A Dreamy Château Wedding in France's Bordeaux Countryside

Lush vibrant florals and vintage elegance for a romantic French countryside celebration

Jacqueline & Travis's wedding was a breathtaking celebration of love, set against the timeless beauty of a French countryside château. Their intimate ceremony unfolded under a draped altar, surrounded by vibrant, lush florals that seemed to echo the natural splendor of the surroundings. As the evening continued, guests were treated to an unforgettable reception – a dinner party filled with laughter, delicious food, and personalized touches, like the intricate embroidery of each guest’s name on their napkin, carefully crafted by the bride herself. The night sparkled with espresso martinis and a dazzling display of fireworks. Jacqueline's bespoke bridal gown, a stunning homage to the 1940s Dior silhouette and vintage French style, was the perfect reflection of her elegant vision. Every magical moment was captured by photographer Tessa Shannon.

Our Love Story

^{The Day We Met}

We met September 20 2012 in a small town Canadian country bar. Trav saw me laughing from across the room and said to his best friend and future best man, “that’s the girl I’m going to marry”. The way he tells it, he used courageously approached an “intimidatingly large group of girls” to ask me to dance. I didn’t know how to two-step at the time (and it’s still a work in progress) so Trav had to put the moves on in more ways than one. As we walked up to the dance floor, “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line came on and it’s been our song ever since.

^{The Proposal}

We were on holiday in the French Riviera with my dad and his fiancé. I knew something was up when my dad said he wanted a night alone and Trav mentioned he’d conveniently booked a wine bar “just in case”. We got a bottle of champagne to go, picked up plastic cups from a nearby supermarket and made our way down to the beach just as the sun was setting. Trav is 6’6 and I spend most of my time looking up at him so he knew it was important to me to be at eye level for such a big question. Rather than getting down on one knee and making it a public spectacle, we sat side by side and Trav played our song on his phone while saying some lovely words (which neither of us remember thanks to nerves!). Despite being in the middle of a crowded beach, it felt like it was just us.

^{The Engagement Ring}

My favourite colour is green and I’d had visions of us finding an emerald ring or similar in a little vintage shop. What I didn’t know was Trav had spent just over a year hunting all over for the perfect green diamond in exactly the right shade. He custom-designed the ring with a slim band and four talon prongs to highlight the oval-cut stone. I’m truly obsessed with it.

Our Wedding

^{The Vision}

Our vision was pretty straightforward. We wanted the day to feel like a true reflection of us and equally for everyone to have an amazing time. We tried to prioritise guest experience in everything we did and included as many personal touches as possible. We weren’t too fussed about having a “perfect” day - that doesn’t exist. We really just wanted to have the best time with our friends and family and in turn, make sure they knew how much they mean to us.

^{Our Team of Vendors}

We’re big believers in trusting people to do what they do best. Ekaterina was a true talent with everyone’s hair and makeup while India and Samantha from Best Events Co created stunning, organic floral arrangements and tablescape design. Brian from Loose Covers played piano during the ceremony and cocktail hour before turning it out for an all night DJ set. We still fantasise about Maison DuLou’s oyster tower and grilled seafood stand during cocktail hour. Tessa, from Tessa Shannon Photography, is one of our closest friends. She captured our wedding portraits and then joined the ceremony onwards as a guest, entrusting Petra Marton as her second shooter. Jeremie from the Quirky created footage we’ll watch on repeat forever. Finally, we commissioned HeresToYou on Etsy for custom illustrations, which we used to tie everything together. We couldn’t be more grateful to the whole team.

^{The Location}

We rented out two French countryside châteaus and stocked them full of food and wine for 3 days to ensure everyone’s stay was comfortable. The main estate, Château de Garde, hosted the wedding festivities and 50 guests. The other, Château de Birot, was more intimate with 15 guests. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect venue for the wedding. The brief was simple, we wanted somewhere that could house everyone privately for multiple days, had a pool for daytime festivities, and a fireworks license (Trav’s number one request). It was love at first video tour.

To welcome guests to each château, we created tote bags with a commissioned illustration of Château de Garde. Bags with name tags were hung on each guest’s door. Each bag had welcome cards, timelines and a QR code linking to our custom French vibes playlist. We stocked bags with canelés (a local treat), local crisps, and Trav’s favourite headache tablets alongside a note on how he discovered them (his ‘infamous Madeira hangover’). We collect Christmas ornaments and postcards so Trav also hand-painted ornaments to match the venue and stamped them with our initials to be boxed up and placed in each bag. Finally, each welcome bag was customised to have something unique to the guest, like their favourite pre-batched cocktail.

Château de Garde also had so many distinct areas, we were able to host various events across the property without using the same space twice. Upon our guest’s arrival the day before, we hosted welcome drinks on the patio. Despite best intentions to get a good night’s sleep, the best man brought out DJ equipment and the night before quickly turned into a 4am dance party. Most guests ended up in the pool or dancing under a French renaissance ceiling mural.

^{The Ceremony}

Trav walked down the aisle with his mom to “Brown Eyed Girl” played on piano, followed by our wedding party walking to a rendition of “Dancing Queen”. The ceremony vibe picked up when Trav started whistling while I walked down the aisle with my dad, everyone joined in with cheering and clapping - way better than the normal silent walk! To help keep guests cool, we provided parasols and fans. Trav’s cousin, a close friend to both of us, officiated the ceremony. Personalised readings were given by both my mom and our close friend. For my vows, I surprised Trav by reading out the final entry from my journal written October 2012 which said, “this is it, he’s the one”.

Our first kiss took place on a Tequila Tuesday night. To honour the good luck tequila brought us then, servers passed around palomas in shot glasses that had a photo of us from that night. Once everyone had a shot in hand, we joined together in a good luck toast and had our second official “first kiss”.

^{The Reception}

During cocktail hour guests could find the escort table which had individual envelopes addressed to them, holding postcards collected from over the years inside. Each postcard was specifically chosen for the guest and had a handwritten note from us. Using the postcards to find their table, guests were directed to dinner in the courtyard.

We love hosting so wanted the night to feel like a giant dinner party and tables were arranged so that everyone could see each other. I taught myself embroidery and hand stitched each guest’s name onto napkins we had custom made using local fabric. Over the course of dinner, the maid of honour, best man, and parents all gave moving (sometimes roast-worthy) speeches. Guests stole away briefly before the cheese course to take golden hour photos in the vineyard.

^{The Special Touches}

Nicknamed ‘surprise hour’, guests were escorted to a different part of the vineyard after dinner where they were served espresso martinis as part of our espresso martini power hour. Once everyone had a cocktail, a fireworks display went off in the vineyard.

After fireworks, we had our first dance to our song while guests surrounded us with sparklers. Father-daughter and mother-son dances followed before I made a quick dash to change into my mini dress. We’re not big dessert people, so rather than cutting the cake we opted to ‘cut the bottle’ and sabred two large bottles for a champagne tower. As guests were grabbing glasses, a croquembouche tower with sparklers came out for those guests with a more solid sweet tooth.

Guests brought their glasses of sparkling into the dance hall where my mom and her two best friends surprised everyone by coming out in full sequin outfits to perform a choreographed Abba routine, pulling people onto the dance floor as they went through the crowd. Once dancing was in full swing, the photo booth and games table were ready for action with a North American tradition - beer pong (complete with Team Bride and Team Groom cups of course). Photobooth and dance floor props included disco helmets and large cut outs of our cat, Ellie. Finally (and we know this is cheating as it’s post-wedding) but we had custom sketches commissioned of our favourite photos from the wedding. Arran Gregory is pure magic! We used his sketch of us during the fireworks for our thank you cards.

^{Our Favorite Moment}

By far, the first look. It was so special to have those private moments with just each other and see Trav’s reaction to me walking out in my dress. It didn’t take away from walking down the aisle, if anything it made us so much more relaxed about the day. As soon as we saw each other, the nerves were instantly gone and excitement took over. Everyone says you should take a moment to spend time with each other on the day, and this let us do just that. When we think of the day, that’s the first moment that comes to mind.

Our Style

^{The Bridal Looks}

I custom designed my dress with the help of Tatiana Porembova. I knew she was the right fit when she replied to my initial sketch and commented on the 1940s Dior silhouette and vintage French influence. The entire process spanned 7 fittings, from initial cotton mock-ups to final try-on, and took around one year. Creating your dress from scratch isn’t for the faint of heart, but I would definitely recommend it for anyone with a particular vision. At the last minute I changed my mind and shortened the train, we used the excess fabric to create a scarf which I wore from dinner onwards.

I had kept the first two roses Trav gave me nearly 12 years prior and carefully preserved them. One was placed in my bouquet, the other sat in front of us at dinner. The roses also made an appearance in my veil as a sketch of two roses was embroidered into the train alongside our initials. I went with a simple pair of pearl earrings (custom made clip-ons as piercings don’t agree with me). My shoes were pearl Jimmy Choo heels to match. After our first dance I changed into a Rebecca Tembo mini dress and Reformation heels. The mini dress was a must for doing my best dancing queen impression.

^{The Groom Looks}

A classic black tux - you can’t go wrong. Trav had his tux custom made at Edit Suits Co. I loved that he looked like Bond 2.0. He wore shoes by Locke and his grandfather’s vintage Omega watch.

^{Our Bridesmaid’s Looks}

The bridesmaids wore dresses from various brands, all chosen by themselves to reflect their personal style. The colours were chosen to complement the pops of red that appeared throughout the day. We absolutely loved how their bouquets were carefully tailored to match each of their dress colours.

Our Advice

^{For The Planning Process}

Make a thing of it! We planned everything together and absolutely loved the process. We had a standing table at our favourite French spot around the corner and would hunker down with our laptops, coffees and croissants nearly every weekend. Planning everything together ensured the day was a true reflection of us as a couple.

^{For On The Day}

You’re the guest of honour, not the host - act accordingly! Let people top up your fizz and fuss over you for once.

A Dreamy Château Wedding in France's Bordeaux Countryside

^{For Post-Wedding}

Weddings go by in a flash. It’s rare to have everyone you love in one spot (especially when you live overseas like we do) and even more rare to soak up as much quality time as you’d like. To combat this, we booked a little Airbnb on the coast for the wedding party and had a couple days post-wedding to relax and laugh about all the funny moments. “Gossip HQ” was in full session (would highly recommend everyone has a recap party) and we hired a private chef to cater a small dinner as a thank you to our friends for all their help. It was a perfect excuse to drink the leftover wine with our favourite people and helped us avoid the post-wedding blues.