A little bit about us…..
We’re Rupert and Sarah, husband and wife team extraordinaire!
We have been at Chateau La Gauterie for over 10 years now after making the move from sunny Surrey, bringing with us all our possessions and 2 cats.
We decided to make the move after having our own Wedding in a Chateau in France in 2011. You can read how we ended up having our Wedding in France in our first Blog post. We came out in October of 2012, the search was brief, as soon as we saw La Gauterie we fell in love and moved in January 2013!
We were at a point in our lives where it was a ‘now or never’ move and we were brave and took the plunge.
It took several years to the restore the Chateau, we wanted to make it comfortable (not chintzy) for all of our guests, but keep the charm and features of this beautiful 200-year-old Chateau.
The Chateau is so relaxing and calm, we de-stressed immediately, within 10 months of our arrival, we had a new arrival! Followed up by No2 a few years later. Both are well rehearsed in how to show guests around the Chateau and No2 learnt to walk whilst we were setting up the marque.
We knew exactly how we wanted to run our Chateau as we came across many hurdles and obstacles whilst planning our own Wedding in France. The key was to be as flexible as possible and to allow all our couples to have the freedom to choose their own suppliers and not be forced to go with anyone. We are firm believers that each Wedding couple is unique and have different tastes and budgets.
We don’t offer packages for that very reason. Our couples can choose everything they want. Obviously, we can suggest the best fit suppliers but there’s no pressure. The Chateau is also run on a self-catering basis, so our couples have the freedom to cater as much or as little as they want to themselves. Small things, for example, the guests being able to make a cuppa when they want and not have to ring down for room service or go to a restaurant were really important for us.
We wanted to keep the Chateau special, (be a ‘hidden gem’ as we were once described), so we only do a handful of Weddings every year. We are not a ‘Wedding Factory’ which sadly many venues are these days, where there are sometimes 2 Weddings a week! Also, you will not find us in every Wedding Venue directory, for this very reason.
We work so well together, Rupert is the technical, hands on, can do anything one and I love to plan Weddings, having worked in hotels, conference centres and Wedding venues since 2000.
We look forward to making your French Chateau Wedding dream come to life!