A Wedding That Gave Pale Provence a Pop of Plum

A Closer Look

A cypress-lined drive leads to Château de Tourreau, a stone house in Provence with pale green shutters and six candlelit salons. Rather than take cues from that softness, Alena and Mason built their palette around blush and burgundy, then deepened it with plum until the color stood apart from the stone and the lawns. Whimsical touches eased the black-tie formality, most often a swan, which appeared everywhere from the invitations to the place cards.

The morning started in the château's gilded salons. Alena wore a strapless Monique Lhuillier gown with oversized fabric roses blooming down the skirt. Her bridesmaids wore floor-length dresses in a blue floral jacquard that suited the old house, while the wider circle of women around her came in mismatched pinks and greens. Mason made his own statement in a white dinner jacket beside groomsmen in black.

The vows took place on the lawn at the head of a long reflecting pool. La Blonde et le Barbu Floral Design built the altar from tall mounds of plum hydrangeas, burgundy and fuchsia blooms and pink orchids, with amaranthus hanging through them. Against clipped grass and still water, the color only grew louder. Urns of hydrangeas and dark red blooms lined the gravel aisle on white-draped plinths. A string quartet dressed in blush played, and a flower girl in pink tulle walked beside a ring bearer in a small tuxedo.

Dinner moved to the gravel terrace below the shutters, at tables dressed in sage linen to match them and set with black iron chairs. The florals held their ground, with blush hydrangeas, burgundy dahlias and red anthuriums filling the center of each table. The paper details brought a lighter hand. Every place card was a pair of paper swans whose necks curved into a heart, perched on a small stand with a guest's name on each wing. Matchboxes stacked on a silver tray carried more swans, along with a hand-drawn monogram for the Mabrys.

After dark, string lights crossed above a black-and-white checkerboard dance floor laid out in front of the château, and The Dukes French Band kept it full. LB Cake Design's tiered white cake was covered in sugar roses that echoed Alena's skirt. At the very top sat two more swans, facing each other.