The Perfect Wedding Venue in the South of France!

Picture the scene. I'm sat at my desk printing off job sheets for the upcoming weekend of weddings in mid-April and a DM comes through via Instagram from Steph.

"Have you ever done a wedding abroad?"

Imagine the thoughts. Instantly I was already booked. In my head I'd skipped getting the booking, I'd already jumped to 'where are we going??'. Steph and Ste then introduced me to Chateau Fengari in Clérac, around 50 minutes from Bordeaux. As you can see from the pic above, it's a stunning castle in the middle of nowhere, the PERFECT wedding location boasting some stunning grounds, accommodation for guests and even it's own pool and table tennis court.

Now usually I'm very strict with pricing. Everyone gets the same offers, and each package feature has it's own set price to keep the whole service simple and streamlined. I have to say, this went out of the window a little bit.. but how could it not. Beside the initial attraction of working aborad there's obviously a lot to think about, especially as the first one outside of the UK requiring all of my own equipment, instruments and expertise. How do I get there? How many travel adaptors can I buy on Amazon? What food do they serve on a ferry?

With all of that in mind, it was all about chatting with Steph and Ste to work out what they wanted, and make sure we we're all on the same page with expenses and the logistics of making this happen. They didn't want a traditional 'English Wedding Reception,' but they also didn't want silence, so in my head I'm instantly thinking about portable systems for easy moving, battery power to allow me to be outside, and aspects of live performance to keep it authentic and classy.

So.. here's how it all happened.

The Drive:

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Yes, you read that correctly. Driving. It was a job for the mighty 3 series, a monster of a road trip from Manchester to Bordeaux, around 12 hours of motoring with a couple of breaks for the ferry and of course some fine services cuisine (mainly Burger King)..

Now for those avid story watchers and followers, you may have seen that around three weeks before this trip I became a dad. It's incredible, and he (baby Ted) is absolutely class! during the day - I refuse to comment on the night time.. But me and my wife Lauren always saw this trip as a bit of a family holiday. A rare chance to explore and adventure together so the plan was always to turn the trip into a mini break.

With him in mind we broke the trip up into two six hour (ish) driving days. With a stop every hour or so for a quick milk and poop session, we'd booked a lovely AirBnB apartment in Abbeville which is an hour or so outside of Calais. Our host showed us up the narrow stairs** to a great little apartment where we spent the night before a mission through down south the following day.

**French stairs: Thin, Steep and very easy to fall up and down...

After a peaceful night we embarked on the remaining leg from Abbeville to Clérac.

Classic mistakes were made - toll booths on the wrong side of the car (if you know you know..) But we cracked on and started to notice the  the Air Con going up and up. It wasn't until a stop just outside of Poitiers that I opened the car door and instantly got that feeling you get when you step off a plane in Turkey.

The heat was insane, and when I checked the temperature it was 42 degrees. And we still had two hours south to travel.. The black jeans I'd planned to wear we're no longer in service - the only option was to find a shop . Turns out the Decathlon equivalent had smartish clothes, but €72 for a funky shirt and chino shorts did hit me in the chest. Anywho, we arrived in La Roche-Chalais at the stunning home of Florence - a  traditional, very French home with big shutters and a half bathroom, half upstairs landing kind of vibe. Very Edgy..

‍Our final French stay was back in Abbeville with Oceane, this time in the centre of the main square overlooking the clock tower, fountains, bars and restaurants. This place was unbelievable, so photogenic yet comfortable, modern and convenient. Real city break holiday vibes here, the longest we'd stayed out of the car and Lauren's first alcoholic drink since giving birth, what better place?

The Equipment:

‍A fair amount of thought went into deciding on what to take. There was a fine line between too much and not enough, and the obvious restraints of being in a car meant I really had to scale down. There were also other factors too:

-Size/Weights
-Power Levels
-Battery/Mains Powered
-Connectivity

See the kit list below!

From the top left we have:

2x Gorliia Speaker Stands
Classic, basic stands which easily collapse and are super lightweight. Used for raising speakers and for clipping handheld devices to.

4x 5m XLR Cables
Definite overkill, but there as a backup incase of Bluetooth or Wireless drop outs.

Zoom H4N Pro Recorder
Used for field recording, capturing bits of the ceremony and other audio snippets for future videos/media.

Memory Card Holder
Does what it says on the tin.. Holds 12 standard size SD cards for storing media.

Travel Adaptors
Eugh...

WB Elements 2TB External Hard Drive
Full of tunes!

Meinl Percussion Table
A handy portable table which clips to the speaker stand. Convenient for phones, iPads or receivers that otherwise dangle or sit on the floor.

Behringer XM1800S Wired Microphone
Backup microphone- ready for battery failure/wireless drop outs. Also has a switch which is great for moving it around/leaving it connected.

SHURE SM58 Wireless Mic (PG58)
The bees knees - a quality simple wireless microphon kit.

Hercules iPad Mount
Again, pretty straight forward. Stretches/collapses to fit tablets or phones of all sizes.

USB Fan
HOT, just a tiny bit of relief from the heat.

USB Hub
Offering fast USB Charging via USB 3.0 and USB C, it's great to powering multiple devices at one. It also only requires one plug adaptor!

iPad Pro
Backing tracks and musical materials connected via bluetooth.

2022 MacBook Pro
More tracks, and generally a backup for music playback. Also packs the photo and video editing software for creating on the fly.

Selmer MkVI Alto Sax
The beast itself. Makes me sound good, and looks cool AF!

Electro Voice Everse 8 (Pair)
No amount of writing puts into words how good these speakers are. Honestly, you need to try and experience them if you're into sound/gear. Bluetooth connectivity and wireless pairing means you can have a stereo, wireless system without being limited by cables. They're also battery powered and run for 12+ Hours on a full charge - so the whole system can literally be dropped down wherever it best suits with zero cables or mess. AND IT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE!

So what did I actually do all day?

One of the major tasks was attempting to remain cool. Turns out that's tricky with limited shade, but we all made it work.

I started with a pre-ceremony set as the guests emerged from their rooms. This consisted of very chilled out acoustic covers on the lawn, just in front of where the ceremony was to take place. Ste was welcoming his guests whilst Steph was doing the final touches upstairs -the perfect ambience as guests were pouring a drink and finding their seats.

We then went straight into the ceremony, where the specific tracks Steph had requested for her entrance were played. It wasn't a huge space so there was no need for microphones -Luke (Steph's brother) led the ceremony beautifully and got everyone involved in the personal service they wanted.

For the rest of the afternoon, it as generally musical chairs almost following the guests around with speakers depending on where they sat (usually in the shade). We had some chilled Ibiza sunset music on in the background to keep the atmosphere up and the focus away from the heat!

I managed to move one speaker over to the pool area, and then keep another on the patio close to the chateau and the central corridor which fed all of the side rooms.

All in, a great and an amazing experience. Surprisingly not too stressful, and not really a huge money maker, but essentially a free family holiday - what is there to complain about?!