Chateau de Courcelles Roy — Hotel in Montargis

On June 19th I married the man of my dreams and thanks to Le Courcelles Roy, I had the wedding of my dreams. My experience might be different from most as I live in California and my wedding involved travelling with 50 other guests 6,000 miles around the globe, but thanks to owners Diane and Francois, I couldn’t have asked for a better or more magical experience.

For starters, the venue itself; the photos truly don’t do it justice. Staying at the Chateau feels like escaping into to an idyllic fairy tale story complete with its own castle. Looking across the immaculately kept grounds, you will see ducks, deer and lush foliage everyway; I honestly felt like at any moment the animals would start singing at me. The rooms and accommodations are beyond charming. They all are unique and distinct, replete with old world charm and classic beauty. The peace you feel waking up in the morning and looking out the window is difficult to describe, but you will definitely cherish the feeling. The grounds are so gorgeous and varied you have many options for where to actually have your ceremony and reception. Get married in front of the lake, or behind the castle or maybe in the center grassy area; there’s no wrong answer. Make your wedding your own. Also, if mother nature is not cooperating, no problem, moving indoors has many different and equally beautiful options.

A word about the owners: I can’t say enough good things about Diane and Francois. Planning a wedding so far away is not the easiest of endeavors and they were incredible communicators and assisted me every step of the way. It’s obvious these two have lovingly invested many hours of hard work into making this venue what it is, and they are genuinely invested into making sure your special day is perfect. On many occasions they went above and beyond the call of duty (like when they helped make sure one of my lost guests found their way from the train station to the chateau). If you need recommendations for vendors or things to do in the area, they are ready with helpful lists and recommendations. Diane and Francois are amazing people and their staff is equally fantastic. Hamza the groundskeeper/operations liaison, was so incredibly helpful. It was a joy getting to know him, and even though he didn’t speak English, the language of kindness is truly universal.

Some things to keep in mind: This is not a full service resort so you will have to plan accordingly. There is no room service to call in the middle of the night and a maid is not going to be cleaning your room every day. However, in the case of an emergency Hamza is on call to help! Bringing your own supplies and a degree of self-sufficiency is recommended, but entirely worth the effort. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at my wedding photos and I’m nearly brought to tears each time because I had truly such a beautiful experience that I can’t recommend enough. For one day at least, I truly felt like a princess marrying my prince charming at my enchanted castle.

Ps. We’re already talking about planning a 5 year reunion...

The No Frills Chateau.

We recently got married at this Chateau. The wedding was amazing and the venue very beautiful but this was done through sheer hard work.

The Chateau is really just a skeleton for a venue. We weren’t prepared for the fact that we would have to provide everything (which maybe we should have been prior to booking).

The main source of our pre-wedding stress was organising a caterer. The owners had been helpful in providing a list of local caterers however we wished to organise our own. We weren’t prepared for the fact that there are no kitchen facilities leaving most caterers in France and UK unhappy to help us. Having voiced our wishes to provide our own caterers the owners should have informed us there may be a problem. I was astounded that caterers have to practically bring their own kitchen cooking facilities to the venue.

We finally took someone over from the UK to find at the last moment all the fridges and freezers had been removed (without informing us!)Thankfully our caterer had brought a refrigerated van as this could have been a huge problem. The lack of freezers also made providing ice a little difficult. Unfortunately the owners weren’t very forthcoming regarding lack of some facilities. They are just venue owners and although helpful in providing local contacts they do not assist with events. We came to the realisation we would have to just work with what we had and stop asking.

For non French Visitors: a warning that sourcing french suppliers is very hard work. Their local caterers were very slow to reply to any enquiries despite persistence therefore after a couple of months we decided to go with a UK caterer which of course increased our budget.

All equipment including crockery, linen etc needs to be organised yourself and we had to bring out a few of our own accessories such as cots for any children and extra irons as they only provide one for 55 people. When this was questioned it caused some friction.

Overall - a fabulous wedding and venue as long as you are aware that it really is a very empty venue and are prepared to organise absolutely everything yourself. (We went into this blindly and had we known the huge obstacles we faced, we may not have chosen...

We had a great week at Courcelles le Roi. The place really lived up to our expectations. The houses have large bedrooms with good beds and clean bathrooms, the pool comes with a poolhouse, a BBQ and lots of handy chairs and the garden is extraordinary with beautiful catalpa trees giving shade. Although the castle itself is closed for the time being, its presence does give the whole setting a very special touch. Plenty of woods to go running or biking in the morning. François was very welcoming and regularly came by to ask whether we needed anything. He knows plenty of places to go. There is a bakery nearby which drops off your bread in the morning and a caterer who can prepare all kinds of dishes. Child-friendly. Definitely to be...