wedding trends Archives - Fête in France | Wedding Planner in France

Château wedding Southwest France | Château de Malliac

The beautiful countryside of the Southwest of France was the setting for Emmie & Jon’s French château wedding. The globe-trotting couple has lived in Beijing, Montreal and San Fransisco, but their true love is for France. The first time they visited our beautiful country together, there was an immediate connection. They kept coming back, and each time it felt more magical. It felt natural for them to host their wedding in the country they loved so much.The relaxed yet elegant château wedding venue they chose is located in a region known for it’s food and wine. The rambling property is surrounded by vineyards which produce wine as well as the region’s famous Armagnac. The château also has the feel of a family home with plenty of accommodations on site, so friends and family were able to stay together and enjoy the grounds for the four days of festivities.The château and grounds have several spaces perfect for a wedding weekend of festivities, which allowed us to create a different ambiance for each event: beautiful ivy-covered courtyards, a rehabilitated barn with two big high-ceilinged rooms, a swimming pool, and a massive garden.The bride was stunning in an elegant strapless Vera Wang gown and loose chignon updo, and the groom dapper in a black tuxedo and velvet slippers. After the “I dos” the bride added chic accessories for her reception look, donning puffy tulle sleeves, golden dangly earrings and letting her hair down.

The floral decor was inspired by fall colors with warm tones mixed with greenery. The bouquets, arch and flower arrangements all had a lot of texture, with an elegant combination of fresh and dried flowers.For the cocktail, we invited guests to another part of the garden, where they could spread out between the trees and relax on lounge furniture set up on the grass. A live band played folk and pop music to add to the perfect late summer ambiance as the sun set on the vines behind the domain.

The dinner took place in the main courtyard, under garlands of lights which created a warm and intimate ambiance. The couple enjoyed their meal surrounded by friends and family and their moving speeches. After champagne flowed for dessert, the bride and groom surprised their guests with fireworks, before leading them to dance late into the night.

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

As seen on Magnolia Rouge.

Planning & design: @feteinfrance
Venue: @chateaudemalliac
Flowers: @fleurs-de-mars
Photographer: @marionhweddings
Videographer: @moonandbackco
Hair stylist: @ciaracoiffure
Makeup artist: @sannimakeupartist
Caterer: @lacostetraiteur
Tableware and rentals: @maison_options
Band: @chelseychantelle

Inspiration

Clouds and Romance Inspiration Shoot at Château de Vaux le Vicomte

Vaux-le-Vicomte is a XVIIth century château built by the architect of Louis the XIV, Louis Le Vau, with traditional French gardens designed by André Le Nôtre and interiors by Charles Le Brun. It was built for Louis XIV’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet and served as a model for the Château de Versailles. The main ballroom, as wide as it is high (18m or 60 feet high), is a unique oval shape, with a black and white tiled floor and a painting on the ceiling that depicts a beautiful blue sky with white clouds.

With all these elements together in a room, our inspiration was quickly found. Madame Artisan Fleuriste worked with a base of astilbes to create a textured romantic cloud, into which she incorporated roses in varying shades of pink. The floral arrangement was set atop modern see-through gold stands, as if it were floating above the table.

We layered different fabrics, mixing the colors and the texture of the linens to recreate the complexity of the sky painted above. Texture and color continued in the tableware selection, with scallopped charger plates and smoky blue cutlery for contrast. Gold accents kept the design elevated and château-worthy, and dashes of dark burgundy in the florals added a special dramatic touch. We brought in black and white medallion chairs and tall black taper candles to tie in the gorgeous flooring.

We used the same accent colors for the invitation suite: Crimson Letters pulled in a black envelope to contrast with her beautiful handtorn white paper inside. She drew gold leaf motifs and added strokes of light pink watercolor in the same shade as our roses.

Type A Society brought their A-game for the bridal styling. The most fashion-forward of the looks was a Said Kobeissy gown. The dress was the perfect mix of modern fashion and romance: the intricate design of flowers and sparkle fit so well with the ballgown skirt on top. The second look, by Chana Marelus, was beautiful and ethereal; our model bride looked like she could fly away with the light breeze coming through the château’s French windows. The third look, also by Chana Marelus, was a sparkly gown that reflected the light beautifully with a train worthy of a princess.

The talented Harold James ensured that our models were looking fresh and cool, despite the record-breaking heat wave.

Vendors :

Inspiration

Wedluxe Trend Report Cover Feature

Doing an inspiration shoot in the desert was a major departure for us. Our regular scene is elegant Parisian mansions and romantic French châteaux! The launch of our satellite office in Dubai and sister brand Fête Event Planning was the perfect excuse to do something different. So we dove right in and explored new colors, textures, and ambiances. We were delighted when news came that the inspiration shoot would appear on Wedluxe. But we were over the moon when we discovered that the feature was the front cover of the Wedluxe Global Trend Report!

The main sources of inspiration was the intricate motif of the Iranian Mosque in Dubai. The gorgeous palette of colors was the perfect spark to get our creative minds working.

The paper goods elements were original creations by Studio French Blue. The unique calligraphy style used a back-leaning slant to mimic arabic script.

We created a cosy seating area by framing the space with bougainvillea plants. The woven rug and cushions in tones of blue anchored the setup. Accents in brass and orange gave a bit of pop and shine.

Dubai has incredible resources when it comes to having things custom made. We decided to design a dress that would be flowy and beautiful in the desert breeze.

Thank you to the incredible team of creative partners who helped bring the vision to life!

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!

Inspiration

Top 2019 Wedding Trends for your wedding in France

Color
Blush, nude, and ivory will always have their place in wedding decor, but the 2019 wedding trend we’re most excited about is color! Inspired by runway set design as well as interior design, we’re seeing boldly-colored flowers work their way into wedding floral design and rich jewel tones into tableware and rentals.

Blue and white
A welcome change from the classic white or gold-rimmed tableware, the blue and white motifs we’re seeing are both a modern and romantic twist for your wedding tablescape.

Pampa Grass

Pampa grass and dried flowers are changing up the traditional textures we’ve seen in wedding floral design. These materials can quickly veer into a bohemian vibe, so if you’re planning a more sophisticated wedding, be sure to incorporate some rich and glamorous blooms such as roses and orchids.

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!

Wedding

A Fall wedding in Paris

Clare and Richard celebrated their marriage with a fall wedding in Paris surrounded by nearly 300 guests. The October weather cooperated for the most part – the evening of their welcome dinner was rainy but there was lovely autumn weather for the wedding day.

Both the bride and groom have an international background: families from Hong Kong and China, childhoods in France/England and Canada, studies at Cambridge and Oxford, professional lives that had them work in different world capitals. And it was thanks to a mutual friend that they were brought together, fell in love, and decided to get married in Paris.

The weekend was full of festivities, starting the day before the wedding with a Chinese tea ceremony for the bride’s and groom’s families, and a welcome dinner at a stylish Paris restaurant. The couple started the wedding day with breakfast and traditional Chinese door games for the immediate family and wedding party. Then it was time for wedding prep to start: the bride wore a beautiful customized Oscar de la Renta bridal gown and the groom in a morning coat and vest.

The wedding ceremony took place at the historic American Cathedral in Paris and featured a full choir to sing the hymns selected by the bride and groom. After a petal toss at the end of the ceremony, the couple escaped for some photos around Paris and guests were transferred to the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée for the wedding reception.

The wedding was full of personal touches from the couple: welcome bags included nostalgic treats from the bride’s childhood in Paris and a custom city guide with favorite sights and restaurants; paintings of birds by a friend served as table names; a tropical themed photocall with a neon sign inspired by one of the couples favorite artists, Tracey Emin. The couple kicked off the dance party with a choreographed routine to “Hallelujah I Love Her So” by Ray Charles and then the stage curtains were drawn back to reveal a full live band that kept guests dancing into the wee hours.