VICKY & TOM - CHATEAU DE PUYRIGAUD
Vicky & Tom’s wedding, where to start with this one? Day 01 would be a good call, but actually, we started on a cold, wet & windy day back in April, with a naughty puppy called Willow…
Every year, I offer the opportunity to all of my booked clients to meet up, both for there sake of meeting up and having a pre-wedding chat, but also to have a little ‘get to know you’ photoshoot.
These take place generally during one of two annual ‘Shoot Weeks’; one in Paris in the Autumn and the other in the Spring in the UK. Vicky, Tom and Willow were one of the couples on the South Coast UK ‘Meet & Shoot’.
We actually ended up drinking more coffee and in Tom’s case, eating more brunch because the weather was terrible. Really terrible. It wasn’t just the rain, but the strong winds and with zero indoor options available… We tried!
So moving on to the actual wedding event…
It kicked off the day prior to the actual wedding day with a ceremony rehearsal involving the key people. Every now and again, I get a couple who say, “nah, we don’t need to do this”. Yes you do because every couple that then go on to do one all say the same thing which is, “we needed to do that didn’t we otherwise it would have been a disaster! Phew, ball not dropped”.
And then it was off to the town centre of Jonzac to L’Aparté brasserie for food, drinks and general gathering.
But let’s kick things off (there’s a bit of a rugby theme with this wedding…) with Vicky & Tom’s Wedding Film.
WEDDING DAY
At the time of writing this, I have attended 7 weddings so far in this 2024 season.
The forecast for each one (except the very first back in April), was rain/possible thunderstorms on the wedding day, usually surrounded by sunshine.
All of them got away with it and in some cases, despite the forecast saying, “it is raining at your location at this very moment”, it was not. And did not.
OK, it was a little grey & dull the morning of Vicky & Tom’s wedding, but just got brighter and brighter as the day went on. The venue pics below showcase this as there are a mix of pictures shot in the morning and some later in the day as the day became sunny.
Oh and I should actually mention the venue…
I had not been to Chateau de Puyrigaud before and that is nothing new as around 50% of the weddings I attend are at new (to me) venues and there are absolutely zero ‘secrets’ that can be discovered by having been somewhere once or multiple times before. Zero. Venue ‘experience’ is in my opinion, a complete myth. Maybe one day I’ll go back and would be delighted to, especially because this venue has multiple options for chapters of any wedding event.
PREP
I’ve worked with this MUA, Gabby Gokool before at another wedding and can highly recommend her, - she knows her stuff, but what else can I say about both bride and groom prep?
I’ll let the pics do the talking here other than to say we had a bit of fun at times and the florist was Chartier Fleurs.
THE CEREMONY
If you got the sense of a bit of a green & white vibe from the prep pics, you will see below how that carried over into the ceremony.
The ceremony itself was conducted by Uncle Iain and actually this year, of the 7 weddings to date that I have attended, all bar 1 have been conducted by friends or family and I am all for that. Not to take away anything from professional celebrants, but there is something very personal when it’s completely ‘in house’.
Quite emotional vows at this one and nothing wrong with that either. Personal vows in my opinion MAKE wedding ceremonies.
And look at that seamless transition from exit into confetti aisle ;)
DRINKS RECEPTION / COCKTAIL HOUR
Word of warning, never take that last word too literally. An hour is NOT long enough. The term ‘Cocktail Hour’ needs changing to ‘Cocktail 2 Hours Minimum’ if you have <50 guests and ‘Cocktail 2.5 Hours’ if you are having 50+ guests. Or otherwise, not only will it feel too short for you, it will be too short for me to capture what I need to capture for you which is typically:
Candid guests, musicians, canapes, family groups, couple session, table set ups, video set up for speeches if even a single one is happening prior to the meal'. This does not and never has been able to fit into an hour. Anyone tells you otherwise, fire them, but no such problems here!
The day musicians are also the evening band and also sang & played Vicky and the bridesmaids into the ceremony and are called Gentlemen of Few. Pretty excellent as bands go and I’ve seen a few.
THE COUPLE
We are not defined so much as human beings by what we do or have done in our working life, but in this instance it’s worth a mention. Both shall we say are ‘into rugby’ and Vicky is an ex-international player for England with multiple victories in the 6 Nations. Both coach at an academy they run based in London.
It’s always a pleasure to work with a couple also into their fitness, though in this case, the first time I think a bride who’s level exceeds my own!
Otherwise they are a great couple and just good people. As all their family and guests were actually with special mention to Vicky’s ‘Bride Squad’.
MEAL & SPEECHES
A lot of great details re. the tables and the signage plus catering by chef Eric LeClere.
Not a lot more I can say about this part of the day except it involves talking and eating, or in this instance, feasting!
GOLDEN HOUR
Not every wedding necessarily gets this, - it depends on the weather of course, but also your timings. Personally, I think it’s an opportunity not to be missed, even if it’s just for 5 minutes…as is the case here.
The light is at it’s best, golden, as the name of the thing would suggest.
DANCE PARTY
And boy, did they party…
I’m going to take some extra credit on this one and that is to say the entire responsibility for the lighting was all on me. Turned out pretty good I think…
POOL PARTY
And breathe…
I’m always surprised there are not more sore heads as the shenanigans of the previous day often tend to go on to 4 or 5 in the morning, but nope, no visual signs anyway…
And visually, this one worked especially well. If you are going to have a pool party, it really needs a couple of elements to make it more than simply ‘some people sitting around a pool’ and these are:
1 - A pool (helps)
2 - Catering (could be a BBQ, could be a 1960’s crepe van brunch, could be a hog roast and ice cream bike, but should be at least ‘something’)
3 - Music (preferably live, but a DJ will do)
4 - Games (here we had water rugby and land cricket)
And then I flew my drone away and had to depart myself, back to the part of the iceberg that few see. It’s called photo and video editing and production and takes up around 80% of the total commitment time-wise to each and every wedding I attend.
Great wedding. I’d do it again.
