Rachel and Jonathan came from London to marry at a château in Nouvelle-Aquitaine they had never walked through until the week of the wedding. No coordinator, no wedding planner, a brother reading the ceremony and thirty degrees in the shade.
It worked because they knew the house before they arrived. This page is that knowledge, so your day here starts where theirs finished.
Getting Married at Château de la Borderie
The château stands at Lieu-dit La Borderie, outside the village of Benest. Ceremonies happen on the small patio behind the building, where the trees hold shade through the hottest part of the afternoon. On the thirtieth of May the thermometer sat above thirty degrees and nobody spent their vows squinting, which is entirely down to where that patio faces.
Rachel’s brother read the ceremony. Their guests had been asked to put their phones away and leave them away, and they did, so every photograph from those thirty minutes has faces in it rather than screens.
The lawn in front of the façade takes the group photograph. There is a row of windows across the front of the house and it is tempting to fill every one of them with your guests. Above sixty people they come out too small to recognise, and you will want to recognise them. What works is the central windows filled and everyone else gathered on the lawn below.
The Morning Before Any of It
I arrive at half past twelve, before the house fills up. The first hour goes to the things you spent a year choosing and will not see again after that morning: the dress on the back of a door, the shoes, the rings, the bouquet before it wilts in the heat, the bottle of perfume, whatever your grandmother lent you. They photograph best laid out together in the light from a bedroom window, and Borderie has good windows for it.
By two the guests start arriving and the upstairs and downstairs bedrooms empty out. That hour and a half in between is quieter than any other part of your wedding, and it is usually where the photographs your parents keep come from. Protect it. Weddings that run late almost always borrow the time from here first.
Where Your Day Will Actually Happen
Getting ready divides itself. There is a bedroom upstairs on one side of the house and another downstairs on the other, far enough apart that you will not meet before you mean to. Rachel saw her father first, in the hour before the ceremony, which is a quieter way into the day than most couples plan for.
The main sitting room is the strongest interior here: paintings, old furniture, and room to arrange your families without pressing anyone against a wall. The staircase is narrow and dark. It photographs beautifully and it needs flash, so if you want portraits there, tell me in advance and I will bring the light for it. The library becomes a stage when there is live music.
One room to plan around. The dining room has windows on three of its four walls, which is lovely to sit in and difficult to photograph against. Seat the two of you with a wall behind you rather than glass, and your dinner photographs change completely. It costs nothing to decide in advance and a great deal to decide on the day.
The Half Hour After the Vows
The moment the ceremony ends is the only time every single person you invited is in one place, awake, and looking at you. It lasts about thirty minutes and then it dissolves into drinks and conversation and never reassembles.
At Borderie that half hour goes like this. Confetti on the way off the patio while everyone is still standing together. The big group photograph on the lawn with the façade behind you. Then the smaller groups, and this is where the house earns its keep: the main sitting room takes a family of twelve without anyone flattened against a wall, and the narrow staircase makes portraits that look nothing like anyone else’s wedding, provided somebody brought a flash. Forty minutes covers all of it if the list is written down beforehand. Without a list it takes an hour and a half and people start drifting to the bar.
The One Thing to Get Right in Your Timeline
At the end of May the sun sets at Benest at about five to nine in the evening, which put Rachel and Jonathan’s best light between half past seven and quarter past eight. In July it is later still, in September nearly an hour earlier. Whichever month you choose, that window is the one to protect: twenty minutes with nothing else scheduled, and you will have the photographs you are picturing right now.
The rest of the day is more forgiving. The shade behind the château carries your ceremony, the lawn holds the group photograph, and the interiors want a little help from the middle of the afternoon onwards. None of it asks anything of you except knowing it exists.
A Wedding Run by the People In It
There was no coordinator at this wedding and no planner either. The ceremony was read by family, the timings belonged to the couple rather than to a schedule, and everything that happened, happened because somebody in the room had decided it should. That is a particular kind of day to photograph, and Borderie suits it.
Dinner ran into speeches that nobody hurried. A line artist played, then the first dance, then a cheesecake in place of a wedding cake at half past ten, and the dancing carried on well past it. Days like that need a photographer who directs rather than waits. Rachel asked for fewer photographs, set up properly, and that is what a house like this rewards. I know where the sun sits at six here, which corner of the sitting room holds a group of twelve, and how long it really takes to move a full wedding from the patio to the lawn. You get that time back and you spend it on your day.
If you would rather see what a full day includes first, the collections are here, and if it is easier to talk it through, book a discovery call with me.
FAQ
Where is Château de la Borderie?
At Lieu-dit La Borderie, 16350 Benest, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Your guests will most likely fly into Poitiers, Limoges or Bordeaux, and hire a car from there. I travel to the château from Toulouse.
How many guests do weddings here usually have?
Rachel and Jonathan had around seventy guests and a handful of children. At that size the house works without feeling crowded, and the group photograph still shows faces.
Can the ceremony take place outside?
Yes. Rachel and Jonathan were married on the small patio behind the château, in the shade of the trees. In July and August that shade is worth building the timeline around.
How do I check your availability for Borderie?
Send me the date and I will come back to you the same day, with what a full day of coverage here would look like.
If you are still choosing between houses, two more worth seeing are Château Sentout near Bordeaux and Château de Saint-Martory in Occitanie, both very different days. When you have your date and your venue, the packages page sets out what a full day of coverage includes.
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