Château de Vallery
- Feb 19
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 20
A four-day French celebration at Château de Vallery - from the artisits` village of Barbizon to fireworks over the Loire.
There are weddings, and then there are experiences. Amy and Rishi didn't just book a venue — they took over a château, gathered their closest people, and spent four days in the French countryside doing what this couple does best: living beautifully and celebrating loudly.
Château de Vallery is one of those places that makes you forget you have a job. Set in the soft green folds of Burgundy, this is the kind of estate you arrive at and immediately think — right, I'm never leaving. And for four days in August, nobody did.
We've been lucky enough to shoot some epic weddings in France over the years, but this one? This was something else entirely.
THE MORNING BEFORE: BARBIZON & CHÂTEAU DE FONTAINEBLEAU
We started this whole adventure with a morning drive to Barbizon — the little village on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest that became famous in the 19th century because painters kept turning up and refusing to leave. Honestly, standing there in the early morning light, you completely understand it. The way the sun comes through the trees. The quiet. There's a reason artists have been obsessed with this place for 200 years.
From Barbizon we headed to Château de Fontainebleau itself, and if you've never been — just go. One of the most extraordinary royal palaces in France, dripping in history, and on a warm August morning with the light doing that golden thing it does in summer, the setting was practically made for Amy and Rishi. These two are naturals in front of a camera — not in the "they've practiced their poses" way, just in the way of two people who are genuinely, completely happy in each other's company. You point the camera and the rest takes care of itself.
It set the tone for everything that followed.
DAY ONE: THE WINE CAVE EVENING AND THE HANGING GARDENS
Guests started arriving at Château de Vallery and pretty quickly realised they'd landed somewhere extraordinary. The venue team had the wine cave lit up beautifully — candles, a long table down one wall heaving with wine and cheese and charcuterie and bread, the playlist going, and around 65 people packed into this atmospheric underground space doing what the French do best: drinking well and talking even better.
This is the thing about multi-day weddings that single-day weddings can't replicate — by the end of night one, everyone knows each other. The awkward early-reception energy doesn't exist by day three. By the time the wedding itself comes around, these 100-odd people have shared meals and sunscreen and probably danced together already, and it shows in every photograph.
LATER THAT EVENING: PAELLA IN THE HANGING GARDEN
After the wine cave, nobody was quite ready to call it a night. And so they didn't.
At 8pm, guests moved outside to the bottom of the steps — the area Amy and Rishi had transformed into the Hanging Gardens, because honestly, that's what it felt like. Tables arranged in a horseshoe, dressed in linen, centrepieces the couple had brought themselves, and above it all, hanging lights strung out against the warm August night. Music drifting through the venue speakers. The kind of setting that makes everyone sit down and immediately pour another glass.
And then came the paella. Proper, generous, al fresco paella in the courtyard of a French château on a summer evening — eaten slowly, with no particular rush to be anywhere, because there was nowhere else on earth any of these people needed to be. There's something about a meal like this — outdoors, unhurried, under lights, with people who genuinely love each other — that you just can't manufacture. Amy and Rishi had built the conditions for it, and their crowd did the rest.
It went on until midnight, the music off, the night still warm, nobody in any hurry.
We moved between tables catching moments — the toasts, the laughter, a quiet conversation between two people who'd only just met that morning and were clearly going to be friends forever. The small stuff. The stuff that disappears if you're not watching for it.
One of those evenings where you look around and think: right. This is exactly what it's for.
DAY TWO: THE POOL PARTY & MOROCCAN NIGHT
If day one was elegant and atmospheric, day two was full-on summer festival energy.
The pool area was set up beautifully — tables dressed, towels out, DJ @hidjcarr already set up by the Oriental Pavillion the time guests were wandering over. The BBQ started at 2pm, the pool party officially kicked off at noon, and for the next four and a half hours it was one of those perfect French summer afternoons where you look around and think: everyone here is having the time of their lives.
Up to 100 guests at the pool at one point, and the music, the heat, the setting, the food — it all just worked. Amy and Rishi have put together a crowd who know how to be on holiday.
Then, at dusk, the torches came out.
The venue team lit twenty torches plus their own along the path leading to the Moroccan room, and guests gathered on the lawn for a glass of fizz before following the flames inside. The changeover had been happening quietly while everyone was still at the pool — the Moroccan room transformed, aperol and Pimm's waiting, @hidjcarr shifting into a Café del Sol vibe, the whole atmosphere dropping from "pool party" to "something more enchanted" in the space of about an hour.
A genuinely magical transition. One of those moments where you can feel a whole crowd shift into a different gear together.
THE WEDDING DAY: CHÂTEAU DE VALLERY, 8TH AUGUST
The morning kicked off at 9am with champagne delivered straight to Amy's suite in the Grand Condé room — which, yes, is exactly as grand as it sounds. One of 28 bedrooms in the château, and honestly it set the tone immediately. Gemma arrived to start on hair and makeup and the energy just... built from there. Slowly at first, then all at once. Bex, Katie, Mollie, Cara, Nikita and Jamie doing what the best bridesmaids always do — holding things, crying at precisely the right moments, making everything feel completely manageable even when it briefly, definitely wasn't. The backbone of the whole morning, basically.
We arrived at 9:30 to catch all of it.
Meanwhile, Rishi and his groomsmen — Adam, Jack, Raj, TJ, Lewis, and the brilliantly named @thugsbunney — were getting ready upstairs in the Moroccan room, which by morning had somehow transformed back from "enchanted evening venue" to "perfectly reasonable place to put on a suit." Rishi was calm. Of course he was. He's always calm. It's one of the things you notice about him.
The dress arrived at 12:40, bridesmaids cleared the room, and then — that moment. You know the one. Where Amy put on the @cherishthebride_ gown and suddenly everything got very quiet for a second. We will never get tired of that moment.
THE CEREMONY
Guests were kept on the terrace from 11:15, and at 1:30pm Rishi arrived with his groomsmen — down the steps, round to the Parc aux Ifs, looking impossibly dapper. The ceremony space was simple and perfect: rows of chairs on either side of the aisle, those ancient yew trees framing everything, Château de Vallery stretching out behind it all.
And then the procession began.
Keith — Amy's dad — waited at the bottom of the steps. The bridesmaids and groomsmen made their entrance. And then Amy appeared at the top of those steps in the August sunshine, and you could feel the entire crowd hold their breath.
The @oaklands_celebrants ceremony struck exactly the right note — personal, warm, funny in the right places. Both mums did readings that had people reaching for tissues. And when the moment came to sign — the playlist drifting in softly, this extraordinary venue bathed in summer light — it felt exactly as significant as it was.
They were married.
The confetti that followed was properly, unreservedly joyful.
DRINKS, CANAPÉS & RICH JAMES BUTT
From 2:45, guests spilled into the rose garden and onto the terrace for drinks and canapés — @richjamesbutt providing the soundtrack for the next couple of hours, the florals from Saffron looking absolutely stunning throughout, and the whole Château de Vallery estate doing that thing where you genuinely don't know which way to point the camera because everything is beautiful.
We stole Amy and Rishi away for portraits during this window. The rose garden, the grounds, the golden afternoon light — and two people so visibly in love that we barely had to say a word. Just pointed and pressed.
"Shooting Amy and Rishi at Château de Vallery was one of those sessions where you come away with a full card and still feel like you only scratched the surface of what was there. They just look at each other and the magic happens." — Ruby
THE MUSIC ROOM: SPEECHES & DINNER
At 5pm, guests were called into the Music Room and seated, and Amy and Rishi made their entrance as Mr & Mrs DuSodha — the combined surname that somehow suits them perfectly.
Then the speeches. Keith went first, and set an impossibly high bar. Then Amy stood up — and if you've never seen a bride deliver her own speech on her wedding day, watch this space, because Amy's was brilliant. She had the room completely. Best man Hugo followed, and then Rishi — and by the end of it there was barely a dry eye in the house, but everyone was grinning.
JP's Kitchen served dinner from 5:30, and it was stunning. The kind of wedding food people actually talk about. Afterwards, desserts and cake cutting at 7pm, and then Amy and Rishi slipped away to get changed while guests began moving toward the main hall.
THE EVENING: "THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR"
At 8pm: lights flashing, smoke filling the Great Gallery, and in came Mr & Mrs DuSodha — straight to the dancefloor.
Their first dance was The Teskey Brothers' "This Will Be Our Year." And if you know that song, you understand. It's the kind of song that wraps around a room. Guests joined after the first chorus, and from that moment the dance floor never really emptied.
The sax from @georgedoddsax added something electric to the mix, @hidjcarr reading the room beautifully all night, and Rich James back on vocals. A midnight snack appeared at 10:30 — because of course it did, this is Amy and Rishi — and then at 10:45, fireworks.
Standing there watching those fireworks light up the Château de Vallery sky, guests below, this couple right in the middle of it all — it was one of those moments you file away. A proper full-stop on four days that we won't forget for a very long time.
Carriages from 11pm, and some of those carriages, we suspect, came much later than that.
Amy and Rishi — thank you, sincerely, for having us. For letting us into four days of your world, for trusting us with all of it, from Barbizon in the morning light to the fireworks over the château. You two are so obviously, so completely made for each other, and being around that for four days is honestly a privilege.
We left France with full cards, full hearts, and very fond memories of that wine cave.
With all our love,
Dominic, Ruby, and Ryan xx
P.S.: This is what it all looked like from our Meta glasses...
YOUR SUPER SUPPLIERS
📸 Photography: @dominiclemoinegrams
🎥 Videography: @dominiclemoinegrams / @ryan_murrell_videography
💒 Venue: @chateaudevallery
🖋️ Celebrant: @oaklands_celebrants
👗 Wedding Dress: @cherishthebride_
🍽️ Catering: @jpskitchen.co.uk
💐 Floristry & Décor: Saffron
💇♀️ Hair & Makeup: Gemma
🎷 Sax: @georgedoddsax
🎵 DJ: @hidjcarr
🎤 Singer: @richjamesbutt
Hey guys
Wow this is incredible! You have captured so many memories and moments perfectly and your commentary is beautiful.
Thank you for being part of our family for 4 crazy days.
Your love for what you do is palpable!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You are master craftsman
With love
Denise & Keith xxx