Évi and Pierre - a chateau wedding in the Loire Valley

Évi and Pierre castle wedding in the Loire Valley

Working for an international airline, flight attendant Évi and pilot Pierre live in Dubai and travel to wherever their schedules take them in the world. They once worked together on a flight to Singapore. Évi had been to Singapore several times before, but Pierre was visiting for the first time, so he asked her to show him her favourite places. Although it was pouring with rain, it didn’t stop them from walking and talking for hours. Meeting in Singapore was followed by dates in Dubai, until they became a couple.

One of the special features of the wedding was that, contrary to what is usually the case, the groom, not the bride, planned the whole wedding concept, choosing the venue, food and decorations based on his ideas.

"He is a real castle wedding in the Loire valley, with an elegant dinner and French cuisine."

In addition to the French fine dining concept, we also added a little Hungarian, traditional dish to the menu, so we asked the chef if he would be willing to prepare a chicken soup from Újházi. The French concept of soup is very different from the Hungarian one, but he was happy to prepare the dish. He also presented it at the tasting and it was cooked to a similar standard as in Hungary.

As Pierre’s family has a strong interest in classical music and he himself played in a chamber orchestra, we built the menu as a classical music concert. The courses were presented as if they were holding a concert programme in their hands:

First course, the Hungarian song: chicken soup from Újháza
Green minor sonata was the second course: creamy green peas with smoked duck slices and goat cheese
Then Andante – the main course was lamb chops.
Then the inevitable cheese dish as Scherzo de fromage
Finally the Rondo final, in this case the dessert

For dessert, each table was served a selection of French pastries, and for cake, a French wedding dessert, Croquembouche Pièce-montée, was chosen, accompanied by the classic champagne tower popular in France.

The wedding was organised by local service providers, but the couple entrusted me with the day of the wedding, as master of ceremonies and officiant. We structured their French-Hungarian ceremony in the spirit of classical elegance, but as a bonding ritual we spiced it up with a cocktail ceremony