Château Saint-Martin wedding

The hill above Vence was a Roman fortification before it was a commandery of the Knights Templar, and the Templars’ twelfth-century chapel still stands in the gardens, its interior redesigned by the artist Erick Ifergan. The château on the old ground today is a hotel of the Oetker Collection, which added a modern wing and a handful of villas to the original building.

Nearly fourteen hectares of olive groves and gardens run down the hillside around it, with a heated infinity pool at their heart and the coast below.

Château Saint-Martin holds a Michelin Key, the Guide’s distinction for hotels.

Its kitchen is led by the executive chef Jean-Luc Lefrançois, and its restaurant, Le Saint-Martin, looks out over the Côte d’Azur from a panoramic terrace.

Taken whole, the estate gives a wedding a ceremony in the gardens, two restaurants, a pool deck and a set of salons for the party, and the day moves from one to the next on foot.

A thirty-metre allée through the Mediterranean garden, lined with century-old olive trees, and the place the hotel sets the ceremony. With a floral arch at the far end and the chairs along the path, it needs little else.

The Templars’ chapel, of the twelfth century and seventy-seven square metres inside, redesigned by Erick Ifergan. It holds a small ceremony, where the allée holds the large one.

The terrace of the hotel’s restaurant, 451 square metres over the coast, for the cocktail at sunset after the ceremony or for the welcome dinner. For the wedding dinner it seats 60 to 120 with the view, with a marquee standing by in case of rain, and together with the restaurant it takes 150.

From 70 to 150 guests, the wedding dinner goes into a marquee in the gardens, built among the olive trees. Lit from inside at night, it turns the olives around it into the decor.

The hotel’s Provençal restaurant, set among century-old olive trees, for 60 at dinner or 80 for drinks. The welcome dinner and the Sunday brunch belong here.

The deck around the heated infinity pool, for 120 at drinks or dinner, and open to a wedding only with the property taken whole. It is where the last afternoon goes, after the brunch.

At half past ten the party moves indoors, and the music runs until three in the morning in the Bar Rossini or the Salon Cap d’Antibes. The salon has floor-to-ceiling windows over the coast and becomes a dance floor for the night.

Beside it are the Salon Matisse, with its chandeliers and a fireplace, and the Salon Œnothèque in the old tower of the fort, a panelled wine room for drinks before dinner.

Fifty-two bedrooms, and they sleep around a hundred. Forty rooms and suites are in the château, most of them junior suites with a terrace, and six villas across the road look back over the château to the coast, with twelve bedrooms between them.

The villas run from one bedroom to three, and we give them to the families travelling together.

The hotel also asks for ten rooms the night before the weekend and ten the night after, so the stay usually runs a night longer for the families.

The spa is by La Prairie, with a beauty salon, four treatment rooms, a room for two and a gazebo in the grounds.

Its therapists hold hair and make-up certifications, so the wedding morning can be run from the spa rather than from a suite.

Château Saint-Martin stands on the avenue des Templiers above Vence, five minutes from the old town and thirteen from Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with the beach at Cagnes-sur-Mer under twenty minutes below. Nice and Antibes are half an hour away, Cannes forty minutes and Monaco fifty, on a clear road.

Nice Côte d’Azur is the airport, 35 minutes by road, with direct flights from the United States and the United Kingdom. Cannes-Mandelieu, for private aviation, is about forty minutes away.

Nice Ville is half an hour by road and Cannes forty minutes, both on the TGV line from Paris.

Château Saint-Martin hosts a wedding with the whole property taken, for three nights at least, or two on the season’s last weekend in October.

• The property taken whole, priced by the date: all 52 bedrooms, both restaurants, the pool deck, the spa and the salons
• The food and drink from its own kitchen, the only caterer allowed, against a minimum spend, with the wedding dinner, four courses and the cake, from €180 a head
• Ten rooms the night before and ten the night after

The marquee, the furniture, the chairs and the tables are extra, and a marquee can need a day or two more of the property for the build. Design, flowers, lighting, sound, music, photography and transfers sit outside the hotel’s figure too.

A Magic Day wedding at Château Saint-Martin starts at €600,000 and lands near €1 million.

Plan the evening in two acts. Outdoor music stops at half past ten, and the party carries on in the Bar Rossini until three. We design the dinner outside and the dancing inside, and schedule the move for the moment the last course is cleared.

The marquee belongs in the first budget. Above 120 guests the dinner is in the gardens under a marquee, and on the terrace one stands by in case of rain. We price it from the first conversation, with the extra day or two of the property it takes to build.

Hold the date early. The hotel hosts weddings on eleven weekends a year, from late April through May and from mid-September into October, and the same dates return every year. We hold one as soon as the couple has a season in mind.

Let the spa run the morning. The La Prairie therapists do hair and make-up, so the bridal party gets ready in the spa, a short walk from the allée.

Carpet the dance floor. The hotel asks for the floors to be covered for dancing, so we design the dance floor into the salon rather than adding one on the night.

Château Saint-Martin gives a wedding a Templar hilltop above Vence, fifty-two bedrooms, two restaurants and a party that runs until three. What it leaves to the couple is the wedding itself: the marquee, the design, the flowers, the music, and the guests’ way up from the coast.

That is a planner’s work, but on a hillside estate with the evening split between the gardens and the salons, the running order is most of it.

Magic Day plans weddings at Château Saint-Martin from the first conversation to the final farewell.