A cypress-lined drive, six candlelit salons, and 125 guests in black tie set the scene for this wedding at Château de Tourreau in Provence. Alena and Mason built their day around blush pink and deep burgundy, with a swan motif that turned up everywhere from the invitations to the escort cards. Thomas Audiffren was behind the camera, and every frame carries that same soft, unhurried light.
Location: Sarrians, Provence, France
Style: Romantic, Classic, Intimate
Time of planning: 18 months
Number of guests: 125
Setting: Château
Season: Summer
Alena and Mason met on Hinge in Denver in 2023. “From our very first few dates, we both had the feeling that this was something different,” Alena says. Their backgrounds were nothing alike — Alena’s family has deep ties to the automotive industry, while Mason grew up in small-town Michigan — but they connected instantly over a shared love of family, travel, and building a life around real experiences.
At their first family event together, a cousin’s wedding, they stumbled on what felt like an invisible-string moment. Alena’s grandfather had opened his first major car dealership in Mason’s hometown of Dexter. “It was such an unexpected coincidence that it immediately felt like the universe had been quietly connecting our stories long before we ever met,” Alena says. Six months into dating, Mason surprised her with a two-week trip through Paris and the South of France for her 30th birthday, planning the entire itinerary himself. Somewhere between the streets of Paris and the villages of Provence, they fell for the region completely.
The proposal came beneath the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York, followed by a private dinner where both families had flown in in secret to celebrate. A few months later, Alena and Mason returned to France with her parents to start looking for a venue. The moment they arrived at Château de Tourreau, they knew they’d found it. For the wedding itself, they brought on Claire Yossman Weddings, whose job was to keep a black-tie château wedding feeling like an intimate dinner party, not a production.
Welcome Weekend
Before the wedding itself, Provence got its moment to shine. A little market stall greeted guests in the château’s gardens, all lavender and citrus and rustic charm. It set the tone before the day even started. Alena leaned into it herself, trading her gown for something lighter and pairing it with a heart-shaped straw bag. The whole thing felt more like a lazy afternoon in a French village than the eve of a wedding.
Bridal Morning & Fashion
Alena tried on dresses at four different bridal salons in New York, and the one she chose turned out to be the very last gown at her final appointment. “Everyone was exhausted after a full day of shopping, so I slipped it on quickly and barely looked at myself before walking out of the dressing room. The second I stepped out, everyone immediately burst into tears,” she says. Her Monique Lhuillier gown had originally been designed with a much shorter front hem, and she worked with the label’s seamstress to adjust the layers until they skimmed just enough to show off her heels.
Those heels were a simple white peep-toe pair by Christian Louboutin, chosen to stay soft against the ivory of the dress. Her jewelry stayed just as minimal. Mason surprised her with diamond stud earrings right before the ceremony, and her mother-in-law brought her late mother’s gold wedding band for Alena to wear as her “something borrowed.”
Ilona Cavallini worked on hair and makeup, building a textured updo with loose curls and pairing it with soft, rosy makeup.
For her bouquet, Alena showed her florist videos of the dress and its floral appliqués and asked for something that felt like an extension of the gown. La Blonde et La Barbu Design built it entirely out of peonies. Her perfume was the one she wears every day, Hermès Violette Volynka, chosen for feeling like her rather than like a bride.
Groom's Getting Ready
Mason wore a Ralph Lauren Purple Label dinner jacket for the day, paired with a white Hermes pocket square. He’d gifted each of his groomsmen a navy Hermes pocket square, so the white one was his own quiet way of standing apart while still matching the group. His shoes came from To Boot New York, and his boutonniere was kept simple and understated, an extension of the jacket rather than a statement on its own.
His one real accessory told its own story. Alena’s wedding gift to him was a Rolex Datejust Wimbledon, a watch she’d been warned could take a year or two to arrive. “I put in the request about six months before the wedding, and unbelievably, I got the call from our sales associate on the very first day of my bachelorette weekend,” she says. She had just enough time to have the back engraved with their initials and the wedding date before handing it over the night before they left for France.
First Look
Mason waited downstairs while Alena did her first looks with her bridesmaids, her dad, and her brothers. Every time someone came down and told him how beautiful she looked, he got more nervous. When it was finally their turn, Alena made her way down the grand staircase, trying hard not to catch her dress on the candles lining the steps.
“In the process, I knocked over one of the floral arrangements, and Mason, too nervous to wait another second, turned around before he was supposed to. Instead of the perfectly orchestrated moment we had imagined, we both burst into laughter,” Alena says. It’s exactly the kind of moment Thomas Audiffren was there to catch, unposed and a little chaotic, and far better for it.
Orthodox Ceremony in the Garden
The vows took place at the far end of the château’s lawn, facing a reflecting pool framed by clipped hedges. Two floral installations flanked the altar, dense with burgundy dahlias, pink hydrangeas, and trailing greenery from La Blonde et La Barbu. Around 125 guests in black tie lined the gravel aisle, rows deep on either side, facing back toward the château itself.
Alena grew up Russian Orthodox but never pictured getting married inside a church, so an outdoor ceremony was always the plan. Getting there took nearly nine months of their priest working with the Orthodox bishop in France, since an outdoor Orthodox wedding is almost unheard of. When permission finally came through, it felt like nothing short of a miracle.
Since most guests had never seen an Orthodox ceremony before, Alena and Mason handed out programs explaining the traditions as they unfolded. The crowning was one of the most meaningful parts: crowns for the bride and groom, symbolizing them becoming king and queen of their new family, joined by a ribbon that represented their shared faith and the life ahead of them. As they processed around the altar three times, both of their mothers showered them with flower petals as a blessing.
Cocktail Hour
After the ceremony, guests drifted toward the pool terrace as the château glowed gold in the late-afternoon light. Umbrellas dotted the lawn, drinks were already in hand, and the crowd spread out across the loungers and terrace in a mix of black tie and bright color.
Frederic Bernard Traiteur kept the passed bites coming while the couple slipped away for portraits, and by the time everyone regrouped for dinner, the whole property had that unhurried, golden-hour rhythm going.
Cocktail Hour
The vows were the one modern piece inside an otherwise traditional Orthodox ceremony, and they turned into the part of the day Alena remembers most. Mason was the one who pushed for it. She’d wanted to keep things fully traditional and admits she was nervous about sharing something so personal in front of everyone.
“Ironically, it ended up becoming my favorite moment. In the middle of such a busy, emotional day, everything else seemed to disappear. It felt like the guests, the timeline, and all of the planning faded into the background, leaving just the two of us making promises to each other,” Alena says. “Even though everyone surrounded us, it was one of the only moments during the entire day that truly felt like we were completely alone together.”
Decor & Reception
The whole design started a year before the wedding, when Alena and Mason visited Monet’s garden in Giverny and fell for its soft pinks and lush greens. That became the original inspiration, and as planning went on, they pushed it somewhere moodier: rich burgundies and maroons layered against the same soft palette, still fresh and summery rather than heavy.
Swans became the thread running through everything, showing up on the stationery from Studio Facio and carrying all the way into the reception decor.
Fruit-heavy floral arrangements completed the tables — pomegranates, ginger, and persimmon tucked between deep reds and oranges in ancient-looking vases. Hanging chandeliers lit the courtyard after dark, adding, in the couple’s words, a touch of magic. DEA Eventi & Catering handled the evening’s menu.
Dinner was built to feel like an event of its own, not just a warm-up for dancing. Long European celebrations were the reference point, so the couple planned for guests to linger over courses while a strolling band moved from table to table. The swan motif turned up again on the laser-cut menus and the escort cards, where each couple’s names sat inside two swans facing one another, echoing the invitations.
Florals from La Blonde et La Barbu spilled from both ends of the king’s table in the same blush, burgundy, and maroon palette, giving the whole table an overgrown, garden-like feel against the crisp black-and-white dance floor.
Speeches came from Alena’s father, the best man, and the maid of honor. The standout, though, was Alena’s sister, who surprised the room with a seven-minute poem she’d secretly been working on throughout the entire engagement, with every other line rhyming.
Day After
With both families staying at the château for the whole weekend, the day after belonged to them. Twenty-five relatives, including Alena’s seven nieces and nephews, spread out around the pool in the kind of loose, happy chaos that only a family reunion brings. It was a quiet contrast to the black-tie night before, all sun hats and swimsuits where there had been crowns and candlelight.
Looking back, Alena says what made the wedding so special was exactly how imperfect it turned out to be. Their niece fell asleep in the grass mid-ceremony, unbothered by any of it. Mason’s one wedding request, a champagne tower, started beautifully and ended with glasses shattering one after another.
Advice from the couple:
• You spend months—or even years—planning every detail and imagining exactly how your wedding day will unfold. Some moments will happen exactly as you’ve envisioned, while others will turn out completely differently than you expected. Embrace both.
The unexpected moments are often the ones you’ll remember most because they’re what make your wedding uniquely yours. Don’t get so caught up in making everything perfect that you miss the joy happening right in front of you. Those little imperfections become the stories you’ll laugh about and cherish for the rest of your lives.
PHOTOGRAPHER Thomas Audiffren | SECOND PHOTOGRAPHER JD Bascio | PLANNING & DESIGN Claire Yossman Weddings | FILMMAKER Vincent Tesniere | VENUE Château de Tourreau | CATERING Frederic Bernard Traiteur | FLORALS La Blonde et La Barbu Design | CAKE LB Cake Design | MUAH Ilona Cavallini| DRESS Monique Lhuillier | DJ Wildfire DJs | BAND The Dukes | QUARTET Incanto | RENTALS BeLounge | RENTALS Maison Options | BRUNCH Brunch Me Up | PIZZA TRUCK Marcelino Pizza | STATIONERY Studio Facio | BRIDE Alena
