We are off to the South West of France today for a destination Chateau De La Cazine wedding. The Chateau has a pretty romantic story too; originally being constructed in the late 1800’s as a lavish wedding gift from the owner to his wife. The surrounding area of La Creuse where the chateau is nestled is known locally as “The Land of a Thousand Lakes”.

Our bride and groom Katy and Bertram married in an emotional outdoor ceremony with all their closest family and friends. Katy looked stunning in her BERTA gown with hair and make up created by FWS vendor Carey Hawkins Make Up.

We’ll no pass you over to our couple who will be walking us through their romantic Chateau De La Cazine wedding captured by Christina Sarah Photography…

Here’s a bit about their love story…

It was a beautiful Saturday morning at the end of February 2016 and Bertram and Katy had woken up early. Bertram told Katy he was going to get a haircut and to pack her bags by the time he came back. He was taking her away for the weekend since the weather had been depressing in Zurich for the past month.

Without suspicion, Katy packed her bags and they headed off to the airport without her knowing what the final destination is. They arrived at Paris Charles Du Galle international airport and took an Uber to the hotel.

To Katy’s surprise, Bertram had booked a beautiful 5 star hotel in Central Paris, next to the Louvre. The room was on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the rooftops in Paris and the Sacre Coeur in the distance. Calling Katy to the balcony to check out the scenery, Bertram then got on one knee and popped the question and the rest is history.

Our wedding ceremony was especially emotional, there was a lot of crying (not very good for our photos). We didn’t do first look photos before the ceremony which was probably why it was especially emotional at the beginning of our ceremony. It is indescribable the feeling you have inside, when you take the very first look of your husband to be/ wife to be at the altar.

We chose Christina to capture our wedding day initially because we liked her style of photography and her enthusiasm for her work. Christina’s photography style is light and romantic and her photos captured the moments beautifully.

Most of all, not only Christina was our photographer, she was also Katy’s saving grace during the planning process, especially at the end. Every bride will find out during the planning process, things can go awry, even the wedding planner. On the day before the wedding, the original videographer had cancelled and left Katy in a panic. Christina reached out to her network, found a suitable and available videographer and saved the day!

Which leads to Alessandro Pardi, the videographer we chose to capture our day. Although last minute, we loved the previous work Alessandro has done and presented. He was super easy going and completely understanding of the situation and accommodated to our every need. His films capture your day perfectly and tell a beautiful love story and bring you back to the exact moment every time you watch it.

We chose France because of the romance it represents and fell in love with Chateau De La Cazine wedding venue for its romantic location surrounded by the lakes and the Chateau’s simple elegance. We were never huge fans of bold colour schemes so we chose a soft colour palette consisting of pale pink, white and splashes of gold for the extra ooomph.

There was not one moment we favour over another. We live in Switzerland, Bertram is from Austria and Katy from Canada. Most of our closest friends live across an ocean or over the Alps from us. We are so blessed that our friends and family traveled from afar to celebrate and spend a weekend with us. Every moment during the wedding weekend has become a cherished memory.

Advice for our brides to-be: Pick one or two things that are important for you and allocate more of your budget to it like a band or photographer. It’s too easy to exceed your budget with all the ideas and inspirations out there. No one will remember what your flower arrangements looked like or what kind of paper your wedding invitations were on. Last but not least Wedding Wire was very useful when doing the seating chart and managing guest list.

We took our honeymoon 3 months after the wedding. In hindsight, we would have taken it right after the wedding rather than returning to work right away. You need that time to relax and really take it all in!