Elyce & Steve
If there is a wedding to dream of, it’s a wedding like Elyce and Steve’s French Chateau destination wedding captured by Mitchell J Carlin. The couple chose a beautiful French chateau for their wedding day, making a weekend of it with their closest family and friends enjoying a weekend of food, wine and plenty of cheese, as they tied the knot!
Elyce tells their story. “We met through mutual friends not long after I had moved to the UK from Australia. Steve then went traveling to Australia (typical the way these things work) and we went on our first date a few days after he returned.”
The bride wore Pronovias, telling, “I knew I wanted something I felt comfortable in (and most importantly dance the night away in!) and that had a flattering silhouette rather than anything too full. Given the warm summer temperatures (compared to the UK!) it had to be quite light. With my Mum in Australia I faced the shopping alone with the ipad in tow for skype calls. I went to only two wedding dress shops, Pronovias being the second where I found my dress “Lamero”. I knew it was the right dress from the moment I put it on. After a second trip back I ordered it then and there. Mum came over later in the year and we were able to go in together, try the dress again and choose my veil which was cathedral length and double layered. This made the dress perfect and enabled me to have one dress that took me from ceremony to the dance floor. My dress was perfected by Christian Louboutin heels, a wedding gift from Steve.”
Elyce and Steve chose Chateau Rigaud for their wedding, noting, “We had an outdoor lawn ceremony in the courtyard of the Chateau underneath a big tree. We then held our reception in the wedding barn which had lovely views out to the tree we married under and the main grand Chateau building.”
Elyce remembers, “I walked down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon. We wanted something traditional that really would concrete the moment that we were getting married. After we were wed, The Darkness “I believe in a thing called love” was played which really set everyone’s mood to party mode. Walking down the aisle and seeing each other was really emotional. The whole ceremony was the happiest and most emotional we have both ever been. So special.”
“We wanted the ceremony to be very personal to us. Rather than having a stranger as the celebrant we asked Elyce’s stepfather Jeffrey to preside. We had two readings, “I carry your heart” by E.E. Cummings read by Steve’s sister Annabel and “The One” by Keira Cass read by Elyce’s sister Laura.”
“We had the best bunch of vendors and we were able to let them run loose with their ideas and trusted their judgement. Our favourite part of planning was our planning weekend at the venue, we got a real insight of what our day would be like, from the food to the wine (need I mention, a lot of local produce was sampled at both the planning weekend and our wedding weekend).”
Of their photographer, Elyce tells, “Mitch (Mitchell J Carlin Wedding Photographer) was literally the first (and easiest) decision we made. We had been following him on Instagram as a friend of a friend and loved all of his photos. We sent him an email a couple of days after getting engaged with the expectation that asking him to fly to the complete other side of the world would be impossible. He was super accommodating and his international packages were competitive so we were thrilled we could book him in. The whole experience from booking Mitch through to the wedding through to receiving our photos was amazing.
He is a super cool dude who we are now lucky enough to call a friend. He is so passionate about what he does and has an eye for every shot. On the day itself he managed to capture every single moment, whilst going unnoticed a lot of the time, even when though he must have been running around like a kamikaze ninja for the whole day to achieve what he did. Steve and I are awkward whenever there is a camera in sight but Mitch made us feel super comfortable the whole time. One of the nicest guys we have met and an amazing talent, highly recommended!!”
“We weren’t tied to a specific style or theme and the emphasis was on a relaxed and enjoyable weekend for all guests. Our real focus was to make it feel like a holiday for all who had travelled so far to be with us. We did have quite a French influence, given the location, and an eclectic mix of little touches that we liked. We had a blue, silver and white colour palette, lots of flowers and a couple of unique touches such as a hand painted globe prepared by Ajna, one of the Chateau’s creative team. Ajna also created a number of blackboards for signage and beautifully inscribed blackboard placecards attached to vintage French keys. Most importantly the atmosphere was relaxed and fun with plenty of French wine flowing and hopefully no one was left wanting more! Being France; the food and produce was absolutely incredible for the whole of our stay and we were really spoilt by the staff at the Chateau.”
“We had a dinner the night before the wedding and a recovery party the day after – these allowed us to get maximum time with everyone, was so good to see everyone properly and spend the whole night of the wedding dancing.”
“The most important aspect of our wedding for us was to spend time with our friends and family, many of whom live thousands of miles away from us in Australia, the UK, USA and Abu Dhabi. Everyone made such an effort and got along like they had known each other forever. I remember stopping later in the evening and just watching everyone dancing around and being silly, having a great time.”
“Being in France we had a huge focus on food and we were able to pick the menu throughout the 4 days of our stay. This included local oysters and scallops through to Steak and Fois Gras and the fresh produce grown in the Chateau grounds. The quality was absolutely incredible. After our wedding meal we had a wedding cake made out of French cheese and the chef made homemade pork pies which were brought out later in the evening to keep our guests fuelled into the early hours! We knew that all of our guests made a real effort to make it all the way to France so we ensured that the bar was open and fully stocked at all times!”
Of the first dance, Elyce remembers, “We chose Roy Orbison’s “You Got It”. Looking back it wasn’t the easiest song choice for a first dance but it certainly was fun and we both love a bit of Roy! I think we were glad when everyone else got up to join and the party could begin as I don’t think we will be winning any prizes for our dancing!”
“The music for the reception was one of our top priorities. We originally wanted a band but didn’t like the idea of the set breaks and moving from band to playlist. Our wedding planner Marcia suggested DJ Guy Preston and Andre Sax Man Brown, an amazing saxophone player, playing along to the tracks. It was absolutely fantastic, we had Andre playing the sax on the dancefloor in amongst guests dancing. The music was incredible. Our dancefloor was full for the whole night, you couldn’t pull us off it either.”
The couple chose Reel Love Films to head to France and film their wedding day.
Congratulations Elyce and Steve! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Mitchell J Carlin for sharing today’s wedding!
This wedding will stay in our memories forever, 4 days of being spoilt with local food and wine and total enjoyment. Absolutely beautiful. Totally recommend Chateau Rigaud as a wedding destination, everything was just perfect.
Elyce’s Mum and Stepdad.
Just gorgeous! Photos are stunning!
What a moving ceremony. Such warm and relaxed celebrations, when you can enjoy every bit of your day, are the best.