Polly Alexandre Photography

Fine Wedding & Portrait Photography

Wedding Photography in France – Mike & Kate’s Castelnau des Fieumarcons Wedding

Happy memories of Mike & Kate’s wonderful wedding in Lagarde, France held at Castelnau des Fiermarcon, a whole village on the top of a hill you can rent for a wedding. Kate is definitely up there as one of the emotional brides I have worked with, and the day was an incredibly moving, emotional, fun and relaxed celebration. The beauty of a destination wedding is being able to spend so much time with family & friends and here they all stayed with the couple in the little houses in the village. The night before their wedding was a BBQ, and the day after – a wonderful meal and tour of a private vineyard with wine tasting. I love the pretty little French soaps and beautiful booklet that greeted us on arrival; a custom guide to the weekend’s festivities, who was staying where & what was happening. Each morning a little bag of fresh French pastries were left outside our rooms…the perfect pick up with with a cup of steaming coffee.

Mike must be one of the most romantic grooms I have come across (up there with Nancy’s husband, Adam), in respect of how sweet and thoughtful he was to his bride on the morning of their wedding.  Mike created a set of beautiful personal gifts for his bride to open, based around the traditional wedding theme ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue’….there was an exquisite personalised Smythson notebook, a framed photograph of Pearl their friend’s French bulldog which they both dote on and often look after, some diamond earrings….. and more….. Is this a new trend for grooms to spoil their brides with gifts on the morning of the wedding? I do hope so!! (and I hope the Man is reading this!

Mike & Kate, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Much love for the longest and happiest marriage together and many years of dog owning joy!

Kate’s dress by Suzanne Neville; Shoes by Christian Louboutin, Venue: Castelnau des Fieumarcon, Hair & Make Up: Antonia Krieger at Elle au Naturel; Stationary by Smythson; Bride’s Robe is the Matinee Kimono by Agent Provocateur.

Here’s what Mike said when they received their the album…

“Thank you so much for your incredible efforts with our wedding album.  It is the perfect record of the happiest day of my life and something I will always treasure. The presentation is stunning and I know my parents (and Kate’s) will get huge pleasure from it too. Looking back, I can honestly say that asking you to be our photographer was the best investment we made in the whole wedding process.  Thank goodness for Pearl!!” (to read about Pearl click here)

{Please do not feature without permission, thank you.}

 

Mike & Kate’s French Wedding – The Night Before

The couple rented the private village of Castelnau des Fiemarcon in France and held a 3 day celebration for their wedding. The night before was a low key BBQ in the garden of one of the houses. Coming up tomorrow, the wedding itself….and if you missed how we met yesterday have a look at Pearl. If I am shooting your wedding, it can be really lovely to add on a couple of hours coverage of the night before, especially if you are planning something special. The sweetness and warmth of people coming together in anticipation of the big celebration….relaxed and intimate…

Venue: Castelnau des Fiermarcons, Gascony, France; Kate’s Dress by 3.1 Philip Lim

 

 

Pearl

Meet Pearl. This beautiful little French bulldog is the reason I wound up in France photographing the wedding of Kate & Mike. And yes, this photograph was taken on their actual wedding day. And yes, that is a framed picture of Pearl that Kate received as a wedding gift from Mike. It’s safe to say we are all pretty dog obsessed.

But what makes it even curiouser is that Pearl isn’t my dog, or even their dog…nope… in fact I don’t even know who Pearl actually belongs to.

The story started when I was on a train coming back from a shoot in London in August 2010…. pretty broody for a pup at the time I was always on the lookout for cute dogs to pet and admire…. and right there on the train was this adorable little black and white French bulldog. I asked the owners if they wouldn’t mind me petting her to which they agreed freely. We got chatting and I shared my desire for a pup of my own and my concern about who would look after my dog when I had shoots on. Well it turns out this little dog’s owner had the answer, a great pet sitting service right in my local area that collects and drops off your furry offspring to your door. The couple confessed that Pearl wasn’t actually their dog and that they too, were secretly broody for a furry companion too, but that work commitments prevented them from having a pup of their own, so they took Pearl out on weekends instead. Love on four paws……on demand….

The couple kindly agreed to find out the dog sitters details and email me with them so maybe, just maybe, my own dog owning dreams could come true. I handed them my card with my email address on. Oh! They exclaimed. We are actually getting married ourselves next year. But we already have a photographer. We chatted dogs, weddings, dogs again….

And then a few weeks later I got an email…. your website is fantastic…would you be interested in talking about our wedding?

So one thing led to another….and at the end of July 2011, I found myself in the beautiful region of Gascony, France capturing their 3 day wedding celebration.

Tomorrow on the blog, the night before the wedding…and on Thursday the wedding itself…

{And yes, that robe is just beautiful isn’t it? It’s the Matinee gown from Agent Provocateur}

{And the fairytale ending to this little tale….a year on we are all overjoyed to announce we are all dog owners now, with the lovely Lolo joining me in Feb 2011 and Esteban to join Kate and Mike in January 2012. Congratulations guys! You will be the best pup parents, I know how much this little fellow is already loved & wanted!}