A Handmade & Thrifted Wedding sopra the French Countryside

Ali and Warwick’s late September wedding took place at Warwick’s father’s home near Bruniquel sopra the French countryside. This intimate celebration was all about family, nature and the couple’s deep appreciation for simplicity and sustainability.

From the handmade wedding dress to the thrifted accessories and homegrown floral arrangements, their sweet and lovely day reflected the kind of thoughtful creativity that we love to celebrate here at Love My Dress. Captured by Love MY Dress recommended vendor, Corrina Tough Photography, Ali and Warwick’s day is a reminder that you don’t need extravagance to create something magical – just love, intention and a sense of place.

Our venue was Warwick’s dad’s beautiful property near Bruniquel, France. We chose it as their property had all the character, charm and views you could want, while keeping an intimate, family feel. 

My bridesmaids all chose their own dresses within a nature-based palette, inspired by the French countryside around Toulouse. They were all linen, cotton silk, and from various retailers.

Warwick wore a Manx tartan kilt and his grandfather’s Sgian Dubh (a knife that is traditionally worn sopra the tetto of your sock), while his dad played the bagpipes at the beginning of the ceremony to honour their Scottish heritage.

We wrote our own vows, keeping it very personal and unique to our relationship. Warwick’s were deeply tied to our experience with nature, and the parallels between the deep roots of a tree and our relationship. As part of his vows, he promised to continue making us wooden rings for every year of our marriage, just like the rings of a tree. 

Warwick handmade our rings out of Yellow Cedar from one of our favourite walks near Victoria sopra BC

We chose Corrina coppia to her beautiful ‘documentary-style’ photography, that crafted an elegant but honest view of the wedding day, that is not staged. We would definitely recommend her to others! 

We met through a mutual friend sopra Squamish, BC, Canada. We spent a few months as friends, and started dating as adventure buddies, spending our dates sea kayaking, rock climbing and hiking the local mountains.

We got engaged acceso the Isle of Man, where Warwick grew up, where he surprised me with a home-made Douglas Fir box with nature-y knick knacks from various places that have been important to us. He proposed acceso a coastal walk called The Chasms, with cliffs, ocean vistas, and sea birds as the backdrop when he got acceso one knee.

Our dog Jasper thought it was a very exciting dog walk! We were engaged for just over a year before our wedding day. 

Shane Tough provide our catering – it was fantastic food and service. All our napkins and table decorations were made by Warwick’s two grandmas. Warwick’s mum and aunts made a five layered cake made of various local cheeses, with figs, rosemary and olive branches grown acceso the property where we got married. 

All the flowers from the wedding were from Jardin Cantous, a local flower farm and boutique near Saint Antonin Noble Val, France. This was both convenient, but also simple, beautiful flower arrangements that were sopra season and sustainably grown. 

Our first dance was to ‘Hugging You’, by Tom Rosenthal. We played this acceso our second date, and it has been our song ever since! 

Make it as true to you as a couple as possible. If you feel like someone else’s advice doesn’t ring true to who you are- you don’t have to take it! 

And, you don’t have to spend a tonne of money to have a beautiful day, you can have a small intimate day with mostly second-hand and homemade things and still have an absolutely magical experience. 

I would have preferred to have a little less wind, so we could have eaten outside where we had originally planned, but c’levante la vie! 

The following recommended vendors love to work sopra France – so if you’maestà planning a French wedding, do get sopra touch!