Feb

3

A Horse Drawn Carriage for Cinderella at a French Wedding Chateau

Filed Under Relationships 

Destination weddings are a thriving business with 16% of U.S. brides choosing them last year, up 400% ten years ago. While the price tag for a celebrity castle wedding often runs well over a $1 million your typical chateau wedding can be done for far less. European castles are being booked by non-celebrities in hoardes.

Apparently it was Madonna (Skibo Castle in 2000) and Spice Girl Victoria Adams (Irish castle wedding in 1999) are credited with heightening interest in the trend with pomp and circumstance.

Interest in the Odescalchi Castle has soared since Tom and Katie held their wedding there. Skibo Castle has a waiting list with hopeful brides paying a $40,000 initiation fee prior to a wedding booking. Eva Longoria and Tony Park’s wedding on the auspicious 7th July 2007 at Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte has only fueled the trend. When a celebrity wedding in an exotic location makes headlines people see it and want to copy it.

According to Brides editor in chief Millie Martini Bratten, “The average U.S. wedding costs $27,850”. The 2006 average price tag of a destination wedding was $25,800, plus travel and hotel costs. Away-from-home weddings can be cheaper, because there are typically are fewer guests to wine and dine. The guests for a hometown event average 165 and 47 for an overseas location. However, a destination wedding at a luxury wedding castle attended by 30-40 people might run to $20,000-30,000 a day, not including airfare.

Cinderella, you shall get to the wedding.

Saying “I do” in a wedding castle is as fashionable as carrying the latest Chanel handbag for today’s Hollywood celebrity.

Anyone, especially non-celebrities can rent a wedding castle and get married in France and have a fairytale wedding castle of their dreams. Marrying in a chateau means “becoming part of a fairytale,” says Mindy Weiss, Eva Longoria’s wedding planner “You’re walking into a chapter of a romance novel.”

For the true fairy tale princess wedding, a horse drawn carriage is an essential. Whether you travel in a massive cart pulled by a huge shire horse, or a trap with little shetland ponies, nothing beats that fairy-tale feeling.

Katie Price also known as Jordan has been attibuted for the increase in horse and carriage weddings.

Some advice on selecting a horse and carriage

- a pair of horses makes more of a wow statement. Also this offers you a back up if one of the horses at the last minute is lame and not able to pull the carriage. Ask the carriage providers if both horses work in pairs and drive singly as well. As if they have single and pairs wedding harness.

- how big is the carriage. Is it big enough for you and your wedding dress. Carriages for smaller horses are smaller inside as well. A carriage pulled by a pair of horses over 16 hand high is roomy and makes a great impression. You will not feel squeezed andd your wedding dress will not get all crushed.

- think about the weather. Does the carriage you are considering have a canopy or a glass cover. Victorian carriages and Landaus are popular for this very reason

- Ask how the carriage is going to be decorated - at the very least you should get a pair of brass lanterns and flowers. Do the horses wear plumes? Ask what colour schemes they can offer or if you can provide flowers of your colour scheme. Because of the movement and wind, companies usually use silk flowers. If you want additional colour real flowers can be added for your static photos.

- Do the pair of horses match - colour, height, blaze and socks and stepping action. Two matching browns or black horses will look more impressive than a brown and a black. Ask to see a video if at all possible. Long white socks look stunning and are very popular. They look striking just like a french polish manicure. Ask if the horses mains will be braided or flowing. You could ask if the company will braid the horses manes with your colour scheme.

- If you are going to have a video think about the stepping action of the horses. Horses bred with some hackney blood have a lovely knee-high stepping action which looks incredible. Dutch bred gelderlander horses usually have some hackney blood in them for that high stepping action. It seems a shame to go to the expense of a horse and carriage and then not have a horse that looks the part - fine and elegant. Cobs and cart horses are more suited for pulling gypsy caravans and look more rustic.

- Ask what attire the driver and groom (not your man - the one holding the horses) will wear.

- Think about the distance that you need to travel. Horses do not go at 100 kilometres per hour and are limited on the distance that they can travel. Besides you do not want to spend dall of your wedding day travelling from your home to the church and then to the reception venue. Also if you are travelling a long distance any wind could play havoc with your hair if you have an open top carriage.

- Think about safety. Unfortunately in some countries wedding carriage drivers are not regulated and you get some cowboys. Check that they are experienced - ask to see photos of dirreferent brides. Check that the harness looks symmetrical. I have seen wedding carriage business promotion material with a horse harnessed to a carriage with the shafts being set at different heights. I have also seen carriages for shetlands hitched to a cob. Not only does it look ridiculous but it is down right dangersous. How old are the horses? Check that they have insurance. Ask if the carriage has hydraulic breaks. I have seen professional companies turn up with grooms that are under 10 years of age and that are just there for the photos and who would not be able to hold a horse in an emergency.

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