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.