We’re in beautiful Saint-Lizier, France for the stunning Chateau St. Michel wedding of WWW readers Natasha and Kevin. Yay!
Their day was absolutely gorgeous, with a whimsical woodland fairy theme, pastel blooms and all the cottagecore vibes. Swoon. From the flower-lined aisle to the wedding breakfast in the gardens, the rave cave and sunset portraits, you’ll be in wedding heaven today.
Natasha and Kevin looked absolutely stunning, there were rustic wedding signs, a masterpiece pièce montée cake and even personalised vow books. Every single detail was so thoughtfully considered.
Thanks so much to Awardweddings for sharing with us this super romantic and very sweet sweet day. What incredible images.
Château St. Michel Wedding
The Proposal
In August 2021, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. Kevin told Natasha he had an anniversary surprise planned.
We arrived at the docks in the San Diego harbor and a sailboat captain came to greet us and bring us aboard for a private sunset sail. Kevin had brought along champagne, raspberries, and pistachios to snack on. Natasha, completely oblivious to Kevin’s plans, just thought about how lucky she was to have such a great boyfriend and how much the snacks reminded her of their second date.
Around sunset, Kevin suggested they go to the bow of the boat with some champagne. Kevin began to read aloud a beautifully written proposal and afterwards reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box with a gorgeous ring.
The Vision
So for context, Natasha is French-American with most of her family in France. Part of the reason why we got married in France is so that her 90-year-old grandmother could attend, as well as more of her family. The other large part of our community comes from the West Coast of the US (mostly California) with other friends and family members throughout the US. So we knew from the start that we wanted to have a blend of French and English throughout our wedding.
Our main goal was to create a very loving environment where all our guests would feel comfortable. Since this was a destination wedding for most of our guests, we wanted to make sure to show them a good time! And to make the trip worth it, we had a beautiful rehearsal dinner at a nearby restaurant Carré de l’Ange, and also a pool day bbq the day after the wedding.
The vision for the atmosphere was woodland fairy: lots of flowers in colorful pastels, little golden touches (like our picture frames, candlesticks, and cutlery), and natural elements like wood. A lot of this was achieved by the venue itself. The chateau was surrounded by beautiful trees and landscaping.
Budget
Approximately 43,000 euros (not including the dress/suit or wedding rings).
The Venue
Chateau St. Michel in St. Lizier, France.
We had a total of 32 guests stay on-site in the chateau. Most of the remaining 50 guests stayed at the apartment-style hotel Le Domaine du Palais (about a 5-minute drive away). We had a shuttle to bring guests to the venue before the ceremony, and then a taxi taking trips back to the hotel between 12 and 3 am.
One of the best parts of the venue was the rave cave. It’s actually a very large wine cellar underneath the chateau that spans the entire footprint with multiple rooms. We set up our dance floor here, complete with lasers, a bar area, and couches.
Your Outfits
Natasha
Dress – Pronovias‘ Elara in color blush.
I’m obsessed with this dress. I actually saw it for the first time when wedding dress shopping with a friend for her wedding, before we were engaged. I was lucky enough to come across it again a year later when shopping for myself. It perfectly fits the vibe we were going for. It feels floaty, light, ethereal, and definitely like a woodland fairy would wear it. It has 3-D appliqué organza leaves, and clear sequins that give it a beautiful shimmer while remaining very light.
Shoes – Loeffler Randall’s Dahlia Pleated Bow Heel in the color pearl.
Since I’m quite tall, I opted for a low heel. And because the wedding was outdoors, I wanted to make sure the heel was thicker. The fabric and design of these felt like they complimented the dress very well, and I love that it’s a style of shoe I could wear again. That was a big focus for my shoe search – I didn’t want shoes that I would only wear once.
Veil – Pronovias‘ V-2104 in the longest option they have – I think it was 3 meters?
Because of the grand scale of the chateau and the venue, I wanted to add a little drama. My dress train was actually on the shorter side (which was nice because it was lighter and not as hot), so I created the drama with the veil. It had gorgeous floral applique and beading that matched the dress very well. At first, I was undecided about doing a veil at all, but I’m really happy I did!
Jewelry – From my mom.
I wore opal earrings and a freshwater pearl bracelet that were both from my mom’s jewelry collection. Opals are my favorite gemstone, and the color and iridescence fit that whimsical ethereal vibe. The pearl bracelet also had a beautiful sheen on the irregularly shaped pearls. Both pieces are ones I grew up seeing my mom wear, and it felt like having a little piece of her with me throughout the day.
A note on our rings.
We wanted our wedding bands to be a blend of classic and unique. We both got yellow gold to compliment our skin tones and also to have the same metal felt cute. Kevin’s ring was hand-created by a small jewelry designer Luana Coonen who “expresses her deep and abiding love of nature’s tiniest wonders through her artwork, finding ways to amplify the beauty of simple natural objects and to bring attention to our emotions.” The ring he chose is called Valleys and is “inspired by the wine-valleys of California, and the deep, beautiful valleys of Hawaii.” To us, it reminded us of tree bark, which feels equal parts natural and protective.
Natasha’s ring was hand-crafted by a San Francisco based jewelry shop called Fiat Lux. Paired with her engagement ring, it reminds us of the sun. So the combination of our rings we have sunshine and nature living in harmony.
Kevin
Suit – Black Lapel.
I went with a light gray three-piece custom wool, made-to-measure, suit from Black Lapel. I added a fun olive green paisley pattern to the jacket lining and had the inside monogrammed with our names and the wedding date. I also had a custom-fit dress shirt with French cuffs made from Black Lapel. This paired great with the suit since the sleeve length was just right. Pro tip, order a second identical shirt so you have a back-up on the big day (just in case you need it). I loved the suit and it was fun to customize it to look just how I wanted. It fit perfectly and looked great on the big day.
Shoes – Magnanni palos oxford in brown.
I wanted a light-medium brown show to pair with my light gray suit. I loved the look of these shoes and they fit great right from the start. I did spend a few weeks breaking them in before the wedding so they’d be comfortable on the dance floor at the end of the night.
Bowtie – Pink paisley silk bow tie (Self Tied) from Eton.
I wanted to add a pop of color to the gray suit, and this pink bow tie hit the mark. I prefer the look of the self-tied bow tie (vs the ready-tied), plus we got some great photos of my groomsmen trying to get the bow to look just right.
Cufflinks – Ox & Bull mother-of-pearl cufflinks in gold.
I wanted a simple/classic cufflink to finish the look. The gold matched the wedding colors and our rings, and the mother-of-pearl matched Natasha’s bracelet.
Bridal Party Gifts – One thing I love to do is to support small artisans, and when I came across the real flower jewelry by Blossom and Love, I thought it would make the perfect gift for my bridesmaids. They are real flowers, dried in silica beads, and covered in epoxy. So when all the bridesmaids wore them, they really looked like fresh flowers!
I was able to get a custom order and picked a different flower for each bridesmaid (and our officiant Paola, and Kevin’s Best Woman Alicia) based on her personality. We had tulips, butterfly ranunculus, yellow daffodils, blue violas, pink daises, sunset roses, and orchids adorning everyone’s ears.
Groom’s Party Gifts – Engraved Laguiole knife. I wanted my wedding party to receive a gift that would both remind them of France while also being something they could actually use. These knives achieved that balance perfectly. These knives are popular and knockoffs exist, so I ordered them through Forge de Laguiole since they actually make their knives in the French village of Laguiole. If it’s not made in Laguiole, it’s just a sparkling knife.
The Ceremony & Music
We knew from the start that we wanted to have a blend of French and English in our ceremony and in our music.
We asked one of our very best friends, Paola, to officiate our ceremony and she did a wonderful job! While most of our ceremony was in English, we did our best to include some French. Paola learned some key phrases in French (like, je vous déclare mariés), Natasha’s mom did a reading in both English and French, Kevin recited his ring exchange in English and Natasha recited the same words in French, and while we both spoke our vows to each other in English, we also had them translated into French and printed so the French-speakers could read along as we said our vows.
A special moment in our ceremony was a tree planting/watering ritual. We both watered a small oak sapling during the ceremony, and two days later we planted it at Natasha’s grandmother’s house in the French countryside.
Another little detail we wanted to make special was our vow cards. As we were looking for ways to memorialize and keep our vows, Kevin had the idea to have cards made with hand-drawn pictures of the chateau. We had them made by an artist that we already own a few pieces from – Mike Shisler (Drawn There). His artwork is normally created onsite as the name implies, but we reached out to him and sent him some photos of the front and back of the chateau, and he was able to create two beautiful cards for us. We have some friends who loved the cards so much, they did the same idea when they got married 6 weeks later! Maybe we’ll become trendsetters haha.
Music
For our ceremony music, we wanted to have only piano instrumental music. We felt this added to the sense of intimacy and romance and allows everyone to really focus on the moment with the music adding ambience without being too intrusive.
But for the party we went full EDM house music!
- Kevins’s entrance song: Le Matin by Yann Tiersen. This is one of Kevin’s favorite songs that Natasha plays on the piano.
- Natasha’s entrance song: Sundays Piano Version by FKJ. FKJ is one of Natasha’s favorite artists, and he’s French!
- First dance: Best Part by H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar.
- Kevin/Mother dance: Moondance by Van Morrison. My mom loves Van Morrison and this song really reminds me of being back at home with her in Oregon.
- Natasha/Father dance: Ventura Highway by America. This song holds special memories of road trips in my dad’s sports car through the California valley.
Your Photographer & Filmmaker
Photographer: Mark Ward
Videographer: Julien – Play & Feel
The Styling & Decor
Almost all of our decorations were supplied by Clémentine – this was so convenient! The only big piece we supplied ourselves was a pink LED neon sign for the rave cave that read “All you need is love” that we hung above a couch.
Our colors were blush pink and light sage green, with pops of gold. The theme was romantic woodland fairy, with a touch of whimsy.
For the flowers, we wanted them to be colorful pastels with a floating, natural texture (no rose spheres here!). They did end up slightly more blue and less pink than we thought, but they were still just gorgeous. And Clémentine had the idea to plant some flowers directly in the ground to line the aisle for the ceremony – it was so beautiful!! We also asked our caterer to use edible flowers on everything they could, so we had flowers incorporated into both the appetizers and the sit-down dinner.
For the cake, Natasha always knew she wanted a traditional French pièce montée. Our American guests especially were amazed at the tall tower of 300 choux with vanilla, chocolate hazelnut, and raspberry fillings. The cake was also decorated with a beautiful spiral of flowers.
DIY stationery – Natasha made the stationery for the schedule board, guest book instructions, seating chart, menus for each guest, and the bar menu. She also designed our wedding invitation.
The Honeymoon
Since Natasha took the lead on planning the wedding, Kevin planned the whole honeymoon. We had two weeks for our honeymoon and we wanted a mixture of adventure, relaxation, and romance. We decided on one week in Croatia (Split & Dubrovnik) and the second week in Greece (Naxos & Santorini).
Some highlights from Croatia include visiting the Krka National Park, an all-day private boat day (surprise gift from Natasha’s brother), sunset sea kayaking, and eating at a Michelin-star restaurant. The highlights from Greece include spending all day at the beach, taking a cooking class (with ingredients picked right from their garden), a spa day/couples massage, and a sunset sail (encore to the proposal). It was a magical two weeks to get to spend together.
A few honeymoon planning tips. Spend more time in each place. We spent 3-4 days in each location and that was perfect, but any less time and we would have felt like too much of the trip was spent moving luggage from place to place.
Save your fanciest hotel for last. We decided to splurge and stay at one very luxurious hotel during the trip, and saving that for our last stop in Santorini was definitely the way to go.
Finally, write things down. Write down highlights from the wedding and honeymoon as soon as possible. I know it seems like you’ll remember everything forever, but you’ll quickly start to forget the little details of these experiences. We used our ferry rides and airport layovers to write about all our favorite moments of the wedding/honeymoon experience, and we’re so happy to have such a good record of this magic period of our lives.
Memorable Moments
Fire spinning. One of the most memorable moments of the entire day was having our friend perform some fire spinning for everyone. We are actually big fans of Burning Man, and credit it with the start of our relationship, and so it was wonderful to bring a little piece of the playa to all our guests in the south of France.
First dance. We took a few dance lessons to learn some choreography and spins to elevate our first dance. However, because we’d never practised our dance while Natasha was wearing her dress, we were worried that our final dip kiss move wouldn’t work and decided to skip it. During the actual dance though, we were having fun and Natasha whispered “do the dip”. So at the last second, we added it back in, it worked flawlessly, and our guests loved it.
Sunset photoshoot. We loved getting to do a sunset photoshoot with Mark and Julien. In a short 20-minute span of time between the main course being served and the speeches by our Best Woman and Maid of Honor, we were able to take a quick 3-minute drive down the road to an airfield that Mark was very excited to shoot in, and we couldn’t be happier about it. The photos were among our favorites, and we loved having this special moment alone with just the two of us.
Rave cave. We were excited to surprise our guests with the rave cave since most were not aware of our planned location change for the end of the night. However, two of our friends also surprised us by bringing with them a bunch of glowing LED sticks to hand to everyone for the dance party. It made the late-night party even more special.
Advice For Other Couples
If you’re on the fence about hiring a planner, just go for it. Having Clémentine’s wealth of knowledge and organizing prowess really is what allowed us to pull all this off.
Also, go for the videographer. At first, we thought this was a bit extra, but being able to rewatch highlights from the day and re-listen to each other’s voices as we spoke our vows is really an incredible feeling.
Finally, while it’s tempting to compare your wedding to your friends’ or to the infinite virtual sphere, remember that it’s an opportunity to give your guests a window into your unique world. A wedding that feels authentic to you will always outshine even the most glamorous of affairs.
Such a dreamy day! And what a honeymoon too. Oh my.
Natasha and Kevin, I can’t thank you enough for sharing with us your incredible Chateau St. Michel wedding story.
Further Reading
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