If getting married in the French countryside sounds like your idea of a dream wedding, you will fall for today’s destination wedding from Meredith Lord. The location is just breathtaking and I love all the charming handmade details the couple incorporated.
I’m from the UK and Jono is from New Zealand. We both love to travel and we knew that wherever we got married people would have to travel. We met in London, got engaged in New Zealand and as we were living in France at the time we decided to have the wedding there, because it would be easier and then everyone would get a bit of a holiday out of it too. While the second part was true, the first certainly wasn’t; organising a wedding in France was hard work! Still, what was important to us when we were planning the big day, was to have a relaxed atmosphere, a wedding which mixed in both of our cultures, plenty of food an wine and dancing. We wanted something rustic and we wanted everything the be outside, so we were counting on the weather staying sunny throughout.
At first we picked a venue which was beautiful but, after a few months we realised, it was too out of the way and too unpredictable weather-wise, and started our hunt again, finding the right venue right on our doorstep in Montpellier, the 18th century Chateau de la Mogere. While our language skills were improving, the customs in France and the difficulties in doing business in another country were harder than we expected. Dealing with all the different local vendors was testing at times. The last few months before the wedding I had to spend a lot more time in England, looking after my mum who needed a major operation, so I bought a lot of the wedding accessories in the UK, on ebay and etsy, and then carried them over with me, which turned out to be a lot easier than finding things in France. Certain things, like hiring a suit, proved impossible where we lived.
We had the ‘official’ French civil ceremony in the town hall the day before as the law in France states that has to come before any other ceremony. We didn’t want to do it on the same day as it would have taken away from our vision of our wedding day, especially as the Montpellier ‘Hotel de Ville’ (town hall) is modern, shiny and about as far away from rustic chic as you can get. On the ‘Big Day’ itself we had a beautiful outdoor ceremony conducted by an English celebrant who lived in the south of France, followed by an outdoor reception with dinner and dancing till 4am. The building was a beautiful backdrop and we tried to mix in flavours from France, New Zealand, England and Poland (where my family is from) so there was French wine from a local vineyard, flowers by a local florist, Polish vodka on every table, a cake made by Jono’s mum and brought all the way from New Zealand. Our favours were beautiful handmade lavender soaps from a small manufacturer we’d found in Cassis, hand-wrapped using supplies from the local art shop.
I loved every minute but the best part of the day was probably the dancing. Our friend had made us a fantastic playlist and we didn’t stop dancing until 4am. Everyone just seemed to be having so much fun that we both just relaxed.
Love this sweet idea? Make your own with some of these great picks below to buy!
Photography | Meredith Lord | Venue | Chateau de la Mogere in Montpellier, France | Florist | Josephine Fleuriste | Design | Pink Event | Gown | San Patrick at Mia Sposa Hatton Garden | Bridesmaid Dresses | Etsy | Shoes | BHLDN | Groom’s Attire | Burton Menswear | Rings | Jon Keith Diamonds
