the couple and their guests.
The setting for their relaxed destination wedding was the beautiful Chateau Largorce, a multi award winning fairytale castle near Bordeaux. A day full of celebration, good food and wine and the chance for the couple to escape into the lush vineyard for couple shots, sounds idyllic to me!
Bride Nicole had a strong sense of the style that she was looking to create for the wedding day and she took us through this, their love affair with France and their big day: “Gregg and I regularly travel to Southwest France and we got engaged there in August 2011. It is because of our love of the region and the country (especially the cheese and wine etc) we decided we would like to get married there.
After returning from a week in the Dordogne I started to plan a wedding in France. It wasn’t long before I found that we couldn’t get legally married in France so we needed to also arrange a very small intimate ceremony in the UK a day before we left for the French wedding celebration.
French Wedding Style – Photography © Mark Gashi Photography
We picked Chateau Lagorce for many reasons, not only because it is an absolutely stunning 17th century chateau restored to a very high standard but because Anna and Edward (owners) assured us that they would go above and beyond to make our wedding and stay exactly how we always imagined…. and this is what they did.
Anna is the wedding planner as well as proud owner and was in contact the whole 18 months of planning.
I absolutely love the 1920-30’s era. After visiting Chateau Milandes (Josephine Bakers home) in the Dordogne where the bathrooms are designed to look like Art deco perfume bottles and Josephines music fills the rooms and hallways, I knew I wanted to style my wedding in this way. Incorporating 1920’s swing/jazz music, the deco style dresses etc.
The flowers were white Lillie’s and roses: All colors kept Neutral. For the tables in keeping with French tradition we have opted for a Horse shoe. The tables will have Large Candelabras on and the While Lillie’s shall be entwined. Our table plan was a White ornate chalk board. Mini chalk boards on the tables with table names – Chateaus of France.
As favors we will be giving each Guest their Vintage tea Cup and Saucer that is at their seat – Name tags attached.
We arrived at the chateau on 18th July 2013. My parents catered for all the days other than the wedding and we bought all of our wine and beers for the stay at local supermarkets and of course from Chateau Lagorce’s own vineyard.
Our ceremony was taken by a Celebrant arranged by Anna. After the ceremony guests were taken to the 2nd terrace for sofas and Crement whilst the Jazz band played.
After canapes we had dinner around the Horse shoe table on the top terrace. (Lyonnais salad – duck confit – Bordeaux canel) and the Croquembouche cake.
After dinner and speeches we went down to the middle terrace for the evening. 1st dance was Nina Simone feeling good.
We had 2 people working behind a small bar on the terrace only to serve the drinks to guests as all the wine and Kegs were already paid for. As 50 guests were staying at the chateau for the 4 days, they were able to bring any drinks of their own to the 2nd terrace.
Following that we had fireworks at 10pm. A DJ from Mess Agency played music all night long and then we had a buffet style cheese board for later on in the night.
The last guest left the wedding/went to bed at 6am! – this is exactly what we wanted to make sure that this was a relaxed and enjoyable celebration.
As this was a long weekend wedding, on the Thursday, Friday and Sunday all the guests were able to use the Pool, the fishing lake, the games room, go caving, cycling… all available to guests at the Chateau and our other guests who were staying elsewhere.”
