Bucolic Bliss – A Chic French Bride and her Relaxed and Rustic Country Wedding
What is it about the French and how they’re able to pull off effortless chic like no other? Bride Sélène, a French Architect, married Argentinian born Santiago, a Graphic Designer on 6th September this year at The Priory, a beautiful old building located in Coussac-Bonneval in France. Their wedding was a typically laid back rustic French affair set in the charming French countryside that oozed that natural sense of French glamour and style.
“We wanted a wedding that looks like us, something authentic, simple and full of little gifts for our guests. And since I’m an architect, I also really cared about the venue and ‘décor’ and all its charms. We also wanted our wedding venue to feel like ‘home’ and we both love the charm of yesterday - a beautiful and old house full of history – this is why we chose our venue, The Priory, located in the middle of the French countrywide. The whole place was idyllic – we actually hired the place for the whole weekend, enabling us to spend precious time creating memories with our family and friends who were visit from all across the world.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Pere & Marga
“I got a lot of inspiration from wedding blogs like Love My Dress® when it came to styling our venue – as well as Pinterest of course, and this helped me narrow down my vision for our day. We both wanted something small and intimate, a wedding that would reflect our personal style. We started to visit flea markets every other weekend to find decorative pieces and we used furniture and other items from my parents house to really make it personal.
We also had our family and friends help us achieve our vision - and they made the whole thing very special. For example, one of my friend from Mexico helped me create personalised ‘papel picado’, and that was so beautiful. We also had a little ‘wedding workshop’ with my husband’s family in Buenos Aires, where we all made dreamcatchers together – it was a lot of fun!”
Sélène wore the most beautiful wedding dress by French designer Laure De Sagazan - it reminds me of an Edwardian lawn dress…
“I love the dresses of Laure De Sagazan - the elegance, the style and the simplicity – there is always an element of subtle detail that makes the difference with her gowns. I loved the dress I chose at first sight. When I looked at her website, I know this dress was made for me. I loved the silhouette that makes the dress, and the lace in the back is amazing. I also loved the detail of the sleeves.”
“For me, the design was timeless – a dress that my grand-mother could have worn and that my daughter could wear too, and I loved that idea. Plus, this dress was also in keeping with my usual style and how I like to dress daily (V neck, high waist skirt and lace). We I first tried the dress on, I was convinced there and then that it was the right choice – it felt so light and so pleasant, that I couldn’t go back to try any other dresses on after this.”
“We didn’t hire an event planner - everything was homemade. Our friends were so helpful and did an amazing job on decorating during two entire days. These were great memories. We feel so blessed to have received that much help and support during the process of planning our wedding - without which we simply would not have been able to realise our vision. It was exactly what we had wanted, everything turned out just as it was meant to be.”
“We had been looking for a photographer for months but couldn’t find the right one – we didn’t ‘feel it’. Then we turned to Spanish blogs to see different weddings and we found Pere & Marga. We truly loved their work, the way they use the light, and we were also super excited to have Spanish photographers since all my husband’s family speak Spanish too!
Marga came with her assistant and they were very professional and so discreet, that sometimes I didn’t even notice them, but they always captured the right moment. We were pretty impressed.”
We quickly moved in together and after two years together in Argentina we decided to return to France, my home country, so that Santiago could get to know my world. He had never visited Europe before and his dream was to go to Venice. I had never been there either! He chose this romantic city to ask me to marry him.”
“In terms of flowers, we only ordered Gypsophila (baby breath) from a local florist. I love this flower, it’s simple and very bucolic.”
“My veil was also from Laure De Sagazan. It was an amazing silk tulle, so soft. I didn’t want to take it off during the wedding and I kept it until the middle of the dance.”
“My grand-father walked me down the aisle, since my father passed away. We were accompanied by the sound of Ennio Morricone’s ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ – it was a very emotional moment .”
“I didn’t want my bridesmaids to be in matching dresses and shoes, but I did want them to have a gypsophila floral crown, in keeping with my bouquet. The idea was to have different dresses but within the same dresscode; bucolic, flowered, pastel color. Santiago and I actually had our own wedding website within which we provided a dress code for the bridesmaids – so their choice of dress really was their own.”
“The moment when we had our amazing family and friends around us and the jazz band playing some great songs was pretty surreal!”
“The moment when we released the sky lanterns was a very special and magical moment.”
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“It’s your day so let your imagination run wild. Try not to get stuck in how it ‘should’ look (according to any friends or family), or too wrapped up in tradition. You will be proud to achieve what you wanted to do at the end. And when the big day finally arrives, stop thinking about decoration and organisation – there’s no time to not be fully present in the moment and on this day, nothing else matters except you having the time of your life and going through the day with nothing but love on your mind.”
What an exceptionally lovely wedding – so much love and thanks to you both Sélène and Santiago for inspiring our readers – I so hope you have the loveliest first Chrsitmas together as a married couple.
Readers, you can use the tags at the end of this feature to explore more effortlessly elegant weddings.
I’d love to know if any of our other readers are intending on wearing a gown by Laure De Sagazan?
Love Annabel x x
Photographer - Pere & Marga
Venue – The Priory, Coussac-Bonneval in France
Dress Veil - Laure De Sagazan
Shoes - Jonak
Bride’s Scent/perfume - Miss Dior Chérie
Grooms Suit - Samson Lacoste shoes
Bridesmaids – own choice, using this dress code
Sky lanterns - Sky Lanterns
Rings - Monsieur Paris
Catering Company - Cousin
Entertainment - Local jazz band (Mr Cheze), fire show with Payette animation
