Château Bouffémont wedding

The château was built in 1860, under Napoleon III, for the Vallée family, in the brick and stone of the Second Empire, and passed to the family of the Marquise de Preignes.

In the Belle Époque it was bought by Baron Édouard Empain, the Belgian industrialist whose company built the Paris Métro, and three generations of his family lived here for more than half a century. In their day the estate ran to 250 hectares, with riding paths through the woods and a menagerie of ostriches, zebras and kangaroos, and the baron gave the house its monumental staircase.

Its present owner bought it in 2006, and since its restoration was completed in 2012 it has been let only whole, for weddings and events.

The château is the wedding’s from three in the afternoon until four in the morning, and the evening moves down through the house, from the terrace to the salons to the garden level.

The terrace runs thirty-four metres along the house, above the gardens and the forest, and takes the cocktail for up to 90. Baron Empain’s monumental staircase comes down from it to the lawns.

The Grand Salon, the Salon du Baron and the Salon de la Marquise stand side by side under five-metre ceilings, and open into one room of 175 square metres for a dinner of up to 150. The Grand Salon looks onto the terrace under crystal chandeliers, the Salon du Baron keeps its hand-made wooden panelling, its red silk and its marble chimneypiece, and the Salon de la Marquise its amethyst chandeliers. Taken alone, they seat 40 to 60.

Below the staircase, through a door framed by two stone figures attributed to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, the garden level holds the Salon des Anges, with its wooden bar, its carved stone and its marble floor: the room for the dancing, for up to 150, until four.

Beside it, the Dandy Lounge is furnished in the manner of the 1920s and 1930s, with Chesterfield sofas, for the guests who would rather sit the late hours out.

Five hectares of gardens fall in three levels from the house to the edge of the Montmorency forest, with a basin below and the Paris International Golf Club, laid out by Jack Nicklaus, beyond. The ceremony goes here, on the lawns below the terrace.

Nine rooms and suites on the two upper floors, for 25 guests, taken with the wedding night on top of the rental and kept until noon the next day.

The largest, the Master Suite, has 70 square metres, a fireplace and a private terrace over the forest, and the Central Suite looks over the gardens to the golf course. The rental itself includes the bridal suite from the morning of the wedding, for the preparations and the photographs.

We give the suites to the couple and the families. The château cannot sleep a wedding of 150, so the rest of the guests stay in Enghien-les-Bains, on its lake, or in Paris.

Château Bouffémont stands at Bouffémont, in the Val-d’Oise, on the edge of the Montmorency forest. Paris is forty minutes by road on a clear run; the Renaissance château at Écouen is fifteen minutes away, Auvers-sur-Oise and the abbey of Royaumont about twenty, and the Château de Chantilly just over half an hour.

Paris Charles de Gaulle is twenty-five minutes away by road, and Orly an hour. Private aircraft land at Le Bourget, under forty minutes away.

Bouffémont-Moisselles, on the Transilien H from Paris Gare du Nord, is five minutes from the château by road.

The château is hired for the wedding night, from three in the afternoon to four in the morning: just under €18,000 with VAT on a weekend from mid-April to mid-October, for 100 to 150 guests. Weekdays, winter dates and smaller weddings cost less.

• The whole château and its gardens, from three in the afternoon to four in the morning
• The bridal suite from the morning of the wedding, for the preparations and the photographs
• Tables and chairs for the dinner, the professional kitchen and the areas for the suppliers
• Security at the gate and in the car park, which takes 80 cars
• The château’s team on the night, and the cleaning after

The nine rooms are taken on top, for the wedding night, and a second night with the château to the wedding is added the same way. The caterer comes in, chosen from the château’s recommended partners or by the planner, and the wine can come with the couple, with no corkage. The design, the flowers, the lighting, the music, the photography and the transfers sit outside the château’s figure.

A Magic Day wedding at Château Bouffémont starts from €100,000 and lands near €150,000.

Take the night before. The rental is the wedding night, from three in the afternoon. We recommend adding the night before, with the château to the wedding, so the set-up has a day and the families have a welcome dinner in the salons.

Save the late hours for downstairs. The Salon des Anges was made for dancing, with its bar and its marble floor, and the Dandy Lounge beside it is for the guests who would rather talk. We schedule the move downstairs after the cake, and the château is the wedding’s until four.

Bring your own cellar. The château charges no corkage, so the wine can be the couple’s own, from a family cellar or a favourite Champagne house. We plan the list with the caterer and have it delivered the week before.

Hold the rooms nearby early. The château sleeps 25 and the airport is twenty-five minutes away. We hold rooms at Enghien-les-Bains or in Paris for everyone else, and run the shuttles against the hour the dancing ends.

Château Bouffémont gives a wedding a Second Empire house on the edge of the Montmorency forest, the Empains’ staircase and salons, a garden level made for dancing until four, and nine rooms for the families, twenty-five minutes from Charles de Gaulle. What it leaves to the couple is the wedding itself: the caterer, the design, the flowers, the music, and the rooms and shuttles for everyone beyond its 25 beds.

That is a planner’s work, and at a house that leaves the choice of every supplier to the couple, choosing them is most of it.

Magic Day plans weddings at Château Bouffémont from the first conversation to the final farewell.