Patty and Dani were married on their 13th anniversary at Château de la Grande Riedera in Switzerland. “The Inspiration for our wedding was to spend a relaxed day with our family and friends, where everyone would feel comfortable”, Patty began. “The original plan was a quiet BBQ somewhere close to a lake, but that seemed to be a very difficult task. Somehow the venue, budget and date never fit together. As that didn’t work out, we looked for something different and found the Chateau de la Grande Riedera, which was perfect. We loved that all parts of the wedding could take place at the same location, which made it a very relaxed atmosphere. It also allowed us to organise the caterer we wanted to have which brought us back at least parts of the BBQ idea.”
“Compared to a typical Swiss wedding ours was probably very different”, she continued. “We had an outdoor ceremony with a friend of ours officiating, and a rockabilly band playing. This actually influenced the retro style of the whole day. I had seen so many great weddings featured on blogs like Rock n Roll Bride and wanted to do so many different things, none of which seemed to fit together. However in the end it all came together great!”
The couple did a few simple bits of DIY including the invitations and the tissue paper flowers. “We designed all of our cards on our own. It was important for us to do this because we both like to design and this way we knew that they would turn out exactly as we wanted them. We also had plastic flamingos everywhere! I knew all along that I wanted to have flamingos at our wedding. Unfortunately, they all seemed too expensive until I found some on eBay about two weeks before the wedding!”
“We also had vinyl as place cards which we bought on ricardo.ch (a Swiss version of eBay). There was vinyl of the Rocky soundtrack, Jonny Cash, some folkloric bands and even children’s stories! For every guest we chose a vinyl that we thought would fit them and we got some pretty cool feedback on the choice and the idea. Everyone got the sleeve when leaving the wedding, so they could keep them forever. They served as guest favours as well as place cards.”
“The best part of the day was getting married after being together for 13 years”, she explained. “I also loved seeing everyone when I first walked into the garden where they were all waiting. Our biggest expenses were photography and food. I grew up with many pictures around, as my dad used to be a photographer and he passed on that interest and passion. When it came to the planning it was clear that we would hire a great photographer. However we saved a lot of money on wine as we were able to bring our own to the château without paying corkage.”
“Our advice to other couples would be to just do it your own way”. the couple concluded. “Guests will realise that you are feeling comfortable and so they will as well. You will never be able to please everyone, so at least make sure it is the wedding you really want. At the end of the day you are the most important people! Also, don’t hesitate to mix friends and family on the tables. We were worried that people might not get on, but it worked out great and it was amazing to see friends and family from different walks of life getting to know each other. We had a really good feedback on that.”
