Location, Location, Must Have Location

So in this post I discussed the painstaking decision making process Mr. Fox and I went through in order to choose on which side of the Atlantic we would be celebrating our union. Unfortunately, cash flow and convenience were the ultimate criteria determining the location. Weddings are already crazy expensive, so if we were going to be spending oodles of money it should be convenient for us, right???

Thus, Montargis, France is the place where Mr. Fox and I will complete the journey to becoming The Foxes for life. It's the hometown of Mr. Fox, and both his mother and father were born there. It's a quaint little French town, about 100 miles south of Paris with roughly 20,000 residents. And it is utterly adorable.

Canal in Montargis, France. I can't say no to that!

But of course we had another challenge presented to us with this pick: there are precious few locations in the region to host a party the size of ours. After all the children and partners were added to the invitee list, we had a grand total of 152 eating, drinking, laughing, loving souls (including us). It's a pretty big party. So our venue search began.

The parents of Mr. Fox are retired (thanks to lovely French laws) and super helpful. I'm sure they started looking for wedding venues once they were informed that we were discussing marriage. They are really excited. *big smile* Papa and Maman Fox had a list of venues for us to visit upon my arrival as Newly Expatriated Fox back in October.

Act I: The Normality of Pannes

We visited the first location in Pannes, France suggested by Maman Fox because she had previously attended a wedding held there. The place was cute, but nothing special. It was the type of space that would host the local children's choir recital or the volunteer firefighter's fundraiser:

Salle de fêtes in Pannes. Complete with stage and heavy, red velvet curtain. Cute, no?

Though the place came complete with tables and chairs (at no additional cost), I just couldn't see myself asking my guests to travel countless hours across the world to sit for hours in these:

Creepy plastic chairs. Photo is appropriately shadowed and blurry to convey the discomfort my butt felt at the prospect of spending a large amount of time crammed into such a thing.

The price was right, but the venue was not. When I saw the place, my first thought was that this place was not special. Cute, but not special. If I was going to put my loved ones through the hassle of international travel I wanted them to have an experience. This cute little space could have been in Anywhere, USA for all the pictures would show.

Plus, I needed something more. I needed something French.

Act II: Finding something typically French

I never really dreamed about France before actually setting foot in Europe. But once there, I found it romantic. I find it dramatic. I feel its passion.

So I wanted something that was romantic, dramatic, and passionate. I mean, I'm getting married in France. Normal banquet hall was not going to cut it.

I wanted a château.

Château de Sully-sur-Loire. Real castle. It's even got a moat. Source.

But the Loiret region is a bit short on châteaus for normal people to rent. It's full of the châteaus that are actually castles. And those are sooooo not in the budget.

Château de Chamerolles in Chilleurs-aux-Bois. It's now a perfume museum. Source.

One of the Foxy aunties came to the rescue. She found this:

Vintage postcard of the Château de la Fontaine. Source.

I was in love.

I had to have it. We made an appointment straightaway to visit. And let me tell you...

It is as good in real life as it is on that gorgeous postcard from the past.

But there were a few snags: 

1. Our party was too big to actually use the château itself so we had to settle for the ecuries (stables). It's not as bad as it sounds:

Horses used to sleep here. They were lucky horses.

Inside... Cleans up nice, doesn't she? Source.

2. The venue was booked. Really, really booked. We wanted to have our religious ceremony as close to the date of our Civil Union as possible. Unfortunately, this was not possible. The dates available to us in 2012 were the first weekend in April, one weekend mid-August, the end of September, and most of October. Of course, if we were patient enough to wait for 2013 we could have almost any date we wanted.

But I had to have it.

And it had to be in 2012.

Of course, she was a bit out of budget, but I was compelled. There were too many pluses. She fit the bill so well! And we would be able to have the entire property to ourselves for the entire weekend. It comes complete with a little house for children to play and sleep in (for those who cannot hang the whole night). It has two guest houses that can accommodate up to 24 persons, complete with kitchens. It had copious amounts of parking. 

And plus, we can always spend a little less on flowers and decorations to try to make up the difference.

So after much discussion with Mr. Fox, we went for it! We decided to take a weekend in mid-October and hope for good weather so we could enjoy the whole area. 

Château de la Fontaine was just too good to pass up!!!