A Parisian Couple's Romantic Micro Wedding at a Historic Chateau Just Outside the City

Mègane Lemiel, an actress and model, and Bernardo De Jeurissen, a filmmaker, never dreamed of a big wedding. For them, a wedding was always meant to be intimate and elegant. To that end, they invited six guests. 

“We wanted an intimate, romantic, emotional, and very aesthetic wedding,” Mègane says. “It was exactly what we dreamed about.”

The Paris-based couple’s story would rival any romantic film. They met at a party on a rooftop overlooking the Eiffel Tower, where they felt the famous spark between the two of them. Two years later, Mègane felt so overcome with love for Bernardo that she popped the question one morning in bed. The ring? Fashioned from the wire of a Champagne cork’s cage.

In four months, the pair, along with their planning team at Wow-Wedding, put together the romantic wedding at Chateau de Villette, just outside of the city center. For a couple in the filmmaking industry, it was extra-special that the property was featured in The Da Vinci Code. They said “I do” in the gardens surrounded by flowers, cut into a powder blue cake, and celebrated with dinner in a ballroom decorated with antiques and candlelight. 

“Finally we were participating in a beautiful story, not as actors,” Mègane says. "It was real. It was about us.”

Read on for all the romantic details of Mègane and Berndardo’s chateau wedding, planned by Wow-Wedding and photographed by Julia Kaptelova.

Once Mègane and Bernardo learned that Chateau de Villette had been used in the filming of a blockbuster film, Mègane says it was an easy decision to sign the contract. “We couldn’t lose the chance to wed at such a remarkable location,” she adds. 

From the start, the couple and the planning team landed on two main colors to represent their love story: blue, in honor of their trust and transparency, and red, as a nod to their passion and sensuality. Both were used as part of the handmade stationery, which also included a custom monogram.

An admirer of lingerie, Mègane wore a 1950s-style, Rara Avis tulle-plisse robe and lingerie set as she got ready. 

Romantic doesn’t even begin to describe Mègane’s tulle-plisse gown by Alon Livne. The dress features ruffled details, oversized sleeves with button cuffs, and lots of flowing fabric. “The dress captured my heart,” Mègane says. She paired it with ruffled shoes and family jewelry. 

Mègane describes her garden rose and peony bouquet as “rich and noble.” She paired it with shoes by Bella Belle.

“Our photographer suggested we dedicate some time for a photo shoot in the Château for it to be a very relaxed, beautiful and unforgettable afternoon,” Mègane says of spending time with Bernardo long before the guests arrived. 

Bernardo wore a black Paolini smoking jacket with a cotton poplin shirt from Karl Lagerfeld, capped off with an Emporio Armani velvet bow tie.

“We didn’t want to spoil a historic view and landscape with any kind of arch or any other high architectural construction and chose to make it a semicircular altar of seasonal flowers and tall green grass,” Mègane says of the simple ceremony décor in the garden of the chateau. 

Mègane and Bernardo walked in together for the ceremony. Since they had married in a civil ceremony at a courthouse the day before, they felt they could make the ceremony more about the emotions and their relationship than the legalities. 

Though they had no wedding party, they did have a dress code for guests: maximum elegance. Men donned tuxedos and women wore gowns in black, marsala, or nude. 

Leave it to the kids to bring the comedic moments. Bernardo’s niece served as flower girl and ring bearer, a role, Mègane says, she was delighted to take on. But when the big moment came in the spotlight, the shy girl refused to approach the couple without her mother in tow. 

“Our vows were simple but very sincere and sweet,” Mègane says of her special moment. “We both decided that we wanted to see each other’s eyes while speaking our words of love, not reading them.”

“We did not want to have a pompous wedding, always dreaming it to be unique and elegant,” the bride says. 

After the ceremony, the couple cut into a ruffle-adorned, hazelnut cake inspired by her gown.

To add to the magic, the couple took their first spin as newlyweds to Pauline Croze’s cover of “You’re The One That I Want” from the movie “Grease.”

The “petit” party moved inside to the chateau’s blue ballroom for an Italian feast. Wow-Wedding used the décor of the chateau as inspiration for the wedding details. Light blue velvet tablecloths juxtaposed bold burgundy-hued flowers and shades of pink and caramel. Tall taper candles added to ambiance as did the antique gold dinnerware.

The couple opted for an Italian chef to craft the dinner, which included a pasta tajarin with white Alba truffles and glasses of Barolo wine. 

During the dinner, Mègane surprised the group with her cover of “Stand By Me.”

After the celebration, the newlyweds took off for a honeymoon in the seaside resort town of Hossegor, France, and then to Portugal. No love story would be complete without a sendoff with the sunset.