Is anyone getting married in Europe?

Congrats - We're getting married in South West France, not far from Toulouse, 2010.

how exciting!! Where? At this rate we'll have to demand our own sub-forum, I believe that brings the total french brides to three!

 

Hannah

We own a house not far from Montauban and have found a gorgeous chateau just up the road. Not getting married till next year tho. We love the area so much and wanted our family and friends to experience it too. What kind of venue are you getting married in?

Hi,

We're getting married in Lavardens, a tiny village just north of Auch. Because of French law we're being married in the Mairie then we're skipping the religious ceremony and going on to a local auberge for a huge feast. We're having a north african lamb roast, or meshui, the night before the wedding to make it the traditional two-day event. We looked at chateau in the area but decided that rustic france would be much more us; there are some lovely ones in the area.

Have you set a date yet? Are you using a co-ordinator? We aren't and there are a lot of cultural differences - many good - the idea of corkage is totally alien! But some are harder for a stressed bride to deal with - it is almost impossible to pin down prices and expectations with suppliers, they merely shrug!

Hannah

Hi there,

 

Not France or Italy but still Europe - we're getting married in Turkey. We have an apartment in Kalkan in Turkey and wanted all our family and friends to love it like we do. We've decided to hold our wedding in a small hotel. As it only has 15 rooms, we are renting the whole place exclusively for 1 week (all the guests will be paying for their own accomodation and flights - unless we win the lottery!!) We are all staying for 1 week and hopefully will all be travelling on the same flights together. We will be getting married in the garden of the hotel and then holding a pool party at our apartment the following day. At the moment we have between 30 -50 guests.

 

It's great to read about other peoples plans.

 

Kay x

Hello Hannah

Sounds like you are going to have a great wedding! We are also doing a wedding weekend, as everyone is travelling from all over the world. We are not doing the legal bit in France as the paperwork is complicated and we wanted a easy life! LOL.... Im not using a wedding planner, although the lady that owns the chateau speaks french and is going to help organise the caterers etc. I am trying to make a lot of things to keep the budget down. Lucky for us we don't have to pay corkage, we are having a pay bar and providing guests with champagne drink, wine with the meal and toast drink, after that they can pay for their own!!
I have picked the venue over the internet but not actually visited the chateau. I am travelling over to France in June with my mum to visit for the first time. I am really excited about it, as it looks lovely! Our date is June next year, which my H2B thinks is a long time away!!
Here's the website for the venue, what do you think?
Welcome to Chateau Dumas, large 18th century chateau South West France

Fi x

It looks lovely, very well kept and clean, sometimes those Chateaux can be a bit run-down but that one looks stunning. Also very French, your guests will be thrilled to stay there. Are you doing your actual ceremony at the chateau?

We've done a deal with our reception guy for unlimited wine with the meal (it's 7 courses and hsould last about 6 hours so that is quite a bit of wine!) and then champagne with the piece montee. When we talked about a pay bay the auberge owner looked at me as if I was the cheapest person on earth!! Apparently french couples just fill a table with loads of booze from the supermarket (wine spirits soda etc) and that becomes the bar - we'll let people know it's going to be that way and if they want anything special they are welcome to bring it themselves - it should last both nights and anything left over can be enjoyed afterwards or we'll take it to FI's Mum's house for when we return from honeymoon! I'm a bit worried as I think my guests may be face-down in the pudding with all that booze!!

I recommend not using a wedding planner it makes it much more personal, and cheaper, and it gives you a chance to completely do it your way. We are doing a LOT of DIY stuff, there is a growing pile of boxes in the lounge which we have to take out in April. But I am realy pleased we made the decision to get married in France, I am enjoying planning it and no other wedding will be like it, that makes me happy.

This conversation could go on and on!! Feel free to PM me!!

take care,
Hannah

What a great thread! Sounds like you girls are doing great. We are hoping to plan a trip through Italy and France in 2010 and I can't wait! Congrats and best wishes to you all!

 

Katie

Hi!

As Hannah has mentioned above, we are also getting married in France in a chateau in the Loire Valley (located near Angers and Nantes). Your chateau looks so beautiful and contemporary! I bet you are so excited! We also found our chateau through the internet. I found a lot of chateaux online, but when FH saw pics of the one we picked, he knew that was the place we wanted. You can see pics of our chateau on our wedding website (link is in my siggy), or you can see pics of the place at Chateau de Challain, home of castle weddings France | Where fairytales begin | Chateau, Castle, One, France, Her. Hope you like it!

We too are only doing a symbolic ceremony because the legalities in France are complicated and will have a private legal ceremony here in the States. Our chateau owner is also a wedding coordinator and we are using her to plan our whole wedding. She has been absolutely wonderful and extremely helpful!

Are all of your guests staying at the chateau with you? We are limiting our guest count because our chateau can only accommodate a max of 34 people and because we want everyone to stay at the same location (for convenience purposes), we have let all of our guests know that their accommodations will be taken care of. Because of the distance and cost of the trip, we hoped it would ease the burden for our guests.

Anyway, best wishes on your planning! I look forward to reading more about it! :-)

WOW WOW WOW............. can't think of anything else to say about your venue! Im so jealous now! That is so stunning, its breath taking!!!!!

I love your website too, Im going to steal your idea for page on learning french, brilliant idea!

Ok back to what I was going to say, (still stunned by that chateau!)

Yes most of our wedding party are going to stay with us in the chateau but we have overflow accommodation nearby. Our guest numbers are about 40 so have provided a different range of accommodation for them to fit in with everyones budget. We are not paying for everyone as we can't afford it and most of our guests will only be travelling from the UK and therefore can get cheap flights.

Oh and I noticed that you are getting married a day before my birthday! You must be soooo excited by now, not long to go.

What are you giving for favors? Are you having a traditonal French wedding cake?

This is a great thread, so glad I have found some French brides!

Fi x