French Chateaux Vs. English Stately Homes — Battle of the Wedding Blogs!

Pho­tog­ra­pher Credit Javon Longieliere | Venue: Chateau Chal­lain (links below)

If you miss Claire hope over to my blog where she is instill­ing the var­i­ous delights of Eng­lish stately homes to my read­ers, I am here to per­suade you on the virtues of a wed­ding in a French Chateau.

French chateaux — wed­ding blog by French Wed­ding Style

Chateau – the word con­jures up images of a fairy­tale wed­ding, but of course everyone’s fairy­tale is dif­fer­ent. This is not a prob­lem with the vast vari­ety of dif­fer­ent styles, loca­tions and facil­i­ties on offer across France that can cater to your wed­ding dream.

What actu­ally is a Chateau? From old French for chas­tel, from the Latin castel­lum, a Chateau is lit­er­ally a cas­tle. As des­ti­na­tion wed­dings to France have become more pop­u­lar, the term Chateau has been increas­ing applied to venues and also includes French manor houses, large coun­try houses and estates where wine is produced.

Together we are going to look at a range of wed­ding styles and how these can be ide­ally suited to a French wed­ding venue.

Fairy­tale

For many brides look­ing to get mar­ried in a Chateau it is about the fairy­tale and France is fully of idyl­lic fairy­tale wor­thy Chateaux. Of course all fairy­tales are dif­fer­ent, but pic­ture neogoth­ical archi­tec­ture with Rapun­zel tow­ers set in the most pic­ture per­fect lush coun­try set­tings. For many brides the wed­ding day is their chance to be a princess for the day, be the star in their own stage pro­duc­tion and be queen of their own fairy­tale castle.

So along with the impres­sive fairy­tale cas­tle sil­hou­ette, French Chateaux also have stun­ning inte­ri­ors the likes are seen on movie sets and lifestyle mag­a­zines. For any bride and groom, the inte­ri­ors cre­ate beau­ti­ful back­drops for your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers and require min­i­mal dec­o­ra­tion, sav­ing on bud­get and resources.

Set in the Loire Val­ley, the region of cas­tles is one such fairy­tale cas­tle built in the 19th cen­tury for the Count and Count­ess of La Rochefoucauld-Bayers, by famous Paris archi­tect Louis Vis­conti, who built the Lou­vre exten­sion! And if you are cre­atively inspired, why not actu­ally have a fairy­tale pro­duc­tion at your fairy­tale wedding!

Pho­tog­ra­pher Credit Javon Longieliere
Venue: Chateau Chal­lain

Rus­tic Farmhouse

With so much choice of wed­ding venues in France, if you are look­ing to plan a rus­tic farm­house, less for­mal wed­ding there are plenty of choices. Set amongst rolling hills in the beau­ti­ful French coun­try­side, a char­ac­ter Manor House that has been restored can pro­vide under­stated lux­ury, with charm­ing and relaxed atmos­phere for the wed­ding celebrations.

Choos­ing a rural Manor House also opens up the oppor­tu­nity to indulge your guests in the French coun­try­side with an out­door wed­ding cer­e­mony and recep­tion. Do I need to men­tion the weather?? An out­door wed­ding under a flo­ral arch, whilst your guests watch in sum­mer attire, is only pos­si­ble due to the beau­ti­ful weather that is read­ily avail­able in France.

With the com­bi­na­tion of beau­ti­ful weather against a back­drop of rus­tic charm, many Manor Houses come com­plete with sum­mer kitchens and out­door ter­races offer­ing your guests a ready­made stage for the wed­ding recep­tion cel­e­bra­tions. Choos­ing a Manor House also means that the neigh­bours are lim­ited so the cel­e­bra­tions can hap­pily go on until 4am, much is the cus­tom in French weddings.

Pho­tog­ra­pher Credit: Bastide St Math­ieu
Venue: Bastide St Mathieu

DIY French Wedding

If you have you heart set on a wed­ding in France, but your bud­get doesn’t allow for the options men­tioned above – then get cre­ative! As I said there are so many won­der­ful venues in France, that if you can think out­side the wed­ding box with a bit of research and com­pro­mise you can make your French wed­ding dream come true. Don’t just search for wed­ding venues, think bou­tique hotels, restau­rants, golf courses, spas, farms and pri­vate accom­mo­da­tion such as villa rental.

The weather – okay I am going to use this again, but the beau­ti­ful weather can open up the options when cre­at­ing a DIY wed­ding. You don’t have to worry about the for­mal­i­ties of hir­ing tables and chairs fit for a Eng­lish Coun­try Home, cre­ate a relax wed­ding pic­nic with blan­kets, buf­fet style cater­ing and retro themed pic­nic signage.

Who needs con­stant enter­tain­ment or a for­mal drinks recep­tion when you have a wed­ding venue with stun­ning views! Select a venue such as 260 year old for­mer Béar­naise Farm of Ferme de Can­de­loup, with views over the Pyre­nees and sur­round­ing vine­yards your guest will be happy enjoy­ing the beau­ti­ful weather with a glass of locally and dare I say bud­get friendly sourced wine in their hand.

No mat­ter what your wed­ding style is a wed­ding in a Fairy­tale French Chateau or Rus­tic Farm­house is a once in a life­time adven­ture for your wed­ding guests. And given the beau­ti­ful weather (okay 4th time) and des­ti­na­tion abroad there is always the option of extend­ing their stay and mak­ing it into a vacation.

So there you have it my love of French Chateaux as wed­ding venues. Don’t for­get Claire has her stiff upper lip and is putting her argu­ment over on French Wed­ding Style, so hope on over and look­ing for­ward to see­ing who scores the first point in French vs Eng­lish wed­ding style!

Pho­tog­ra­pher Credit Roger Bru­ton, Ferme de Can­de­loup
Venue Credit: Ferme de Candeloup

My huge thanks to Monique for shar­ing her chateaux and very cre­ative wed­ding pho­tos from France today! Pop over to French Wed­ding Style blog if you’d like to re-convince your­self that Eng­lish stately homes are still bet­ter than chateaux… or are you dead set on mov­ing over to Provence now?! Monique and I would love to read your com­ments, don’t be shy!

Claire xxx