private estate wedding Archives - Fête in France

Romantic French Countryside Wedding

Sara and Jack’s romantic French countryside wedding took place on a private estate near Paris, on a very hot summer day in July. The couple met in law school and after a year and a half of dating, Jack organized a weekend with Sara’s family. After receiving her father’s blessing, Jack proposed on a walk with their French bulldog, Ladybird, at the arboretum. They spent the rest of the evening and weekend celebrating with family and friends.

For their wedding, they wanted to keep the same easy and relaxed atmosphere. Sara grew up near Paris and her family’s house in the countryside near the French capital her favorite place on Earth. It felt natural to the couple to host their wedding there, even though Jack had never set foot in Europe before!

The ambiance they looked for was a chic backyard wedding, a family garden party and a lovely evening with their loved ones. A little eclectic and not too fussy. Sara wanted a dress with a long train (because if there is really one occasion to wear a train, it was on her wedding day!), and she also wanted color. She had been eyeing a special Monique Lhuillier gown, and when she got the chance to put it on, she knew right away it was the one. It had drama with a 10 ft long train and embroidered flowers in purple, red and blue that would perfectly tie in with the wildflowers of the French countryside.

Preparations for the wedding day took place directly on the family estate. The ceremony was set in front of an old pool, with the rest of the garden in the background. The arch blended in seamlessly with the scenery and was adorned of beautiful purple flowers, the bride’s favorite color. The bridal party walked down the aisle to Sara’s uncle singing Ave Maria, just like he did for her parents’ wedding, and her grandfather officiated the ceremony, as he had done before for the bride’s parents. It was a true family affair.

The festivities continued with a cocktail hour with passed hors d’oeuvres, and guests enjoyed signature drinks while listening a gypsy jazz trio play. At sunset, guests were invited under a tent set on the main lawn in front of the house: long wooden tables were decorated with wild purple flower arrangements and lilac candles. A sprig of lavender on the menus added an extra touch at each seat.

After a delicious spit roasted lamb diner and moving speeches, the bride and groom had their first dance to Beyond by Leon Bridges. They held the song dear to their heart as they had danced to it on the night they got engaged. The bride had previously changed into a purple Badgley Mischka dress so she could dance all night.

A cigar bar and a desert buffet were set up with couches for guests to relax after dinner, but the dance floor was never empty, and everyone danced until 2am!

Contact us to see how we can help plan your romantic French countryside wedding!

To read more about this wedding, check out the full post on Over the Moon.

Planning & design: @feteinfrance
Flowers: @lilypalomaflowers
Caterer: @entre_mets_et_fragrances
Photographer: @capturelifeandlovers
Hair stylist: @ciaracoiffure
Makeup artist: @allisondepmuah
Macaroon tower: @maisonladuree
Rentals : @be_lounge
Tableware : @maison_options
Day-of paper : @studiofrenchblue
Invitations : @tiethatbinds
Bridal salon : @carinesbridal
Wedding dress : @moniquelhuillierbride

Wedding

How to plan a wedding in France

You’re engaged! Amid the whirlwind of all of the wedding possibilities, the idea of a wedding in France pops up: an elegant Paris wedding, or a romantic château wedding, or a relaxed countryside wedding… Then you wonder if you can really make this dream work. And you take to the internet to start looking into how to plan a wedding in France.

The search often begins with French wedding venues – the where of it seems like a good place to start. When you’re doing a first dive into venue search, it’s easy to get swept away by visuals or submerged by the daunting task of sifting through different websites, but it’s hard to know the what to really look for .

And what if the best way to the where and an understanding of the what started with the who?

After an exasperating or frustrating start to their venue search our couples often are so excited to find us. And learn that we’re native (American!) English speakers. And that we’ve been wedding planning for a while now (more than 5 years… more than 10 years…) creating close to 350 weddings of every shape and size, including some very beautiful and logistically complex celebrations. This depth and breadth of experience helps us navigate you through the planning process with ease, and allows us to keep things cool, calm and on track.

We’d love to hear from you and help you figure out the what and the where of your wedding!

Wedding

Wedding weekend in Burgundy: Texas BBQ Rehearsal Dinner

We’re delighted to have this wedding featured on Carats and Cake and it was just the push we needed to write the next chapter of this exceptional 4-day wedding weekend. It was easy to find inspiration for the rehearsal dinner when the groom is originally from the Lone Star state and the bride is a champion horserider and manages a ranch outside of Fort Worth. After Day One’s “White Nights” theme Welcome Party, we headed deep in the heart of Texas for a rehearsal dinner bbq on Day Two.

We knew we needed to build all of the reception spaces, and that there would be a main tent for the wedding and brunch, and another tent for the rehearsal dinner. We wanted to make sure the feel of the rehearsal dinner was different but still coherent with the rest of the structures that would be on the property. Tipi tents were a perfect solution for both the rehearsal dinner and tent village we built to host some of the wedding guests.

The tipi structure hit just the right note of rustic and the design we selected with Madame Artisan Fleuriste made it festive, pretty and inviting. Details like horseshoe escort cards (collected from the bride’s ranch, naturally), state of Texas shaped cookies and a University of Texas groom’s cake. And what would a Texas-themed rehearsal dinner be without barbecue? The team from Melt totally delivered on the true Texas bbq experience, hanging out by their custom made smoker under a popup tent to keep dry. The native Texan and Paris-based smokemaster wowed the crowd, many of whom said it was the best bbq they had ever eaten!

Wedding

Wedding weekend in Burgundy: White Nights party

The elegant wedding weekend in Burgundy started with a welcome party two days before the big day. The theme was “White Nights”, the famous (at least to the father of the bride) 80’s movie featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. Guests were instructed to wear white, and the color palette for the decor was inspired by the colors of the summer night sky in Saint Petersburg.

As you probably know by now, the weather did not at all cooperate. The party, which was supposed to take place around the château’s beautiful pool, was moved inside the main tent. Despite the change of location, guests had a fantastic time and most importantly were warm and dry, with plenty of delicious food and drink.

Wedding

Summertime garden wedding in Normandy

2018 gave us incredible summer weather – even in places that have a bit of a reputation for being rainy. So it was with great delight that for L&A’s Normandy summertime wedding we had an abosolutely perfect day.

Preparations took place at the chic seaside Grand Hotel in Cabourg and then guests were brought inland to a beautiful private garden tended by the indomitable Madame & Monsieur Noppe. Their gardens, a labor of love over the past +25 years, was the site of the ceremony. During the planning, we had spent hours one day searching out the perfect spot based on the amount of space needed, the position of the sun and the amount of shade!

Guests enjoyed another part of the gardens during the cocktail hour and were then led to the rustic-chic reception space, where beautiful tables set with Lily Paloma’s gorgeous centerpieces brought the garden feel inside. A gourmet meal was served including the Norman traditions of a trou normand (palette cleanser) of apple sorbet and apple brandy, and of course a delicious selection of cheeses. Given the couple’s backgrounds, American (on the bride’s side) and French (on the groom’s side), they had not one, but two wedding cakes: a tiered wedding cake, with sugarpaste decoration inspired by the floral motif on the bride’s dress; and a traditional French croquembouche, or tower of cream-puffs held together with caramelized sugar and always presented with sparklers and great fanfare!

The couple deeply wanted to encourage conversation between the two sides of the family, so to overcome the language barrier there were two interpreters present at the wedding to translate the speeches in real time and help facilitate conversation with the guests. The couple also had the wish to have dancing take place outside. Any open-air plan is sure to make a wedding planner nervous – even moreso in a region that’s known for being green and lush (=rainy!) Fortunately it was clear, sunny and warm in the days leading up and on the day, allowing the dancefloor and band to be set up under the stars.

The wedding day was just one of three days of celebrations organized for the couple and their guests. To kick things off, a welcome dinner was planned at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the charming town of Beuvron. And to cap off the festivities a next-day brunch took place in the elegant ballroom of the Grand Hotel. All in all a perfect wedding weekend for this lovely Franco-American couple!

Wedding

Elegant wedding weekend in Burgundy

We’re always curious as to how our couples find us – sometimes it’s through a simple google search, or via a wedding blog feature – more and more it’s through Instagram. But we’re always the most excited when they come to us on recommendation from venues or vendors we’ve worked with, or from former clients. And so it was that Constance and Nick contacted us for their chateau wedding in Burgundy.

We’re starting off with a post about the wedding day, which was on the third of a spectacular four-day wedding weekend. By this time, guests had gotten to know each other and were used to the less-than-ideal meteorological conditions. As with the previous days, back-up plans had to be called on (yes, the gorgeous ceremony setting was a plan B!) But as with the previous days, the sunny disposition of the bride & groom and the warmth of their families and friends more than made up for a bit of rain.

For more of the story, check out our feature on Style Me Pretty and stay tuned for future blog posts!