horse and carriage wedding

Saying “I do” in a french wedding chateau is as fashionable as carrying the latest Louis Vuitton handbag for Hollywood celebrities today.Katie Price AKA Jordan apparently made it fashionable.

French Wedding Horse and Carriage
 
Anyone, especially non-celebrities can rent a french wedding chateau venue and get married in France and have a fairytale castle wedding of their dreams.  For the true fairy tale princess wedding, a horse drawn carriage is an essential. Cinderella, you shall get to the wedding.  

Some advice on selecting a horse and carriage for your castle wedding.

- 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.  This is of course provided the horses are of such a size to be able to pull the carriage singly.  Ask the carriage providers if both horses work in pairs and drive singly as well.Enquire whether they have both single and pairs harnesses.

- 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 and 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.  You should ask for a Victorian carriage or a Landau 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.A pair of matching black or bay or brown horses will look much more impressive than an unmatched pairs.  Ask to see a video if at all possible.  Long white socks and blazes look stunning and are very popular.    Ask if the horses mains will be braided or flowing.  It is just my opinion but I think that Friesians albeit looking very majestic also look very funereal and over-bearing being all black with no socks or blaze to lift their appearance.  I think they are best selected for funeral processions and not weddings.

- 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.  The Dutch really know their carriage horses.  It is a national past-time.  They run the KWPN register of the most prestigous warmblood horses in the world.

- 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.Horse drawn carriages do not travel great distances. It is time consuming and hard on the horses.You certainly do not want to spend dall of your wedding day travelling from your home to the church and then to the reception venue. 

- Think about safety.  Unfortunately in some countries wedding carriage drivers are not regulated and you get some cowboys.  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 seen carriages for shetlands hitched to a cob.  Not only does it look ridiculous but it is down right dangerous. Check that they have insurance.  Ask if the carriage has hydraulic breaks.  

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.

However, a destination wedding at a luxury wedding castle attended by 30-40 people might run to $10,000-20,000 a day, not including airfare. 

At our french castle our horses and carriage are offered to  our wedding clients with compliments for their fairytale wedding.