Rosa Gown – May & Marc

September 21, 2020

Real Brides

Rosa Gown – May & Marc

COUPLES NAMES

May Martin & Marc Plaggenburg

WEDDING DATE

11 May 2019

WEDDING LOCATION

The wedding was in the South of France about a 1-hour drive from Toulouse. The place itself was called Chateau de Lartigolle and we fell in love with it the moment we arrived there. Marc is from the South of France and we’ve always wanted to get married there. It’s such a beautiful place and has great food, drinks, and natural beauty, it made sense for us. The ceremony was held in the ‘wine cave’ underneath the chateau which had beautiful large wooden doors as the backdrop and brick arched ceilings, it was really intimate and special down there. The reception was outside in their courtyard and we were also supposed to have dinner there, however, it was really cold that day so we had the dinner in the cave as well which turned out perfectly. The candles and décor made it really cozy.

GUEST TOTAL

We had 62 guests. It was the perfect number as we got to spend a good amount of time with everyone.

PHOTOGRAPHER

We had an amazing photographer, Darek Smietana. We loved his work as he captured all the fleeting moments and candid shots that we don’t all get to see during the wedding. I loved how natural his photography was and nothing was staged at all which has given us some beautiful photographs to look back at.

BRIDE’S DRESS

I wore the beautiful ROSA gown. This gown, for me, was everything I was looking for in a wedding dress. It has a modern shape with the cut outs on the waist but a beautiful vintage vibe with the delicate hand embroidery and soft ivory silk fabric. It was the perfect mix for me and I felt amazing all day and night.

BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES

For the bridesmaids, I chose some dresses from Rewritten, which were really simple ‘cold-shoulder’ style dresses in a soft Oyster rose pink colour. The girls looked amazing and loved wearing them!

ENGAGEMENT STORY

One evening in April 2018 that we were talking and just decided that we wanted to get married, as we had been together for nearly 10 years! That was the official moment in which we started to plan the wedding and telling all our family and friends. I said that we didn’t need to rush for a ring and we can take our time with it. About 7 months passed without officially having an engagement ring until the morning after our 10 year anniversary, which is also Marc’s birthday, Marc woke me up with breakfast in bed with a little flower cut from the garden and a ring box on the tray. I was wondering what was happening until he picked up the box and started the proposal. I couldn’t help but start crying, I can’t even remember what he said except the last words of, will you be my wife? It was as if we never even agreed to get married and it felt like a fresh proposal and completely official (even though we’d booked and venue and everything!) I was speechless and couldn’t even see the ring as my eyes were just filled with tears. It was so simple but romantic and was absolutely perfect for me.

WEDDING THEME

The overall aesthetic for the wedding was simple but with romantic details. As we were in such a beautiful location with the natural beauty around us and a stunning old house we wanted all of that to shine and accent the spaces with flowers and candles to elevate everything.

WEDDING RINGS

The engagement ring was a beautiful rose cut diamond with small diamonds on a yellow gold band. Since looking for engagement rings, rose-cut diamonds really stood out to me because of how they catch the light but they aren’t super blingy. They have that ‘vintage’ feel to them which I love. The wedding rings we kept really simple; I had a thin gold band and Marc has a flat, satin finish platinum band.

WEDDING FAVOURS

For the wedding favours, we did a candle making workshop and created a scent together for the wedding. The lady we did it with hand-poured mini candles which had the name of the guest on which also doubled as place names. We thought it would be lovely for our guests to take that home and burn it which could remind them of the weekend and all the memories we created together with them.

FLOWERS & BOUQUETS

Flowers are one thing which I absolutely love and really wanted to make sure were right for the wedding. We wanted wild and loose looking florals in whites, blush pinks with a pop of very dark red for contrast. It added a moodier yet still romantic feel to the florals which we really loved. Down the aisle was super simple with candles and foliage and at the ‘alter’, we had boxes of flowers behind us which looked like they were growing out from them. At dinner, we had lots of simple bud vases running down the centre of the table with lots of tealights.

WEDDING CAKE

We had a traditional French wedding cake called a croquembouche, which is a tower of profiteroles. There are two profiteroles at the top of the tower and the tradition is you feed each other one at the same time.

WEDDING SONGS

Our first dance was Jessie Ware – Alone, which we did a dance to. I was super nervous about this and actually forgot quite a lot of the dance, but we all laughed about it, and was really fun to do! We had an incredible band called ‘Stereo Ties’ which covered various songs and they really got everyone on the dance floor!

FOOD & DRINKS

At the reception before dinner, we had a cocktail bar outside in the courtyard and small bites going around everyone. For dinner, we all sat on two long tables and the food was all home-made, sharing style. Another reason why we chose this place was that the food is all made on-site by their incredible chef in the home kitchen. We are huge foodies and this was such an important part of the wedding for us. Everything was served on large plates or boards so everyone could dig in and help themselves to any food or drinks.

HONEYMOON

We drove to the west coast and spent 3 nights in San Sebastian and 3 nights in Biarritz. After 3 days of celebrations, we really wanted to relax and walk around discovering new places. We had never been to either place before and we loved both. Even though they are so close, they are so different from San Sebastian in Spain and Biarritz in France. The small food places in San Sebastian were incredible. You can hop around different restaurants having pintxos, which are small plates of food. We loved doing this as you can discover so many different places in such a small time.

GIFTS REGISTRY

We did a small wishing well at the reception if anyone wanted to give us anything. As we have been living together for so long we didn’t need anything, so the wishing well contributed to our honeymoon which was lovely.

MEMORABLE MOMENT

There are two main moments I think really stood out which was when my bridesmaids did a reading from Captain Corelli’s mandolin which was a surprise and really beautiful. Secondly, the speeches really stood out and are such a fond memory of the wedding. Our parents did a PowerPoint presentation going through our 10 years together which was hilarious. My Mum did a speech which was such a mix of belly laughs and tears and Marc’s brother also did a really good best man’s speech. They are moments we will never forget.

ADVICE FOR BRIDES-TO-BE

Try to take a moment on the day to take it all in. It goes so fast and you want to rush around to see everyone but try and be present with everyone and take it all in so you can really appreciate and remember it all! It truly is the best day ever!