Real Weddings

A French Chateau Wedding

Photography by Coralie Monnet for Morgan and Hadrien

Whimsical, romantic and effortlessly cool – Morgan and Hadrien’s wedding unfolded in a family-owned chateau tucked away in the French countryside. A leisurely affair set within the courtyard of the historical estate, this was a celebration infused with art, music and epicurean delight.

Here, languorous feasting, laughter and conversation segued into a night of midnight revelry. Sprawling frescos hand painted by Picasso looked out upon a summertime soiree set beneath a canopy of festoon lighting. Playful and classic details collided upon circular tables dressed with feminine blooms and brushed brass décor.

Contrasting the chateau’s ageing exterior, the bride wore a custom Pronovias gown, modern in its design styled with vintage accessories.

Photography by Coralie Monnet

Our Story

Names / Morgan & Hadrien

Wedding Date / 7th July 2018

Guest Numbers / 200

How We Met

We met at a bar in Paris called Le Xéme. I had just moved to Paris from Los Angeles three months prior and was having a drink on the terrace with a girlfriend. Just as I told her that I was done with dating (of course), I saw Hadrien walk in with his friends. He was the only one wearing a suit, the others were dressed more like artists, which made me feel less intimidated. Still, I was convinced that a guy like this only dated Parisian supermodels. His tie was loosened and his top two buttons undone. His shaggy blond surfer hair and bright blue eyes swiftly passed me as he walked in. Coming from Los Angeles, this “surfer in a suit” look had me completely swooned. I told my friend that I couldn’t leave this bar without meeting that guy. I told her I was going to marry him and we had a nice laugh. I followed him into the bar. There were so many people inside, I thought he would never see me, but then suddenly he screamed out, “F**k New York, it’s all about L.A.” and our eyes immediately met. My mind was blown, I thought, “Does he know me?”. But it was just fortuitous timing. He and his friends joined me and my friend at our table. He pulled up a chair and placed it right in front of me as if he wanted to have a one-on-one. We talked nonstop, danced all night as if we had known each other forever, and have been together ever since.

Our Engagement Story

We got engaged in July of 2017 in Barcaggio, a small fishing village located in the northernmost point of Corsica. We had decided to take a three-week road trip and discover the island. Barcaggio was one of our first stops so he proposed pretty quickly! We had arrived at this tiny village and went on an incredible hike. On the way back, we noticed a nice and private spot that gave off the trail and onto a rock that was placed more or less in the middle of the sea. We went back to our bed and breakfast and freshened up for dinner. We decided to have a drink at the bed and breakfast beforehand, so Hadrien asked me what I wanted and I said a beer. He came back with a bottle of rosé in a to-go bag with ice and some glasses and told me he wanted to take me somewhere. I realised quickly that we were going back to that spot so I thought, “How cute, he wants to have a romantic drink just the two of us”. I truly didn’t think anything of it. When we arrived at the rock it felt like we were on the tip of the world, in the middle of the sea, and completely alone. I immediately put on one of our favorite mariachi songs and we started drinking the rosé. After three glasses, we were getting pretty tipsy. I was having a blast, but at one point I looked over at Hadrien and he seemed a little bewildered. All of a sudden, he asked me to stand up. I was a bit drunk at this point, wearing heels and on a rock, so it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but he asked a second time and I did. He mustered up the courage and his face became very assertive. In the American way, he got down on one knee, pulled out an open box with a ring in it, and asked me, “Morgan Mary Ungar, will you marry me?” I said yes. We cried we laughed, we called our families and had an unforgettable road trip in Corsica.

 

Marriage to us Means

To us, I would say marriage means wanting to create a new life together. Whether that be a new life as a married couple or a new life as in a child.

The Details

 

Wedding Location

We got married in the Cathedral of Uzès in the south of France. It was the church we chose closest to where we wanted to have our reception. The reception was at the Chateau de Castille, a chateau owned by Hadrien’s grandparents in Argilliers, ten minutes from Uzès. The chateau is currently on sale so we wanted to gather our families and friends to celebrate our wedding and throw one last big party there. The chateau is very special as it is not only Hadrien’s grandparents’ home, entirely decorated by his grandmother, but was also previously owned by Douglas Cooper who was close to Picasso and therefore contains an outdoor loggia of Picasso fresques. We were very lucky to have this location that is as mystical as it is personal.

 

Event Aesthetic & Inspiration

There was no real theme, but I guess I would say based on my mood boards that the theme was a mix between art-deco and contemporary and the style was romantic.

 

Photography

Coralie Monnet photographed my wedding and it couldn’t have been more of a perfect match for me. I was dreaming of finding someone who was more of an artist than just a photographer, but I was mainly looking for someone who had more of an eye for candid shots rather than posed shots. When I saw Coralie’s website and saw that she called herself a humanistic photographer, I knew I wanted her to photograph my wedding. Coralie had a way of being active in her job while being so natural and discreet. She knew exactly how to feel the moment. She took charge while remaining so light. She really took the time to understand our story, our families, and what this wedding represented to us. It felt like having a really supportive and comforting friend with you. The results of our photos are exactly what we would have expected and more.

Fashion Notes

 

Bride’s Dress

I had two dresses – one for the civil wedding at the town hall and one for the religious ceremony in the south. When I met Hadrien, I discovered a photo of his mother that he had in his living room in Marseille in the 60s that I fell in love with. She’s absolutely gorgeous and wearing this 60s mod style dress with one of those London hats, very à la Jane Birkin. In any event, being a designer myself, I wanted to make one of my dresses. I miraculously found the dress that she was wearing in that photo and I decided to remake it with my friend Viet who is a patternmaker. We remade the exact dress from scratch in white and the result was a huge success. For the church, I wore a Pronovias dress that I found at Loho Bride in Los Angeles. I really didn’t like the dress, but the cut was exactly what I was looking for. Pronovias allowed me to make a lot of modifications and change the fabric completely to an off white crepe de soie. The result was my dream dress so I was very happy.

 

Bride’s Shoes

I wanted something vintage and I hated all of the new collections of bridal shoes. I also wanted heels that I could wear again. My friend Lucie recommended a store called Pointure Paris in Paris that houses a beautifully curated collection of unworn vintage shoes.

 

Bridesmaids Dresses

It was important to me that my bridesmaids felt good in what they were wearing otherwise they were going to have a bad time and look like they were uncomfortable. My friend Mia showed me an exquisite Italian wedding that she found in Vogue (Margherita Cardelli & Gerardo Cavaliere’s wedding – thanks guys!) where all the bridesmaids wore bold prints and the photos were playful and full of joy. I decided to do the same and I am so happy with that decision. My bridesmaids were comfortable, not pressured by budget, but best of all, they could express themselves through their prints, each of their personalities shining individually, making for colorful and authentic photos. I loved that

Wedding Rings

Hadrien had my engagement ring made with a diamond that he inherited from his grandmother. I had made a folder on my computer of inspiration photos thinking that if the day comes, I better give this to a friend. But before I could give it to my friend, Hadrien found it on my computer and took the photos to the jeweler to have a ring made around the diamond.

 

Jewelry & Accessories

I wore a ring of my mother’s that I’ve loved since I was a little girl as my “something borrowed.” My earrings were large dangling pearls in their natural form with emerald colored stones made by Celine. My purse was a vintage dream made entirely out of white embroidered beads that my friend Lucie helped me find.

 

Groomsmen’s Attire

The groomsmen were asked by Hadrien to wear blue suits. His best man had a navy-blue suit with pinstripes, and the others were wearing more classic navy-blue. Hadrien’s Paul Smith suit was more of a deep teal which made him stand out. He also had a light grey vest and a blue-grey (almost silver) floral tie with a white shirt.

 

Hair

I had a lot of hair inspirations and thought I wanted to do a classic low bun, but the more I looked at wedding blogs, Pinterest, etc., I started seeing that every bride had the same hairstyle. Daniel Chavey and one of his associates came to the chateau first for a test and also did my hair for the day of the wedding. The day of the test, I went totally the other direction and wanted to do some sort of crazy braid crown on the top of my head. Not even a nice braid crown, like that of Frida Kahlo’s, but some sort of rock and roll braid on the top of my head that I wanted to be messy and kind of sticking out everywhere. I don’t think anyone would have been able to meet these kinds of needs and do it in such a chic way, but Daniel succeeded and is incredibly talented. I’m not sure that I would do that same hairstyle if I had to go back and do it again, but I’m happy I went with my gut and in the end, it was certainly original!

 

Makeup

Daniel Chavey and his associate also did my makeup. I did really natural makeup, a tiny bit of mascara (which I never wear), and I wore a light fuschia lipstick because I love having color on my lips and the fuschia made it feel really festive and summery.

Style Notes

 

Stationery

I wanted to do as much of the design aspect myself so I worked on all stationery with Hadrien’s friend Manuel Wilson who is a very talented graphic designer and printer. Our save the dates were via email because it was simply easier having to send to people in France, the US, Belgium and elsewhere. Our invitations for the civil wedding were actually Mexican themed. They were red, with orange writing and had a Mayan statue on the back. The invitations for the religious ceremony were completely different. They were light stone grey with black writing. We both have a very fun side but also a more serious side, so both invitations were really representative of who we are as people. The religious ceremony and reception invitations were minimalist and an hommage to the chateau. My personal favorite piece of stationary throughout everything were the table placement cards that we made for the dinner. We themed the tables by music. Each table was a different band that Hadrien and I love and fell in love to. Each card on each table had a photo of the group or artist and their name. It was really personal and gave a nice graphic touch to the scenery.

 

Flowers & Bouquets

I knew right away that I wanted eucalyptus to be a part of everything. I grew up in the canyons of Los Angeles and we had eucalyptus everywhere, in all different types. I remember I used to sniff the trees because they would clear up my sinuses. I love those smells that bring back so many memories. Needless to say, eucalyptus was present pretty much everywhere and tied everything together. I also wanted to add an art deco aspect, and when I saw what mini protea flowers looked like, I had to have them. The mini light powder pink proteas were in my hair and also on Hadrien’s and the groomsmen suits. The main flower I chose was the peony to give the bouquets some volume. I love peonies, but especially this one peony that I found that was a very light pink, almost white, with bright neon orange in the middle. Turns out this is not the color of the flower, but the color of the bright coral peony at the very end of its life when it opens and turns this lovely light peach. I had envisioned the whole wedding around this flower and was so sad when I found out it wasn’t something obtainable. My incredible and true fairy of a florist, Antoinette from Fleurs des Fée, literally incubated tons and tons of coral peonies and saved them until they were at the end of their life so that I could have the flower of my dreams. Finally, as a little touch, we decided to add immortelle flowers from the coast of Corsica to represent our engagement there.

Preparation

My bridesmaids and I all slept in the chateau and woke up and had breakfast together. We all got ready in the chateau in Hadrien’s grandmother’s incredible bedroom decorated floor to ceiling in sky-blue mortified fabric with matching chairs and bedspread. The room is a piece of art in itself, so it felt very festive. My mom had brought each girl a bag with a robe and some facemasks. It was the perfect time to have an intimate moment with your girlfriends after all the preparation is finally over.

 

Ceremony Décor & Reception Décor

I found a photo of a wedding in a church in Sicily. I used this as my inspiration for the church floral decoration. I didn’t want too much going on inside the church as the interior of the Cathedral of Uzès is exquisite in itself. We added some green plants onto the church benches on the aisle side, and some on the altar along with a few candles.

Cake

Our cake came from the caterers that we chose, Lavallergue. They made us a beautiful naked cake decorated in peonies. We had four flavors in our cake. The bottom two layers were strawberry-lemon-basil and the top two layers were raspberry-tarragon.

 

Food and Beverages

The cocktail had a variety of different hors d’oeuvres and two live stands, one with salmon and another with ham. My friend Gina who is a chef was in Barcelona and ordered the leg of ham that we got delivered to France for the wedding cocktail. That was amazing! We were really invested in the quality of the food we were offering. Hadrien and I found all the wine and made evenings out of it, testing each of them with his sisters and taking notes. The wedding dinner was a sit-down dinner where we offered three dishes. We didn’t do an entrée as we did a long cocktail. We offered meat, fish, or vegetarian and followed it with cheese.

 

Wedding Songs

We had a few wedding songs. We danced our way into the dinner to the song, ‘Little Green Bag’ by George Baker Selection, we cut our cake to the Mamas and the Papas and we had our first dance to ‘Can’t Nobody Love You’ by The Zombies.

Entertainment

We had a very hip live jazz manouche group called Octave & Anatole for the cocktail. We then had a DJ for the dinner and the dancing who is a friend of mine from Paris. We wanted to have them at our wedding so that we could really be able to have the music that we and our friends love. We created our own playlists and played a true variation of music from classic rock to hip hop to electro and Caribbean.

 

Gift Registry

We did do a gift registry. I created a website for the wedding where I put different objects that we would like, I also created several different communal pots online for our honeymoon and more expensive gifts, as well as a wedding registry with Le Bon Marché. We received so many fantastic gifts and got so many things that we need and are so excited to bring into our future apartment.

 

Transport

I arrived at the church with my mom and my step sister in a car that my mom reserved. I left with Hadrien in a 1966 white Mustang that had Los Angeles license plates!

 

Honeymoon

We are going on our honeymoon this summer. We are going to discover the French Polynesian Islands. Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, all that good stuff. We are going to spend one week in Los Angeles and see my family, and then spend two weeks visiting the various islands and exploring. We wanted to leave right after the wedding though, so we decided to go to Morocco and we had an incredible time. We spent the first week in Marrakech at the Royal Mansour. We then spent a week in a fantastic place on the coast that we kind of just spontaneously picked out on the map called Oualidia and stayed at the hotel La Sultana that I highly recommend.

Special Details

 

Sources of Inspiration

I looked at Pinterest until I couldn’t look at the same stuff anymore. I looked at blogs, magazines, department stores, vintage stores, honestly everywhere.

 

A Memorable Moment

There were so many, but I definitely will never forget Hadrien’s face when I smashed cake into it after cutting our cake. I guess in France that’s not a tradition…? He had no idea why I just shoved a handful of cake, that I picked up with my hand of course, into his face in front of everyone. He was like a deer in headlights and I had done some sort of ultimate “faut-pas”, until he saw how hard I was laughing and that people were actually waiting for him to get me back. He happily grabbed a piece and smeared it all over my face. A moment I will definitely never forget.

 

If I could give other Brides-To-Be one Piece of Advice

Take two steps back on the day of. Literally. People are in your face all day. It’s like seeing everything in close-up. You really have to consciously take two steps back from people as they naturally want to talk to you and congratulate you. It’s the only way to see all of your beautiful work and its results. Make sure to sit, eat dinner, and remind yourself that you are there first and foremost to have fun!

Our Contacts

Photography / Coralie Monnet

Bride’s Dress / Pronovias

Bride’s Shoes / Vintage de Pointure Paris

Jewelry & Accessories / Celine + Vintage

Hair & Makeup/ Daniel Chavey

Groom’s Formal Wear / Paul Smith

Florist / Fleurs de Fee

Stationery / Morgan Ungar & Manuel Wilson

Catering & Cake / Lavallergue

Lighting & Furniture / Belounge

Wedding Venue / Chateau de Castille

Entertainment / Octave & Anatole  & Stephane Bourbon de Penthièvre

Gift Registry / Wix & Le Bon Marche

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