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!
