Timeless wedding in Champagne France

wedding in Champagne France

We are just back from France and drove through the Champagne region this weekend, so it seems very apt that we are featuring Janeane and Eric’s timeless wedding in Champagne France on the blog today.

I am in love with many of the design elements of this wedding, and when you consider the bride Janeane is a graphic designer, is it no wonder she created a wedding full of style.  Some of my favourite elements include the gold and bronze bridesmaid dresses, all individual to the bridesmaid, but sitting so well together as a colour palette.  This is also the same for the groomsmen and I particularly love the yellow bow tie of Eric!

Bride Janeane takes us through their love story: “Eric and I were secretly set-up by a mutual friend and it was love at first sight. It wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. There was no slow motion walking, no romantic soundtrack, no fireworks. Instead, there was a quiet and subtle shift in the universe that only we noticed.

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Meeting him felt fateful and inevitable all in one moment, like walking through the fog and running smack into the base of a mountain. My husband is strong, dependable, unshakable and from the night he stepped into my path I had no choice but to love him. There was never a question about it and we really didn’t discuss it after the first three weeks we knew each other.  During these weeks I tried my best to thrash against the confines of fate and convince him (and myself) that I was a free-spirit that couldn’t be tied down.

However, his unnerving determination to win me over eventually made all my arguments mute points—I mentioned he’s unshakeable, right? From that point on we simply began moving through life together.

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Four years, one puppy and five roommates later we were living together in a 100 year-old-house in Kansas City, MO. It was a Thursday, we were on our way to the grocery store when Eric got a phone call from his older brother, that he had turned his ankle while jogging through Loose Park, and asked if we could give him a quick ride.

We pulled into the parking lot next to the Rose Garden at Loose Park and since it was a warm and gorgeous evening in May, I asked Eric if he would like to walk through the Rose Garden with me while we waited for his brother.

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In retrospect, I should have found it suspicious how enthusiastically Eric agreed, but it was near the end of the work-week and I wasn’t on my A-game. Walking down the stairs into the garden Eric casually reached to his right and pulled a large and stunning bouquet of red roses out of, well, a rose bush!

Naturally surprised and more than a little confused by the magically appearing bouquet, it wasn’t until I looked up from the roses that I realized Eric had dropped to one knee. I hardly remember what he actually said in the moment. Truthfully, it was difficult to hear much of anything over the sound of my hyperventilating, but I got the gist of what was happening and said yes.

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Originally Eric and I began planning a large wedding in our hometown of Kansas City followed by a two week honeymoon in Nice, France, but as we began the daunting process and everything it entailed we soon realized that it simply wasn’t our style.

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Travel has always been a large part of our lives—Eric was a world traveler at a young age and I began my love affair with country-hopping in college. Between the two of us we have traveled to over 30 different countries, so it didn’t take us long to decide that while a traditional wedding wasn’t for us, a destination wedding definitely was! 

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Thus, the search for a romantic Chateau in Eric’s ancestral homeland of France began. Because all of our guests would be traveling from America, it was important to us to find a chateau or estate that could accommodate the majority of our guests on a self-catering basis.  We envisioned noisy evenings, with all of our most loved friends and family preparing meals and lingering over bottles of wine and champagne late into the evening.

I utilized Oliver’s Travels, to search for exactly what we needed and soon found it in Chateau de Mairy in Champagne, France.”

Falling in love with Chateau de Mairy – you can see another real wedding at the chateau here.

Wedding Suppliers:

Wedding Photographer: Katie Whitworth from katie g. photography | Wedding Venue and Reception: Chateau de Mairy | Wedding Dress: Iquarta by La Sposa | Bridal Accessories: Veil from Etsy, earrings from Swarovski | Florist: Laetitia Mayor from Floresie | Wedding Rings: Helzberg Diamonds | Caterer: Chateau de Mairy

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