Colourful Chinese Lanterns at Domaine St Germain Wedding Venue

There's a lovely eclectic mix of traditions and wedding celebrations at this beautiful South of France wedding. Starting off with a hand fastening and sands of time ceremony, and followed by multiple challenges including card stacking and beer bottle holding which are ways in which the groom can prove his love to the brides family and friends. We love that the bride's competitive side got the better of her and she couldn't resist joining in on all the fun too. Colourful Chinese lanterns decorated the ceiling reception at Domaine St Germain wedding venue, and fun was had by all at this breathtaking destination wedding. Just wait until you see the golden hour portraits!

Ellis Bridal Embroidery Wedding Dress

Nayla & Jeff: I’d always imagined a sleek A-line dress with a little embroidery. The dress I ultimately fell in love with was a bit bigger and more layered than I imagined, but the moment I had it on I knew this was it! I loved the subtle pink and champagne tones in the layers of the tulle train and the floral embroidery all over. It looked like it had been designed for our venue!

Colourful Chinese Lanterns at Domaine St Germain Wedding Venue

We always knew we were going to get married abroad - with our friends and families coming from all over the world such as Hong Kong, Germany, Lebanon and the States it made sense to meet somewhere in the middle. The south of France seemed like the perfect place with great weather, wine and food - it ticked all the boxes. We shortlisted a few venues with the help of Chateau Bee and after we saw Domaine St Germain we knew it was an absolute gem. It slept most of our immediate family and was just the right mix of old French charm, comfortable rooms and cute decor and, above else, stunning views. Surrounded by nothing but olive groves and forest it also meant we would be totally undisturbed - it was just perfect.

Colour Scheme/Decor

As our venue had this beautiful rustic chic surrounded by nature, we felt a strict colour scheme would not match. We held our ceremony outside, with the Pic St Loup in the backdrop, so we kept it very simple to not take away from the view. On the day of our wedding, our bridesmaids and groomsmen came all together to help us decorate. We had a lot of fun getting everything ready together and it ended up looking really professional. For the ceremony, we had some simple ribbons around the chairs and a few singular white roses all over. The surrounding buildings and breathtaking landscape did the rest. For the reception, we ended up embracing all colours under the rainbow and it looked beautiful. We really wanted to bring some of our cultural traditions and colours into the day so we decorated the room with brightly coloured Chinese lanterns as well as umbrellas. On the tables, we had fortune cookie wedding favours and little colourful Chinese silk pouches filled with jasmine tea. They added a great little touch.

Wedding Ceremony

We had a British celebrant conducting our wedding. We opted for a symbolic hand fastening ceremony as well as a “sands of time” ceremony. We had 2 really special readings done, one by one of Jeff’s best men as well as one by Nayla’s stepsister. She read “A lovely love story” be Edward Monkton which is possibly the sweetest reading at a wedding ever.

Entertainment

Next up, we had a beer holding competition, followed by a card house building competition. Lastly, we had to go head to head in cutting out a fabric heart. Thankfully we were both declared winners so no sore losers on the day. Just before our dinner, we brought in some traditional Lebanese culture through a round of belly dance!