Category Archives: French chateau wedding

Transatlantic Wedding Planning Adds Glamour

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Twitt

OK, so I’m going to admit it. American guests can be a little more demanding than the average Rigaud client and the NY crowd don’t always understand the limitations of our rural French community. So when we took a booking from a Brooklyn bride with roots in the fashion and photography industries it was not without stress that we get things absolutely right.

The bride and groom both come from high profile, creative backgrounds and have a very clear idea of how things should look. The flower brief referenced our all time favourite flower blog, the Brooklyn based Saipua. This inspirational blog comes from hottest flower shop in the hippest city on the planet, so being asked to deliver what they do was no walk in Central Park. From the images here you can see that Hayley came through the scared “Help!” phase and did us proud!

There were some crazy moments over the weekend.  The temperatures were into the 30’s, causing the suited groom to wilt a little so we popped him into the walk in fridge for ten minutes to relax and “chill”.  When the bride made her stunning appearance, thirty five minutes behind schedule, the heavens opened and the wedding party were forced to take shelter in the chateau, but this gave her the ten minutes of calm that she needed before floating down the aisle to the notes of the Kora, an African Harp, which was a first for the Rigaud lawns.

Chefs Steve Carss and new to the team, Rupert Craddock, produced an incredible meal which included the sweetest baby Charantais carrots and beetroots from the Chateau vegetable gardens. They topped the home grown strawberries on the white chocolate mousse with vibrant blue borage flowers and the effect was pure “dessert by Anthropologie”. I was so proud!

The weather was kind for the rest of the day until it was time for the fireworks at which point the chateau was engulfed in one of those dramatic electric storms when the rain falls in sheets and the ground rumbles with the vibration of the thunder. Thankfully our pyro technician had the forethought to wrap all the gunpowder in polythene ahead of the night to while the guests stood under the new bar cover so the grounds were spectacularly illuminated by lightening and “feu d’artifice” at the same time.

The bride and groom were delighted by the drama of it all. They loved, loved, loved that the rain forced guests to stay within the safety of the barn walls and dance the night away.

It was an intimidating booking and not without it’s moments of stress but when the very lovely bride left on Monday morning her comment to me was “Anna, thank you, for everything, it’s all been absolutely perfect” and that was high praise indeed!

 

Mark Bolton Photography Hero

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Twitt

We recently entertained garden and interiors photographer Mark Bolton and his very lovely family, who joined an April House Party here at Rigaud. The weather was great and Mark captured lots of images which will form the basis of a new Chateau Rigaud coffee table book. The team really enjoyed having an official photographer in residence and it was perfect timing before the wedding season began so I think we’ll try and make an annual event of it. It’s a long term project to have a self published glossy hardback which tells the Rigaud story, with a few recipes plus housekeeping and gardening tips thrown in.These are some pictures he took of the Tower Suite which is the room we recommend for brides. The light is fantastic for make up and the view from the window is over the lawns where the ceremony takes place. I think he captures the atmosphere of the room really well. More shots to follow later this week..

Wedding Highlights of 2010 – Chandeliers for Clare and Will

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Twitt

It’s been a brilliant season with something special to remember about every wedding. My mind is filled with visions of oh so beautiful people gracefully floating across the lawns in the golden afternoon sunshine. I can also conjure up a few less attractive images as they staggered back again in the early hours of the morning but the less said about that the better!

So what were the highlights of the year? It’s going to take a few blog pieces to capture all the best bits but it definitely started with Clare and Will back in May. This was the first appearance of the fabulous chandeliers in the trees. Every French chateau wedding should have candlelit chandeliers hanging from the trees. C’est de rigeur!

I spent the early spring scouring antique shops and brocantes (French word for up market jumble sales) looking for the impossible – authentic antique chandeliers with plenty of pretty crystals but an equally attractive, meaning low, price tag. I eventually struck a deal and bagged three from one dealer for just under 600 euros.

The buying is of course just the start of it. The next stage was to clean them up, then strip out the electrics and replace the nasty mock candlesticks with glass voltives. Into the glass voltives go special, exceedingly expensive, voltive candles which burn for nine hours or more. One of the loveliest moments this summer has been walking back to the chateau on the morning after a wedding to see some of the chandeliers still alight, still ready to party long after the bride has hit the pillow.

Anyway, back to our bride and groom. Will is the online editor of GQ Magazine, Clare also works in publishing so the guest list was rich with media folk which proved handy. I was desperate for a good shot of my sparkling new lighting installation but Tom the wedding photographer had left after the first dance. It looked like it was down to me to snap the shot until Clare introduced me to one of her guests who is a brilliant fashion photographer. Then an art director from ad-land wandered over and before we knew it we had a full scale shoot in the garden. It’s not easy to capture the moment on uneven ground with fast fading light and a wonky tripod, not to mention the effects of a lengthy champagne reception, wines with dinner and the open bar… But I think they did a mighty fine job and an enormous cheer went up when we got the shot we were after.

We were going for rock n roll album cover chateau bride. I love Clare’s stance holding her dress and the slightly ghostly effect that it has when they don’t smile.

Wedding planning weekends – the big feed

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Twitt

Five brides gathered at Rigaud over the weekend for a wedding planning weekend with the Rigaud team. We love these weekends since they give us the opportunity to get to know the couple and in some cases their close family and to work out what they really want from their chateau wedding.

On Saturday we visited head chef Laurent, at what he romantically refers to as his “laboratoire”. You or I might describe it as his industrial catering unit but hey, this is France. There, in the heart of the kitchen the brides sampled everything they will be served during their wedding day and they were able to choose specific course options they will go for.

First up were oysters, crevettes, ceviche and tartare of scallop with wild salmon, swiftly followed by foie gras toasts with cèps and more with figs. Superb jambon “Patta Negra” with red pepper tapenade came next and for me the star of the canapé parade was the pan fried scallops with leeks and saffron jus.

Starters were limited to asparagus with smoked salmon or the guacamole with crab which looks fabulous in a tall Martini glass. Laurent explained that he is always happy to do a delicious seasonal salad to start, with perhaps asparagus and quail egg in the spring? There’s room to improvise. For mains they had the regional signature dish of confit de canard with dauphinois potatoes. It never fails to please. Then the cheese course was Brebis with Morello cherry jam.

Before dessert the brides were given a spun caramel demonstration which will stand them in good stead for married domestic bliss, then came the “Declinaison Autour du Chocolat” an assembly of chocolate delights. The secondary dessert was a quick profiterole which would form the Piece Monte wedding cake that we can offer in place of a dessert on the wedding day.

We rolled them back out of the laboratoire into cars for the trip home where the real wine tasting began. They didn’t really do justice to Frank’s fabulous buffet that evening which we’re still finishing for lunch.