A Magical French Family Wedding: Marie-Claire & William

Step into the heartwarming celebration of Marie-Claire & William's wedding day at their family home in France. Tradition and sentimentality set the stage, with friends and family adding a personal touch to every detail – from homemade cocktails to bespoke stationery and curated music. Their wedding gift list followed suit, with gift picks to reflect the couple's needs and passions. Expect everything from travel gifts to a dream bathroom revamp!

“I’m a huge fan of lists - and not just gift ones. Everything about planning a wedding can be overwhelming, but writing down the essential components of what you need to do is really helpful for both organising your thoughts and tracking your progress. I would advise having one big list and then breaking it down into manageable chunks and giving them a time frame. That way, you have both the big picture and the immediacy of time-sensitive tasks. Doing this makes the long list of things to do feel less arduous, as you don’t need to tick everything off every week. 

My husband and I started with the big first steps: guest list (see, another list), venue, and date. Then we made another: caterer, marquee and so on. Though you don’t have to do it, we purchased a large whiteboard and pens and wrote our big and weekly lists on it. It was an incredibly visual way of following what was happening, and it was hugely satisfying to wipe off the tasks we had achieved. 

My main advice is also list-related. Early on, each of you should make a list of your priorities for the wedding; your ‘deal breakers.’ You may really want a live band, and realise you don’t care about having a cake. Or it might be that the dress is really important to you, but neither of you are overly fussed about wedding favours. Invariably, the budget will hang over proceedings like a grey rain cloud, and some aspects of the wedding just won’t be possible. Knowing what you really want and what you can do without makes it easier to know where to cut costs and where to direct your resources.”

“We were both keen to make the wedding as personal as possible. This started with the venue. Will’s family have a house in France that has been in the family for generations. It is loaded with years of history and happy memories and is also where several members of his family have got married, including his parents. 

On our wedding day, we paid homage to this by recreating his parents' wedding photo in the same spot, over forty years later. To have a venue that was so beautiful and yet one that was private and not hired felt very unique. I have always felt there was a fairy tale quality to the place, and getting married there made it feel even more magical. 

We also made our day unique by involving as many friends and family as possible. One of my best friends, Calum Mew, DJ’d the party. When people came up to me asking where I had sourced this incredible DJ I was so proud to say it was my friend. We had friends help with so many aspects! One of my bridesmaids designed and made the menus and name cards, and another great friend made all the cocktails, gin and vodka for the bar from his amazing distillery, Wood Brothers, in the Cotswolds. Another donated the whiskey to make my favourite cocktail, an Old Fashioned. My friends Laura and Gabriella donated their wedding veil to me, my mother made the bridesmaid's bouquets, and friends got together to decorate the marquee. It felt like a team effort and that made it feel really distinctive. 

We also decided to forgo a wedding cake and, instead, organised an entire table of desserts, complete with a tower of macarons and sparklers. That was something that, to me, felt really fun and refreshing.”

“What I loved about The Wedding Shop was that it had a truly amazing range of products and brands. I had also used it as a wedding guest and I knew how seamless the shopping experience could be. I really wanted everything to be as easy as possible for our guests. I loved that you can also exchange gifts within the site if something gets discontinued or you simply change your mind. I knew we were guaranteed to get gifts we really wanted. We are also both big travellers and loved the idea of travel vouchers and experiences being on our gift list. Because we received so many (our guests know us so well!), we are now planning a really big trip soon and it will feel all the more special, knowing it was because of the generosity of our friends and family.”

“Our Dualit coffee machine. We had always wanted one and thought it was too extravagant. We put it on the list not thinking anyone would get it but it was actually one of the first things to be bought! As a coffee addict I honestly felt like a kid on Christmas morning when it arrived.”

“Absolutely. There were so many who said it took all the stress out of gift buying and they were reassured that they had given us something we really wanted. With the travel vouchers and our bathroom renovation fund too- so many of our friends know how much we love to travel (and how desperately we want a new bathroom) so they told us these actually felt like super personal contributions.”

"I had used it as a guest and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. I wanted that seamless shopping experience for our guests. I also loved how wide the range of products and choices were - from tableware to charity donations- and even additional surprise extras."

Wedding photography by Jérémie Morel