Relaxed wedding at Chateau Soulac in the Dordogne

shabby chic wedding table

So before it goes Christmas crazy next week with festive fun, we are heading off to the Dordogne today for a relaxed wedding at Chateau Soulac captured by Lucy Birkhead. Our lovely couple Tom and Kate, met at university and after 4 years of living together, Tom proposed whilst in Botswana on Safari and the couple began planning their wedding 18 months later.

Bride Kate takes us through their love story: “We decided on a destination wedding as we wanted to make a weekend of it and hopefully have some sunshine in a beautiful place – we did look in the UK but nowhere really excited us as much as the idea of Bordeaux. It also meant we could spend more time with our family and friends and extend the celebrations across the weekend!

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After a weekend of visits in the Dordogne area, we visited Chateau Soulac as the last stop, we immediately fell in love with the location, the amazing view and the feel of the place. Soulac could accommodate all our friends and family nearby too. We also trusted and had complete confidence in the owners which is so important when you’re planning from afar.

For our wedding style we just wanted a relaxed style wedding. We used the Chateau as our inspiration, lots of lavender, neutral colours and pretty flowers. The beautiful vineyards and French countryside made it feel quite rustic.

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For our suppliers we mainly took advice from the venue using their known and trusted suppliers. As it’s a very rural part of France, we quickly booked our florist, band and caterers. Choosing a photographer was the hardest part as we – after much deliberation, we decided to bring Lucy Birkhead out to France with us we loved her natural photography and elegant style. We also used blogs  including French Wedding Style, Rock My wedding and pinterest for ideas and suppliers.

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As with most brides I thought I would be wearing something very different to the dress I chose in the end. I picked the dress I felt most relaxed in. My bridesmaids were on hand for all my appointments which was much needed and I loved exploring the shops with my mum. My dress felt amazing on the day! My shoes were a bargain Roland Cartier @ Debenhams and my veil was bought online as a last minute addition. There is so much choice for beautiful accessories but I had to be sensible with the budget! Tom wore a gorgeous blue Reiss 3 piece suit and the ushers wore navy chinos and a navy tweed waistcoat. (with matching socks of course!)

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Although it rained in the morning we were able to have the ceremony outside, I came down the aisle to ‘Here comes the Sun’ in front of 150 of our friends and family. We were married under the tree in the front garden. We then had beautiful canapés and lots of fizz on the back terrace with amazing views of the Dordogne river in the sunshine. We had a roaming acoustic band who were fantastic. Then into the barn for more food, speeches and dancing

The only issue we had was that we had not budgeted for all the transaction fees of paying overseas suppliers which soon adds up!

shabby chic wedding receptioncountry style weddingChateau soulacchateau wedding dordognerustic wedding chicwedding speecheswedding guest laughtercroquembouche weddingevening wedding in FranceOur advice – Get all your guests invited early, share lots information with them but don’t take too much on planning for other people! Also plan as far in advance as you can, all the best suppliers get booked up. Finally, enjoy it all, we really loved the planning time and the excitement in the months leading up to the wedding.

For our honeymoon as it was so close we popped over to Corsica for 5 nights after the wedding, all we wanted to do was talk about the wedding and relive the day!”

Wedding Suppliers;

Photographer: Lucy Birkhead | Wedding Dress: Bridal Rogue Gallery | Venue: Chateau Soulac | Shoes: Roland Cartier at Debenhams | Groom: Reiss |

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