My Secret Garden Wedding in a Provence Chateau - The Reception

Our wedding reception passed in a flash! I think every bride and groom feels that their big day passes too quickly, partly because you have to step away at one stage for your wedding photographs. We were thrilled with our portraits by Chloé from Caught the Light, and it's definitely worth making time for your photographer. You'll see in this blog post, all the little extras that I added to personalise our big day. We chose a Secret Garden theme, as we hosted our reception in an historic walled garden. Our colour palette was soft grey, pink and sage green, and I chose a key motif, which appeared on all the stationery, place-markers and we gave each guest a vintage key as a wedding favour. I bought grey and white striped straws, and made little drinks flags to go in our signature cocktails. Looking back - I can't believe how many details I managed to squeeze into one day! These are the reception pictures, you can see the ceremony pictures here.

We celebrated our wedding on 28th May 2011 in a tiny French village called Puyricard, just outside Aix-en-Provence. We hired a private house called Château Grimaldi for three days.

The walled gardens inspired me to choose a secret garden theme, with a key motif. Our colour palette was soft grey, dusky pink and sage green.

We chose a local florist called Stéphane Tévenin to create our wedding flowers. My wedding bouquet was a massive bunch of pink peonies, tied tightly together with white ribbon. My sister gave me a Tiffany key on the morning of our wedding, and I sewed it into the bouquet.

The buttonholes were simple little clouds of baby's breath, tied with sage green gosgrain ribbon I ordered from the US! My husband's included a little vintage key, in keeping with our theme.

My husband wore a linen suit we bought from a shop in Bicester Village in Oxforshire. It was a huge bargain! He teamed it with one of his white work shirts, and a grey and white striped tie from Mr Start in Shoreditch.

I can't even remember how I found Chloé from Caught the Light, but she was our best decision ever! It's scary when you book your wedding photographer, because it's often one of the first wedding things you do, and it's an expensive step. Chloé was worth every penny.

The venue was so beautiful, we didn't need many more decorations - we just added white bunting, large white helium balloons, DIY'd tissue pompoms, and huge clouds of baby's breath. 

We placed garden games around the reception area to keep our guests occupied, while the grazed on canapés, champagne, and our signature cocktail Georgia Peach Bellini. 

We saved pennies by buying all our champagne and wine from a local supplier, La Cave Aixoise {Puyricard: 04 42 92 06 83} discovered by our wedding planner, Kerry from Lavender & Rose Weddings. She saved us a fortune! 

We had tonnes of DIY projects. We were on a budget, but I was determined to have as many wedding details as possible. The wedding stationery, the fortune teller menus, the white pompoms, the place cards, the programmes - everything! 

As a wedding present, my sister bought me a polaroid camera and a beautiful album. We encouraged all our guests to take a shot of themselves and write a message in the book.

Our table plan was a bit of a last minute decision. It's an Ikea frame, with vintage vegetable wrapping paper, and handprinted lists. I named all the tables after vegetables, in keeping with our garden theme, and created the table plan on the morning of our wedding!

My husband's brother made all our wooden signs, and our lovely wedding planner, Kerry, bought and arranged the baby's breath for the chapel. My family and bridesmaids and their lovely boyfriends helped decorate the venue, and I'm eternally grateful for their pompom pouffing, candle placing and bunting hanging.

We were so lucky with the weather - it was warm enough to eat outside, and our incredible wedding caterers, Marrou, provided everything we needed for a sit-down dinner.

I tried to keep the budget for our wedding flowers down as much as possible, by choosing all white blooms. These were put in a mixture of tiny vases. I chose white peonies and roses, along with cheaper hydrangeas and baby's breath. I couldn't have been more thrilled with our florist, Stéphane Tévenin. 

I bought grey and white striped straws, and made little drinks flags out of grey gosgrain ribbon to go in our signature cocktails - it's an easy DIY - check out my blogpost on drink flags here.

For place-markers I bought little blank wood tags and stamped them with the name of each guest using a roller stamp. I printed keys with a stamp on the other side. The napkins were tied with green gosgrain ribbon.

Our wedding favours were a labour of love! Every person had a vintage key and a fortune teller at their table place. The fortune tellers contained fun facts about me and my husband, and folded inside was the dinner menu. You can read the blog post on how to DIY fortune tellers here.

Everyone also had an envelope containing an invitation to the drinks party the next day, and a fake stick-on moustache. The moustaches were a hilarious ice-breaker - we had everyone wearing them by the end of dinner. 

We also gave all the girls grey pashminas at the start of dinner to ward off any chill. I managed to find a job-lot of them on eBay! We wrapped these in white ribbon, with a key tag. Everyone also had an envelope containing an invitation to the drinks party the next day, and a fake stick-on moustache. The moustaches were a hilarious ice-breaker - we had everyone wearing them by the end of dinner. 

I didn't enjoy the whole process of planning my wedding. I got really stressed at times. The evil Icelandic ash cloud nearly ruined the wedding by stopping all flights out of London, but luckily it stopped spouting ash just in time. Also we had problems with the owner of our venue {who has now sold the Chateau}. 

That said, planning my wedding was also a fantastic experience. I discovered a creative side to myself which I didn't even know existed, and my husband discovered he is very good at making pompoms!

My advice to brides planning their big day? Read the wedding blogs! Scroll through tonnes and tonnes of real weddings and save pictures or make notes about your favourite wedding ideas and details. Then try to narrow them down to one unifying theme or colour palette. Then get creative! You'll be amazed at how much fun it is doing wedding DIY projects. Rope all your friends and family in to help you out, and try to stay organised. 

Finally, have a real think about how to make sure you enjoy our wedding day. You don't want to have a headache or a tummy-ache, or to be worrying about when the caterers are going to arrive, or to forget to eat. If necessary, hire someone to coordinate your wedding day. But make sure you enjoy yourself!

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My Secret Garden Wedding in a Provence Chateau - The Ceremony

As promised, I'm marking our fourth wedding anniversary by republishing our photographs from our French wedding. It's crazy how quickly the time has gone! Although this wasn't our legal wedding, it's the one that felt most real. We invited ninety of our closest friends and family out to Provence for a three day party, and I loved every minute. As a wedding blogger, I spent many days agonising over which theme to choose. In the end our stunning venue, with its walled grounds, led me to pick a Secret Garden theme, and a colour palette of soft grey, dusky pink and sage green. We had a key motif which appeared on all the invitations, place markers, programmes and pashmina favour tags. There were endless wedding details, all captured perfectly by our brilliant wedding photographer Chloé from Caught the Light and my friend Jemma Harding Photography. Four years on, it's true what they say - your pictures are the lasting memories of your wedding day, so it's worth hiring the best.

We celebrated our wedding on 28th May 2011 in a tiny French village called Puyricard, just outside Aix-en-Provence. We hired a private house called Château Grimaldi for three days.

We really wanted a garden wedding, where we spent most of the day outside. In England, the weather is too much of a risk, so we chose a destination wedding in France. We'd spent several holidays together in the south of France, so the area around Aix felt like the right choice, even though we didn't have any particular link to the city.

I spent hours and hours researching different venues online, and eventually narrowed it down to four equally beautiful venues. But as soon as we arrived at Château Grimaldi I got goosebumps - this was definitely 'the one'!

It had the most incredible swimming pool, set among the ruins of the old house, and a stunning little chapel in the grounds, where we could hold our marriage ceremony.

The walled gardens inspired me to choose a secret garden theme, with a key motif. The venue was so beautiful, we didn't need many more decorations - we just added white bunting and DIY'd tissue pompoms, plus huge clouds of baby's breath. Our colour palette was soft grey, dusky pink and sage green.

My dress was designed by Delphine Manivet. I found it really difficult to choose a gown, but I felt gorgeous on the day. Shortly after buying the dress, I had huge buyer's remorse. I'd never intended to spend that much, but after trying on dozens of cheaper dresses, and even travelling to New York in my quest, I kept coming back to the 'Anatole'. 

It also felt appropriate to be wearing a French designer's dress to my Provence wedding, and I loved the little train, tiny buttons and pretty tie back.

My shoes were Halston Heritage, a bargain buy from The Outnet. I loved the touch of gold glamour, and I stuck 'I Do stickers' to the soles, as a secret 'something blue'.

I kept my jewellery very simple - just my usual diamond studs, and my engagement ring. My 'something new' was a Tiffany key that my sister gave me on the morning of my wedding - it fitted perfectly with my Secret Garden theme. 

I had my hair done by a local hairdresser, Joel at Kératine in Aix-en-Provence. I took him a whole load of pictures, and he recreated the look perfectly. There were a lot of pins hidden inside! I did my own make-up, using Chanel products recommended by a make-up artist friend of mine - Julia Bowden. See her blog post on the best bridal beauty products here.

Delphine Manivet gave me one of her stunning cathedral-length veils as a present. It's beautiful - edged with handmade Calais lace, and it paired beautifully with my simple gown. I've saved it as a family heirloom.

We DIY'd all our own wedding stationery, which saved me a fortune. We chose a font called 'English', and made sure we used it for everything. I bought grey card from Paperchase, and printed out the order of service on my computer. We then tied it with grey and white baker's twine, and stamped the keys with a special punch. Time-consuming but easy!

I was determined not to turn into bridezilla, and I couldn't afford to buy my five bridesmaids dresses, so instead I asked them to pick a dress of their choosing in soft grey. This was a fatal decision! None of their dresses were the same shade of grey, so it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. If I had my time again, I would have insisted on the same dress!

We decorated the church with hundreds of candles from Ikea, and florists vases filled with baby's breath, bought from a market that morning by our amazing wedding planner, Kerry from Lavender & Rose Weddings.

I walked down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major. We hired an amazing string quartet called Quatuor St Jean to play during our ceremony, and for two hours of the champagne reception. They added so much atmosphere to the day - I really recommend live music, if your budget allows.

We chose a local florist called Stéphane Tévenin to create our wedding flowers. The buttonholes were simple little clouds of baby's breath, tied with sage green gosgrain ribbon I ordered from the US! My husband's included a little vintage key, in keeping with our theme.

We wrote our own wedding ceremony, following the lines of the traditional church service, but with less prayers and hymns. You can read all the details in my blog post.

We walked back up the aisle as man and wife to The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by Handel. It's such a celebratory piece of music, and it's one of my favourites. 

Our wedding florist provided us with petals for confetti. It's worth choosing brightly coloured confetti, because it shows up better in the photographs!

I can't even remember how I found Chloé from Caught the Light, but she was our best decision ever! It's scary when you book your wedding photographer, because it's often one of the first wedding things you do, and it's an expensive step. Chloé was worth every penny.

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My Secret London Wedding Anniversary - Part 2

So here we go ladies, Part 2 of my vintage tea-party themed wedding. After our quicky wedding ceremony in Hackney Town Hall {our local}, we headed to Victoria Park for our pictures, where {joy of joys} we found the best photo-prop ever. An ice-cream van! I'd really recommend trying to organise a few photo props - it makes for much more natural portraits, particularly if you're feeling a bit stressed on your wedding day. After our pictures we headed home for our vintage tea party reception. We decorated our Shoreditch flat with handmade white pompoms, white bunting bought from eBay, and a dozens of roses bought from Columbia Road Flower Market on the cheap! Stunning photographs published with thanks to Caught the Light, and I've filled in my own Before the Big Day Bridal Questionnaire, so check out my answers below for all my suppliers and wedding DIY projects.

Our amazing wedding photographer was Chloé from Caught the Light. I can't remember how I found her, but I've long been a fan of her work here on Before the Big Day, and I booked her over a year in advance for my French wedding. 

When we decided we wanted our London wedding to be photographed as well, she very kindly agreed to help out. Chloé's work is stunning, and I can't recommend her enough. She's wonderful to have around, and generous with her time. At one point she even spotted that my two-year old nephew was making a run for it, and rescued him in the nick of time!

This was our secret wedding before the big official day in France, so we kept it simple with a tea-party back at our flat in Shoreditch. It was lovely for closest family to see us in our home - many of the grandparents hadn't seen it before. 

For our decorations, we used white bunting and handmade white tissue pompoms, that looked like peonies {tutorial here}.

As we got married at 3pm, we settled on a tea party. I considered an Alice in Wonderland theme, but settled instead on a vintage tea-party, complete with cucumber sandwiches and my mother-in-law's vintage china.

We bought all the tea-party food from Marks & Spencers, and my husband picked it up on the morning of the wedding. We bought the champagne and hired glasses {for free} from our local Majestic who delivered everything.

I bought special pink doilies and cute little Alice in Wonderland-style cocktail stick cake toppers from eBay to decorate the food.

The vintage tea-party style cake stand was a bargain from eBay, and worked perfectly with my theme.

I'm slightly obsessed with paper straws, and agonised over which pattern to choose for weeks! In the end I settled for red hearts.

We bought giant L-O-V-E balloons as photo props, but had a disaster on the day, because the O kept deflating. I'd recommend buying two of each, just in case! We bought our own helium cannister, so we could pump them up on the day.

The only problem with hosting our wedding at home, was that I spent the morning panicking slightly, cleaning and decorating. If you decide to do the same, I'd recommend getting everything ready several days in advance, or calling in favours from your friends to help out.

We DIY'd our flowers, with blooms bought from Columbia Road Flower Market the Sunday before. We kept them in a darkened room, but they still opened a bit too much - so in some ways I wish I'd spent a bit more money and got up early to buy them on the day. 

My mother actually chose and organised my cake, and my grandmother paid for it as a wedding present to us. We chose white and sage green as a colour palette and I love the stars as a motif. 

The cakes were delicious - we sent one home with everyone at the end of the party. We also chose to give little pots of Dorset honey as favours, because that's where I grew up.  I decorated the pots with green and white baker's twine, and little handmade thank you tags.

I really enjoyed planning our wedding! I started Before the Big Day because I love weddings and thinking creatively about how to make them stand out from the crowd. However, it was A LOT more stressful than I thought it would be. With hindsight, I probably should have taken on a few less DIY projects, but it saved us lots of money, and it made our wedding personal to us. 

My advice to brides? Read Before the Big Day! Come up with a theme idea, and start your DIY projects early. Eat properly on the day of your wedding - I got grumpy just before the ceremony - not a good idea! And leave yourself lots of time to get ready. You'll want to have time to compliment your bridesmaids and your mother on what they're wearing, and if it's all a bit of rush you won't have time to savour every special moment.

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