This is a story about our first French chateau wedding that I’ve loved to tell ever since we moved from New Orleans to Paris. Our dog, Toulouse, booked this wedding for us! That’s right, our very first French chateau wedding in Burgundy, France with the amazing French wedding planners Fete In France, was all because of our dog. Let’s just call it the French Connection…better yet, the French Whippet Connection. Once CheyAnne and I decided to move to Paris, we knew the hardest aspect of moving to another country would be the logistics of getting our dog and cat across the pond. We needed to learn where we could take the dog to play, a good vet, where to buy pet food — all the things concerned furbaby parents think about.
So in my search on Instagram I came across a profile called Jack the Whippet. I reached out to Jack. His mother, who responsibly manages all of Jack’s social media interactions, was extremely helpful with lots of tips and advice, and through casual IG conversation, I mentioned that we did wedding photography. She mentioned she was in the process of planning her wedding! The rest was history and ever since then I keep looking at our cat, Decatur, wondering when will he come through on his end with a wedding booking! 🙂
In all seriousness, it was such great luck to have met Samara and Martin, and of course, to be a part of their wedding. She ended up becoming a very good friend of ours in Paris, accompanying us to French visa appointments to help us as a translator, play-dates in the park with our puppies, and we’ve enjoyed several delicious meals at two of Martin’s restaurants in Paris.
Their French chateau wedding was a beautiful outdoor ceremony at Chateau de Vallery just outside of Paris. The ceremony included parts of her Jewish heritage with a floral adorned chuppa, and in true French style, guests were greeted with wine and champagne before the ceremony started to help quench their early thirst. After the ceremony everyone moved to the front lawn of the chateau for live music, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, and I think the highlight of this time was watching Jack the Whippet dart around all the guests searching for his mom! And of course the portrait of Jack with Samara & Martin is simply priceless! We cannot thank Samara & Martin enough for trusting us to tell the story of their special day, and we thank Toulouse & Jack for making it all happen!
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