Paris and Château de Chantilly France Elopement Destination Wedding

I love elopements! Nothing beats their intimate atmosphere and opportunity to do lots and lots of photos without being in a hurry of a big wedding reception, formal family photos and other things that distract the happy couple from spending all of their wedding day time immersed into each other and their special moment! This particular elopement I've not only captured but also organised for Sharon and Eiman - two amazing doctors from Vancouver, Canada.

We started the planning of this wedding weekend with Sharon. Very quickly we set the schedule to have a low key dinner in the evening of their arrival to Paris for the two of them, plus their photographers - FEDERICO and I. Little did she know that Eiman and I have been doing a little planning of our own and this dinner was supposed to be the time when Sharon discovers that 6 of their closest family members were brought to Paris for the elopement in secret by her amazing groom. Even though I'm not featuring photos from that dinner in this post I want to sing praise to LES TANTES JEANNE restaurant in Montmartre for their impeccable service and yummy food.

Next day Sharon had a super early 6am start with CIARA and CHARLES, who took care of her hair and make up making her look like a princess! We then went up to a rooftop of a private building with a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower for the first set of wedding portraits. Our second location was Trocadero, followed by Alexandre III bridge, Tuileries garden and finally the courtyard of The Louvre Museum. This concluded the Paris Photography part of the wedding day and after a lunch break all 10 of us got into 2 cars and drove just under an hour to the ceremony location - the iconic CHÂTEAU de CHANTILLY.

Château allows photos and didn't mind our elopement ceremony as long as we had pre-ordered tickets for the whole party and informed them for a written permission ahead of time. Sharon and Eiman exchanged their emotional vows in front of their families at the golden hour light at the side of the Château. The beautiful bride's bouquet was lovingly made by our florist Marina at FLEUR DESIR. We then walked over to The English Garden for some champagne with LADUREE macarons and family photos. Instead of a lavish and pricey reception we got ourselves a table for 10 at the best hotel in Chantilly THE AUBERGE DU JEU DE PAUME, which houses 2 of the best restaurants - LA TABLE DU CONNÉTABLE and LE JARDIN D'HIVER. For our date only the Le Jardin D'Hiver was open, but the meal we had there was one of the best I've had at any wedding!

Et voilà! This is the story how Eiman suprised Sharon in Paris and Chantilly! Did I mention already how much I enjoyed to be their wedding photographer? ;) Loved every second of it!