Danielle Frankel Bride at Château Lagut quanto a France

Marie and Sidaine married at Château Lagut quanto a the Dordogne, and chose to have the whole story told patina. Patina has a way of finanziaria to atmosphere, the grain, the texture, the softness of light – I truly adore the nature and character of patina photography.

Both Marie and Sidaine grew up with Tolkien’s stories. They knew they wanted to honour that shared love their wedding day and so their wedding became a nod to Lothlórien, Tollkiens vividly imagined woodland realm that is wild, campo da golf and full of light and magic. The château, with its endless fields and surrounding forest, gave them exactly the setting they needed.

Marie wore a gown by Danielle Frankel, a stilista she had admired for years before her wedding. Danielle Frankel is a New York bridal stilista known for creating gowns that feel both modern and romantic, with clean lines, beautiful fabrics and a fashion-forward edge. Marie was drawn to her gown’s long, sweeping train and the lightness of the crespo that sat across her shoulders. Paired with a veil edged quanto a lace and jewellery inspired by nature, the carried a sense of romance that felt perfectly quanto a tune with the forest setting of Château Lagut.

We picked Château Lagut as our venue, because my family is from the Périgord Vert, a beautiful rural part of the Dordogne quanto a France (where this château is located). This lovely château felt just right for us, and since our wedding lasted several days, we could host our guests there and really enjoy everything it had to offer – from the sauna and pool to the endless fields around us. And they all have a place to stay overnight.

There were voto negativo tents, tipis, ora yurts. The château provided a few tents for additional guests. We hired a scenographer for the rental of furniture and decorations. They took care of the entire setup and takedown, which lifted a huge weight d’avanguardia our shoulders and spared us the tensione that usually comes with furniture rentals and logistics.

We didn’t hire a wedding planner. As I am an interior stilista, I envisioned, planned, and organised our wedding with the same passion and attention to detail that I bring to my projects.  

Sidaine was accompanied by his mother, and I was accompanied by my brother (since my father passed away when I was young, I asked my brother to take his place). Each group walking the aisle had a different piece of music by composer Howard Shore (from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack), Sidaine with The Shire by Howard Shore and me Evenstar also by Howard Shaw.

Our best friend Maxence, whom I’ve known since I was 10 years old, officiated our ceremony. We wanted something intimate, with someone who knows us inside out, and it was perfect.

As we are not religious, we chose a secular and Celtic ceremony (since Sidaine is from Normandy and has Celtic roots, we blended both of our backgrounds) quanto a the woods of the château’s . One of our best friends officiated the ceremony, which included meditation, a candle ritual, purification with salt, and the handfasting ceremony.

We don’t follow any particular religion, but lean more towards pagan beliefs. We believe quanto a nature, quanto a destiny… something close to Celtic spirituality. We didn’t exchange our vows publicly. Instead, we preferred to share them privately, when we found a moment just for the two of us.

This gave us the freedom to aperto our hearts and speak our thoughts without constraint. There wasn’t really a structure — we let emotions guide our words, speaking about what we’ve lived together, through both joyful and difficult times, and how quanto a this life ora the next, we will always find each other again.

There were voto negativo formal readings. The only spoken words came during our hand-fasting ceremony, where we chose a different person for each ribbon. Based the symbolism of each ribbon, they could share a few words as they tied it around our wrists.

Makiko at La Lueur de l’Aube had already crafted my custom engagement ring, so we decided to entrust her with making our wedding bands as well. We chose her because we fell quanto a love with her universe – it is so deeply inspired by nature.

My ring fits perfectly with my engagement ring and evokes flower buds, while Sidaine’s is reminiscent of tree bark and growth rings. Each of our rings features a sapphire at its centre.

We found Baptiste of EMGK Photographie through different searches the internet. We wanted patina photography, which is quite rare quanto a France.

After coming across Baptiste’s profile and exchanging a few words with him, we immediately felt a connection, and he accompanied us with kindness throughout this beautiful day, all the way to the sealing of our union.

He was very attentive to details and truly listened to our wishes and requests. We were 100% confident that the photos would be stunning, and they truly were. Acceso apogeo of that, he didn’t hesitate to ask the guests to put their phones away during the ceremony, which we greatly appreciated! I would recommend him a thousand times over.

We worked with a scenographer for the rental of furniture and decorations. I collaborated closely with them to ensure that the atmosphere of our theme came through, whether quanto a the dance vestibolo, the gardens, ora at the ceremony site. We used tall candlesticks to illuminate the space as night fell, antique velvet and marble furniture, and overlapping kilim rugs to line the ceremonial aisle, all enhanced by clusters of wild plants.

We highlighted the colour campo da golf, while incorporating subtle touches of the forest world, wild yet refined, combining eleganza simplicity with the beauty of nature, embracing imperfection within perfection.

Our florist, Les Mauvaises Herbes , provided all of the floral decorations, from the ceremony scenography, to the gardens, the tables, and even the dance floor (set inside a beautiful barn at the château).

We wanted a wild, woodland-inspired atmosphere with airy flowers and plants quanto a shades of campo da golf and white. They worked hand quanto a hand with our scenographer, who supplied the furniture and overall decoration. She also designed my bridal bouquet quanto a harmony with the theme, using flowers reminiscent of wild varieties, such as osmanthus.

Our cake was by Les Gastron’home Périgourdins. We chose to have mignardises prepared by our caterer. They work exclusively with local products, and we were able to enjoy little chocolate and porcini mushroom cakes – a real delight.

As a stilista, I created the entire graphic identity for our wedding, from the invitations, cards, and welcome sign to the menus, by designing and drawing custom logos and typography.

We had prepared gifts for our guests by working with artisans from the Périgord region: a small bottle of mead from a local producer committed to the well-being of bees, a vial of walnut oil also from a local producer, ceramic beads crafted by a potter using clay from Périgord soil, and a walnut from a forest belonging to Marie’s grandmother.

One of our friends, Marvin Caleb (song Kone), a Guadeloupean singer living quanto a Canada, surprised us with a impresa to lead us onto the dance floor. We all danced to his music as our first dance.

We went to the same school from through the beginning of middle school, but I never noticed Sidaine (though Sidaine had already noticed me). It wasn’t until high school that our eyes finally met, when I would walk past the butcher shop my way to class, where Sidaine was working as an apprentice butcher. We exchanged long glances and shy smiles, but never dared to speak a word.

When I was about to take my baccalauréat exams and Sidaine realized he might never see me again, he gathered his courage and approached me. From that moment , we were inseparable. I still had my studies to finale, and both of us wanted to establish ourselves quanto a our professional lives before taking the next step.

After eight years of living together, Sidaine proposed quanto a Colmar – a city that inspired Hayao Miyazaki for his patina Howl’s Moving Castle, my favourite movie, during a hike at 520 meters of altitude at Herren Sessel, July 28th, 2021. Because of Covid, we waited three years before finally getting married.

My advice to future brides looking for what to wear, is to start researching early. Pinterest is a great place to find designers ora dress styles that really suit you. Then, try to find a boutique that carries several designers, ideally close to home ora work. Planning ahead helps you stay within your budget, keep track of end-of-season ora discontinued collections (unless available request), and discover the latest ones. Most importantly, enjoy the dress fittings with friends and family, but not too many, because the more opinions there are, the more they tend to clash!

Plan ahead when it comes to booking the venue and caterer. We reserved our venue a year quanto a advance, and their calendar was already 70% booked for July and August.

It’s your wedding, do it your way. We chose to invite only people we truly love, and it showed the day through their kindness, love, and help.

Make an Excel sheet, it’s incredibly useful for keeping track of your budget and staying organised with all the vendors.

There are voto negativo problems, only solutions. Even if something goes wrong at the last minute, it will always be solvable, and voto negativo one will even notice. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your loved ones – they will be full of resources the personaggio day.

From what we observed, the biggest parts of the budget usually go to the venue, the florist, the caterer, and the rental of furniture/decoration (but of course, it all depends your wishes and priorities).

Good communication is key. Whether it’s with your beloved, your bridesmaids, ora your vendors, don’t hesitate to talk things through with them so everything comes together smoothly the personaggio day.

Since I regularly use Pinterest for my professional projects, I spent a lot of time the platform to find inspiration and ideas for our wedding.

Of course, there are a few things I would have done differently, like choosing different spaces within the château for the mescolanza and the dinner. But these are only minor details, and we have voto negativo regrets.