A Marriage Proposal on the Roof of Chambord Castle

By RACHEL KAPLAN

CHAMBORD, FRANCE–The person foolish enough to claim that men have no romantic imagination should forever hold their tongue. The team at Ooh la la! France Wedding Planner has the real-life experience to strongly disagree.

Take Alvin Lim from Singapore: before he and his girl friend Annabel were about to start new and demanding jobs in the financial services industry, he had the inspired idea to vacation in France, one of their favorite travel destinations. What Annabel could never have imagined is the day that we concocted with Alvin via email and WhatsApp.

Alvin wanted something truly different for this trip. Paris was fine, but it didn’t fit his plans for what he had in mind. “I want to propose to Annabel on the top of a castle. Can you arrange that? Can you make sure to have a photographer record the occasion without her catching on?” Easier said than done.

Nonetheless, Ooh la la! France Wedding Planner proved up to the challenge. First, we asked one of our local partners, a charming driver-guide to help us make this dream outing a reality. Did she know a photographer whom she could trust to take pictures throughout the day without getting in the way of our “love birds?”

After some brain-storming we came up with the following day: 8 am pickup at a charming château hotel in the Loire Valley, a self-guided visit to the gardens of Villandry (the most beautiful in the region); lunch and a self-guided tour at Chenonceaux Castle, known as the castle of five queens and one mistress; and finally a VIP tour at Chambord Castle, concluding with a proposal and champagne toast on the rooftop overlooking the magnificent estate.

Thanks to the quick-witted guides and photographer, everything in the day went off beautifully, and Annabel and Alvin are now planning their wedding. A few weeks later, we got this lovely note of appreciation:

“I have 4 words for you – YOU ARE THE BEST. Despite such short notice, everything from the planning to the execution was absolutely flawless. You have been incredibly thoughtful throughout the entire process, while your team (Cathy and Alexis) took extremely good care of us every step of the way. Although we have never met you in person, we feel so privileged to have shared a very significant moment of our lives with you. Chambord, Cathy, Alexis and most importantly YOU will always hold a very special place in our hearts.”