Champagne Silk and Burgundy Blooms at Chateau du Raysse, Dordogne

The outdoor ceremony unfolded in the chateau’s courtyard, framed by tall Italian cypress trees and a stone archway heavy with ivy. Louis XVI-style cane-back chairs lined the aisle, and Jenny Fairbanks’s ground-level floral runners in burgundy ranunculus and blush garden roses softened the brick-paved path. Ashley and Jack exchanged rings beneath the open sky, and when the kiss came, Jack dipped Ashley deeply while guests cheered.

Ashley’s ceremony gown by Jessica Bennet Bridal was champagne silk with a fitted corset and lace-up back, paired with a Chantilly lace-trim veil and a full silk neck scarf. Against the stone terrace and wrought-iron railings, the champagne silk picked up warm amber tones from the walls. One standout: Ashley in cat-eye sunglasses, grinning in the garden, veil trailing behind her.

Wilma Towell took Ashley and Jack through the grounds as the light shifted, moving from cobblestone paths beside ivy-covered walls to a black iron gate flanked by rustic stone pillars. The first look was quiet and specific: Jack lifting the lace-edged cathedral veil over Ashley’s face, the two of them alone in the frame. One image, shot through the lace of the veil as they kiss, stops you mid-scroll.

Guests moved to the poolside garden, where a white panelled bar was dressed with oversized floral arrangements and crystal coupes waited in neat rows. The champagne tower, a pyramid of seven tiers on a rustic wooden surface, became the centrepiece of the hour. Ashley and her bridesmaids toasted with coupe glasses on the stone-paved terrace.

Long wooden farm tables with cross-back chairs filled the courtyard beneath strings of Edison bulbs and the canopy of a mature tree. Renaissance Restaurant’s menu leaned into the Dordogne’s local flavours. The macaron tower by PIM was flanked by pink cards matching each flavour to its colour. Cora-Lee Synam’s single-tier ivory cake, dressed with hand-placed blooms, anchored the opposite end.

The colour palette ran through champagne, warm ivory, and deep burgundy, with sage greenery threading everything together. White menu cards, cream linen napkins, and low floral runners dressed each table, with blue-painted shutters on the stone building adding an unexpected colour accent. Crystal coupe glasses held clear liquid scattered with small red flower petals. Personalised children’s place settings and a hand-written seating chart on a wooden easel showed the same considered touch.

The medieval Dordogne chateau near Bergerac earned its place in every frame. A cylindrical stone tower with its conical slate roof, dense ivy climbing the facade, and a curved interior spiral staircase gave Wilma Towell architectural detail at every turn. In midsummer, with lights glowing gold inside and the sky deepening outside, the property looks exactly as it should.