The Best Château Wedding Venues in the Loire Valley

The venues I keep coming back to

I have photographed weddings at dozens of estates across the region. A few I know intimately, because I have spent multiple full weekends working in them:

Château Challain, in the Loire Valley. A most impressive neo-Gothic castle with 365 windows and 52 fireplaces—a building that narrates the passage of time. Cynthia, its American owner, brings to this jewel a generosity without equal and a rare expertise as a hostess. Weddings of every scale are held there, from the most intimate to the most lavish, yet always beneath an air of fairy tale reverie that Audrey Hepburn would not have disowned.

Château de Jalesnes near Saumur. A grand, fully privatizable Renaissance château with on-site suites for dozens of guests. Ideal for black-tie, multi-day weddings in the British or American style: welcome dinner on Friday, ceremony and gala on Saturday, pool day on Sunday. I photographed a two-day black-tie wedding here for a couple from the UK. [E+J three day wedding there]

Château de la Flocellière in the Vendée hills, on the region's southwestern edge. Eleventh-century origins, a keep, formal gardens, and one of the warmest owner families I have met. I have shot at least four weddings here, including a three-day black-tie celebration for a Los Angeles couple and an intimate transatlantic wedding for a pair from Newport Beach. [A+A multi day celebration there]

Château du Loroux, in Vernantes. A five-star 19th-century manor nested within the sacred ruins of a 12th-century abbey. Thirty-eight hectares of secrets, a chapel where vows echo beneath stone vaults, gardens cascading toward the river. A sumptuous setting where many weddings of international couples are held. [See the very first wedding photos shot in this brand new venue]

Château du Parc Saint-Lambert, just a stone's throw away. A chic restored estate with a Baltard orangery worthy of world's fairs, a botanical park where thousand-year-old trees frame poetic ceremonies.

Château des Briottières, near Angers as well, a magnificent family manor with sumptuous interior salons and grand reception halls adjoining it (though the château itself can accommodate intimate welcome dinners in a splendid atmosphere). Each wedding becomes a parenthesis of grace there, bathed in golden light and beneficent discretion. [Wedding Film I shot there]

Château de Chambiers, near Angers, an 18th-century estate with forty hectares of shaded parkland, a luminous gallery with period beams, gardens sketched with delicacy. [Wedding Film I shot there]

Château de la Bretonnière near Nantes. Smaller, elegant, perfect for weddings of 40 to 90 guests who want the castle feel without the ballroom scale. It was the French chapter of a beautiful two-country wedding I photographed that began on Lake Como. [T+D’s wedding there]

Manoir de la Jahotière, also near Nantes, deserves a mention for couples who prefer romantic imperfection: its open-air ruins host some of the most moving outdoor ceremonies I have witnessed. [A gay wedding in a beautiful Manor]

A word on vendors

The Loire Valley boasts an impressive roster of seasoned wedding vendors experienced in working with international clients. You'll find English-speaking coordinators, officiants skilled at crafting multilingual ceremonies, and florists and caterers who rotate through various estates throughout the season. As someone permanently based in the region, I'm fortunate to have established relationships with exceptional professionals I'm confident recommending to my couple, feel free to ask about my favorites during our consultation.