It was a decidedly French-style wedding for this New York couple! Hannah and Thomas met in 2015 in an increasingly common way: via an app. Fast forward 7 years later when Hannah, a senior director at the private membership network Chief, and Thomas, a consultant at Russel Reynolds Associates, decided it finally felt right for them to plan their wedding in the sprawling countryside near Toulouse, in the South of France.
A destination wedding in France for the bride and groom to accommodate their guests from all over the world
Although they live in New York, Hannah, and Thomas wanted to celebrate their wedding in France to accommodate their guests from all over the world. At the same time, they wanted to showcase a place that was dear to them: the groom’s parents’ country home near Toulouse. This charming property called “Le Pestou” located near Castersagat in the Southern French region offered everything you could ever desire about the French countryside as seen in the movies: fields as far as the eye can see, the delicious golden light that only radiates from the Southern sun, singing cicadas, and the relaxed sweetness of the slow life. They decided there could be no better place than Le Pestou to host part of their wedding: the welcome dinner, and brunch the morning after.
“So many people after the wedding said that it was the most fun & relaxed wedding they had been to.”
Hannah, the bride
For their outdoor wedding ceremony (which meant the bride would be armed with an umbrella against the summer sun) and lively evening, the couple set their sights on the Chateau Naudou in Puymirol “We wanted the feeling of the wedding to be very relaxed and rustically elegant. It was important to us that it felt like an intimate gathering of best friends, versus a very structured event,” recalls the bride. “I wanted the aesthetic to reflect the french countryside, and also give our guests a taste of all of the wonderful times we’ve had at Le Pestou over the years.” The result was a complete success!
Hannah stumbled across her Vivienne Westwood wedding dress right before her wedding
The flowy wedding dress with its strapless design and lace train, Hannah‘s wedding dress for her wedding to Thomas was the perfect fit… and yet it wasn’t actually her initial pick. “I must have tried on over 100 wedding dresses and couldn’t find the perfect one. I finally landed on one, from a New York based brand, which I won’t mention,” recalls Hannah. After weeks of alterations, it wasn’t sitting right. I knew I needed a new dress, but only had 2 weeks before our wedding. I went to Vivienne Westwood, and despite a long line outside, I knocked on the window, and the clerk came to speak with me. Normally all of their dresses are made to order. I frantically asked if she had anything I could wear for my wedding in 2 weeks, and she produced a stunning dress in my size, which was a sample from a few years ago, that was in their archive. No one had ever had it ordered, so it is one of a kind. It fit me like a glove, and was so perfect for the setting. Finding that dress was truly a miracle. I bought it that day and had minor alterations done that week. I wanted a dress that was transitional, and I loved that I could wear the lace cape during the ceremony, and then take it off for dinner.”
The evening continued well into the morning and the ambiance was so amazing that the bride and groom almost forgot to serve the wedding cake! It was safe to say: the wedding weekend was spent in good company, under the Southern French sun, and in the spirit of French culture. Relive Hannah and Thomas‘ wedding through the photographs and words they shared with us exclusively on Vogue.fr.
Translated by Nafiseh Soolari
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