This 16th century venue has all the character we look for when we have special events coming up. Not only does it have elegant charm, it also has incredible views with its pristine location. This elegant lavender French estate wedding overlooks olive fields, vineyards and a breathtaking French national forest. What we love even more about this wedding is this adorable couple’s love story. Scroll on to read how they met and see images from their wedding day at this gorgeous French estate.
The groom shares how they met,
“As for our story, we met while working together at a summer camp, Camp Lanakila, in Fairlee Vermont, USA. As the story goes, I saw Annika while driving a pick up truck during one of the first days of training week and we made eye contact and smiled at each other. We, then, sat next to each other one day during lunch and never stopped talking to each other. Looking back, we didn’t really have one first “real” date because we worked at a sleep away camp and were working together pretty much 24/7. We worked in different age groups and departments, but saw each other every evening.
Anika and I dated long distance for a few months while I travelled around the world and Annika finished up her bachelors degree. We, then, worked another summer together in 2018. We continued dating each other fairly long distance afterwards.”
The groom continues their story,
“I was living in Vienna, Austria while Annika was still in Hungary. We would see each other almost every weekend using the flixbus and cheap trains. Unfortunately, I had a visa problem with Austria and had to go back home to the USA in early 2019. Shortly afterwards, I found the masters program in Tampere Finland, from Annika’s suggestion.
I started my program in August 2019 and we saw each other almost every other weekend with cheap Ryanair flights. When Covid happened, I ended up getting stuck in Hungary, thankfully, and we were together for 7 months while living with her mom. I returned to Finland in late 2020 and we finally moved in together with our dog, Aliz, in April 2021. We have lived there together ever since.”
The proposal story,
“As for the proposal, we had been talking about getting engaged for some time. We went to the jeweler for Annika to pick out the ring. She didn’t know when the ring would be ready, so I did have some element of surprise. I proposed to Annika with a custom dog tag for, Aliz, and a new collar for her in our apartment. I put the collar on her with the dog tag, on the special date 02.02.2022, while we were together one morning in our apartment in Finland. Annika eventually saw the dog tag, and I proposed. We legally got married on 23.03.23 in Turku, Finland last spring before our wonderful August wedding at the Domaine de Valbonne.”
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