Colourful & Fun France Destination Wedding in a Heat Wave

Do you remember that heat wave last year? Well Henry and Tash were married on the hottest day ever recorded in France in the 42 degree heat! Wow. I love their relaxed and laid back attitude, I mean they even held a pool party in the middle of the day to cool off, just amazing!

They were hitched on the 29th June 2019 at Chateau de Lacoste in France, with their whole day held outdoors. Firstly they were married against incredible views beneath the clear blue sky and after a dip in the pool they held their party on the lawn. It looked spectacular! There were multicolour flowers, pom poms for days, loads of confetti and really beautiful outfits. I especially love Tash’s stunning Alexandra Grecco gown and Henry’s blue suit and contrasting waistcoat combo.

Thanks ever so much to The Shannons for sharing with us these outstanding images of a very memorable weekend.

The Proposal

After a nice meal in Bath we walked down to the canal, got to the Halfpenny Bridge, which we’d stayed near on a boat the year before. Henry pretended he’d forgotten his phone (he’s a crap actor) and ran off, only to return at the front of a canal boat covered in my favourite flowers. He shouted up at the bridge that he wanted to marry me and the old ladies on the bridge had to nudge me to say something because I think I was in shock!

The Vision

Our vision was to get as many of our crazy friends together in one place for a full weekend of fun in the sun – We were avoiding anything too stuffy or serious!

The Planning Process

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t fun!

We were on holiday in France and saw a venue that we fell in love with so immediately booked it!

Everything seemed to be falling together pretty well until about 6 months before when our wedding planner mysteriously disappeared. As you can imagine this caused an insane amount of stress and tears. We frantically called the venue, caterers and florist directly to make sure they were all confirmed and luckily they were.

After this minor hiccup I handed all the big planning duties over to Henry who has a much cooler head than I do. I then concentrated on the fun things that we could sort out ourselves in the UK, like the stationery, decorations, photographers etc.

The Venue

Our venue was Chateau de Lacoste in Castelnaud La Chapelle.

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was from Alexandra Grecco. As soon as I saw it online I fell in love with it. I tried on quite a few more afterwards but I couldn’t get the Lana dress out of my mind so went back to it.

Henry wore a navy suit from Hugo Boss.

Beauty

This wasn’t something I wanted to spend much money on so I booked a Nars bridal make up lesson. It was so fun and means I still have all the make up to use. I asked a friend to help me do my hair on the morning of the wedding, so it was all very relaxed.

The Readings & Music

When people arrived at the ceremony they were handed a cocktail and a pair of Elton John style glasses. We asked everyone to put their glasses on to sing ‘Your Song’ which was really funny!

We asked two of our friends to do readings and we couldn’t believe our ears when they had both written their own! The first was the most amazing poem all about me and Henry and how we met. The second was a personalised adaptation of A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton. The readings were definitely a massive highlight for us!

Groomsmen

Henry asked his groomsmen to wear navy suits and he made ties using the illustrations I had drawn for our wedding menus.

Bridesmaids

I knew I wanted them both in white, but I left it up to them to choose their own dresses. They both wore a white linen dress from Reformation with colourful headbands.

The Flowers

The flowers were by local florist, Jenny Fairbanks.

The Details & Décor

The Chateau and location was so beautiful that we didn’t really need too much extra décor. The florist supplied the furniture and tableware.

I designed all the menus, table plans and song sheets myself, along with giant crepe Tash and Henry heads for the front of the Chateau.

Our parents helped with a lot of the decorations too – Massive thanks to Henry’s mum for making 1000’s of pompoms to decorate the tables!

The Cake

We ordered the M&S Colin and Connie wedding cake that we carefully bubble wrapped and drove to France in a cool box. It went down very well!

Your Photographer

The Shannons – and they were absolute heroes! The wedding was on the hottest day ever recorded in France and I have no idea how they managed to make us look so dry when we were all so sweaty! They were also so much fun throughout the day and we have since recommended them to absolutely everyone!

Your Filmmaker

York Place Films – Matt was such a trooper working all day in that heat and it’s so great to be able to relive the wedding through the films. Watch here.

The Honeymoon

We spent the week afterwards driving back to England in a VW campervan and stopping off at different chateaus along the way.

Memorable Moments

The most memorable part has to be the 42-degree heat wave. It was so insanely hot we had an impromptu pool party halfway through the meal so that guests could cool off a bit. Everyone then headed back to their tables in their wet suits and dresses for the main course, which was great!

Our band, Truly Medley Deeply, was also such a highlight. The dance floor was rammed the whole night and I was so exhausted but I just couldn’t stop dancing!

The day after the wedding we had a big BBQ and pool party. Henry came out of the pool house dressed as an admiral singing ‘You’ve lost got that loving feeling’ to me which I don’t think I will ever forget!

Advice For Other Couples

Try to think about what all your favourite things are and make them a part of the wedding. Don’t just think about what a typical wedding should be like!

And on a more serious note, try not to get too carried away in the excitement of it all and check customer reviews of all your suppliers. Get invoices direct from suppliers and get insurance (we didn’t have to use it in the end but it made us feel better knowing we had it when things seemed to be going wrong).

Credit Where Credit Is Due

What a scorching day and such fun too. If you are considering a destination wedding, we have many more to browse over in our archives.

Henry and Tash thanks ever so much for sharing your wonderful wedding story xo Lou