JADE & ALEX - CHATEAU NAUDOU
Hi Simon,
Wow! Thank you so much for capturing our special day in such a way. We have watched the video maybe 5+ times and the photos are just amazing! We are so pleased!
Fully appreciated your tips, we followed them to a tee and had the best time going through the photos.
Jade & Alex
PART 01 - THE MORNING
It’s pretty rare these days for me to start coverage of a wedding on the actual day of the wedding because with something like 19/20 events, I’m usually covering the day prior. But as Jade & Alex did not have anything planned for this day, coverage started early on the wedding day itself.
And what a start. The first thing I like to do with any venue whether it’s my first visit or I have been there many times, is an extensive site recce and landscape/architectural establishing shoot. On this particular morning, as is often the case at this time of year (September is the best month for a wedding in France in my opinion and this was the very end of the month), things are getting quite autumnal with fabulous early morning mists.
But just before we get to those pictures, some mentions…
This wedding was planned and coordinated by Jo from The Impeccable Pear. To date, I have done something like 20+ weddings with Jo at numerous venues throughout South West France.
On hair and makeup, are two other familiar faces, Nikki and Kelly plus floristry by Claire from Busy Bee.
PART 02 - THE CEREMONY
Something like 50% of the weddings I attend have a pro celebrant which means approximately 50% do not.
I think it is especially important if nothing is happening the day prior and there is not going to be any kind of rehearsal, that a pro celebrant becomes a must, because this part of the day, doesn’t ‘just happen’. And there’s no second opportunity.
I’ve worked with Michelle Roberts before and once again, she delivered another well planned and executed ceremony for Jade & Alex and it went without a hitch. The pics speak for themselves how it all came together…
PART 03 - THE AFTERNOON
Supporting the ceremony entrance in a musical capacity was guitarist Pete McGrane and he carried this over into the afternoon celebrations.
Otherwise, there was a confetti tunnel and champagne tower to kick things off with canapés etc by the other half of The Impeccable Pear, Le Chef Impeccable, Jean-Marc (Jo’s husband).
PART 04 - THE EVENING
Food & Speeches
Lighting, lighting, lighting…is often what weddings come down to. In terms of both the atmosphere and the result photographically and in video.
On that basis, I am going to list another supplier for the day who took care of the lighting for the speeches, me. ;)
Find your seats, eat some scrummy food and listen to some amusing stories and anecdotes, plus fit in a brief golden hour shoot with the couple.
Followed by a sparkler entrance, cake with fireworks and dancing with DJ, sax and drumming from Mixology.
PART 05 - THE BBQ
And then to bring us back down to Earth from the hype trip that was Jade & Alex’s wedding day, we had a BBQ and poolside gathering.
That isn’t to diminish in any way the day after, but very little could compete with how that day prior unfolded.
I never truly know how any wedding is going to pan out until it actually unfolds, but suspected this one was going to be a little bit ‘extra special’ simply because of Jade & Alex.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to be on the same page and have mutual trust. Having met the couple in Paris earlier in the year for coffee, a chat and a practice photoshoot, I was pretty confident that this one was going to be a banger.
It was. It banged from start to finish.
