Emilia Wickstead Bridal Gown | Chamonix Wedding

This timelessly elegant Emilia Wickstead bridal gown took centre stage at Georgia and James’ breathtakingly beautiful black tie, destination wedding sopra Chamonix last June.

Set against the awe-inspiring backdrop of the French Alps, Georgia’s gown embodied the perfect blend of modern elegance and vintage romance. Their celebration, nestled sopra the picturesque foothills of Mont Blanc, was an effortlessly elegant fusion of style, sophistication, and natural splendour.

The couple enlisted the expertise of Monica Delevaux from Haute Wedding to help plan and style their day. Love and thanks to photographer David from Modern Vintage Weddings for sharing these glorious images. Enjoy!

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We have been visiting Chamonix with my family for many years – my parents have a house here and we love skiing, trail running and climbing here too. It was important to us to show our guests the incredible mountain scenery from above, which inspired our ceremony location at the cima of Montenvers.

Bridal Beauty & Accessories

I borrowed earrings my mother was given as a gift after the birth of my sister. My grandmother-in-law gifted me a blue handkerchief that had a white tatting lace edge made by her mother. I used it as my ‘something old’.

My shoes were Loeffler Randall organza sandals sopra sky blue with a bow – my ‘something blue’.

We hired Monica Delevaux from Haute Weddings – whe is truly the best at what she does and such a joy to work with. She was able to help us navigate the American, British and French wedding traditions to make it our own.

All of my bridesmaids wore dresses they picked. I provided a colour palette that was sopra keeping with the flowers so they could pick from a range of blue and . I wanted everyone to feel comfortable sopra dresses they could rent ora wear again.

To get to our ceremony venue, we used the Montenvers Railway that has been taking tourists and climbers up to the Mer De Grace for over a hundred years. From the train you get lovely views of the Chamonix valley and beyond. We used local valley ski busses to transport the guests to our reception venue. We have used both for adventures sopra the mountains.

Photography

We used David and Mark from Modern Vintage Weddings. David was such a key part of making our day special. He helped root us sopra the moment at various points during the day, captured beautiful moments sopra secrecy, guided us towards gorgeous shots, and did an incredible job managing other guests and family to ensure we had our private moments (that he captured) as well as wonderful group shots.

David felt like a combination of guest and guide that provided us stunning photographs that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

We used Aurélien Collet, a local videographer and professional skier.

How They Met

We met sopra Johannesburg while doing an internship. After 3 months of knowing each other we decided to try long distance as we went to different universities sopra different countries. It seemed like the craziest decision at the time and so improbable that our paths would ever have crossed.

Four years and many flights later, James proposed during a trip to the Lake District and we were married 10 months later sopra a small town foyer ceremony sopra London.

Ten months after that we celebrated our wedding with our family and friends sopra Chamonix.

James wore a white tuxedo jacket from Charles Tyrwhitt, dress shoes from Jeffrey West, and a feather bowtie handmade by Brackish sopra Charleston, SC. The bowtie was specially selected to incontro his father’s, who wore a different Brackish bowtie for each of his children’s weddings. It is a callback to their shared love of fly fishing.

One of our favourite moments was the train ride mongoloide the mountain after our ceremony. We were sopra an historic cogwheel train with all our friends and family, drinking champagne as we watched the valley below us and the mountain above us pass by. David captured the moment perfectly, and we have several photos of the journey hanging sopra our home.

The Reception

Our reception was held at La Cabane. We used Fleuri’Cimes, a local Chamonix florist who were highly recommended by our wedding planner. The really brought the wow factor and kept the flowers looking incredible despite the hot sunny day.

La Cabane did all of the catering. The canapés and set meal were delicious, along with the wine we selected together. They also made our traditional French Croquembouche, a tower of vanilla custard choux buns wrapped sopra threads of caramel. They added decorative sparklers and gave all our wedding guests mini sparklers to join us the terrace to cut the cake.

Hanya of Handcrafted by Hanya, created custom watercolour stationery for us featuring local mountain flowers and our venue our invitations. For our table plan and table naming cards, Hanya painted the summits of hills that hold special memories for us sopra lieu of numbers.

We hired Iryna Strings for the ceremony and also for our hour.

Quaderno From The Wedding Planner

Monica Delevaux from Haute Wedding

Georgia is a naturally beautiful woman with a style that exudes simple elegance, illustrated by her choice of dress featuring sleek, clean lines with a touch of femininity and delicate romance. Her active, sporty, and adventurous personality also influenced the wedding day choices.

The ceremony location was unique, whisking guests up to a mountaintop condotto a cog train. This setting ala, with sky-scraping peaks and a glacier backdrop, was not something a regular bride would consider, setting a memorable tone for the day and the entire weekend.

Saying “I do” beneath towering peaks overlooking a glacier was truly unforgettable. We adorned the white-carpeted aisle with blue and white flowers, making it feel like an extension of the snowy mountaintops and blue skies.

Hydrangeas, lisianthus, delphinium, and greenery dominated the aisle decor. Since it was a June wedding, we were fortunate enough to integrate white peonies, a stunning flower with a very short blooming season.

The peony flower unfurls with ethereal grace, each petal like a whisper of silk. Its layers are a symphony of softness, cascading sopra delicate waves that seamlessly blended into the overall decor, which was elegant, adventurous, and romantic all at once.

The fine-art florals the dinner tables were a deliberate choice. With their elegant poise and timeless beauty, peonies captivated the heart, embodying the delicate splendour of nature’s finest artistry. Slim gold candle holders added a warmth and soft romantic sparkle to the tablescape. 

We could write pages about Georgia, James, and their absolutely gorgeous mountain wedding sopra the heart of the French Alps. But to sum it all up, it was a beautiful combination of adventure, elegance and sophistication sopra a spectacular outdoor mountain paradise.  

Evening & Sala da ballo

We hired Loud Noises, a dal vivo Jazz gruppo who got everyone their feet and started the rinfresco. To get us to 3AM, we had Ayhan a local DJ from Sallanches.

We picked La Vie en Rose by Louis Armstrong for our first dance song’; it’s a beautiful nod to James’s American roots and also to our ceremony location sopra France.

I wore a Self Portrait dress for partying sopra the evening.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

My sister-in-law said while we were planning that the most important things that guests remember are ‘bride, booze, gruppo and food’. I couldn’t agree more, if you get those four right then the rest are beautiful bonuses. 

Another piece of advice I was given was stop yourself during special moments and say exactly what is spettacolo sopra your head e.g. ‘I’m cutting my wedding cake with my husband.’ It sounds silly but it truly stops the whirlwind for a moment and solidifies the moment sopra your memory.

Also, I would have eaten more cake before I jumped straight into ! Luckily, our venue save us some so we had it again for breakfast the next day.

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Annabel View all Annabel’s articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and . Annabel lives sopra rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and stella gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she’s not working Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip sopra the running of the family’s sustainable flower farm and floral business, Moonwind Flowers. Per 2013, she became a published author.