To Whom It May Concern:

This is a wholehearted thank you to Cynthia Nicholson and the staff at Chateau de Challain for making our wedding day and trip as special as it was in July 2007.  We know that we speak for all in our group of 23 people when we say that the castle grounds, atmosphere, service and food were nothing short of magical.

The welcome we received upon our arrival to the castle was unlike anything anyone in our group had ever experienced.  Our initial concerns about having our wedding in a foreign country, making wire transfers of not only our funds but our guests' funds, and relying on unknown people to make our day special were immediately erased.

All of the rooms in the castle are quite elegant, modern and classy.  Every morning we started our day with a delightful breakfast including fresh pastries, croissants, fruit, coffee and juice.  Upon arriving at the castle Cynthia welcomed everyone, gave a tour of the castle and showed our guests to their rooms.

Cynthia completely took care of setting up the wine pairings, deciding in which rooms the guests were best suited to stay, the color coordination for the wedding rehearsal dinner and for the wedding dinner.  She also assisted us with our transportation needs, which included locating two large vans, driving 30 minutes each way with two staff members to pick up our vans, then returning them at the end of our trip.

Cynthia's attention to detail was superb and our entire stay, especially the wedding day, was perfect.  Due to inclement weather, our hopes for an outdoor wedding were dashed the night before.  However, Cynthia immediately and effortlessly rearranged the foyer of the castle into a grand ceremony site.  We are extremely happy that we had the ceremony inside and now cannot imagine it any other way.  All of the flowers and their placement were perfect and made for a romantic location.  The bridal and maid of honor bouquets as well as the flowers for the groom and groomsmen were exceptional and unique, designed to fit our desire and style.  Cynthia helped us locate and secure a contract with a photographer and videographer for the wedding day.  She was also responsible for hiring the bride's hair and makeup artists, both of whom did excellent work.

The delicious menus we chose for the wedding rehearsal dinner and for the wedding dinner were made more exquisite by the castle's chefs than we ever imagined.  The table was decorated most beautifully, complete with napkins and decorations that matched our wedding colors.  The entire dinner setting proved to be a castle feast fit for a king and queen.

Cynthia's lovely daughter Tabitha served almost exclusively as our private tour guide and friend to all of our guests, but especially bonded with the young people in our group and made everyone feel welcome.

Our five-day stay, and most especially our wedding day, at the Chateau de Challain were superb and breathtaking.  We continue to hear from everyone in our group that it was the trip of their lifetime.  The only problem was that we had to leave the beautiful castle.  We fully and wholeheartedly endorse Cynthia's talents and managerial skills and ability to make any and every event at the Chateau de Challain magical.

With warmest regards,

Patrick and Julie Sheehan

My husband and I were recently married at Château Challain this past July. I can not express how perfectly everything went. The grounds were beautiful and the château was gorgeous. Planning a wedding from abroad can seem complicated, but Cynthia, the owner, and her niece Rebekah could not have been more attentive. They organized extra activities such as a guided vineyard tour, a hog roast, and a murder mystery dinner for all of our guests. They also coordinated the florist and musicians, as well as the decorations for our wedding ceremony and dinner. Everyone had a great time! It was better than I ever could have imagined!

-Claire and Ted, July 9th 2010

Russell and Maria Allen

Chateau de Challain

2nd August 20007

I first found the chateau while searching the internet for a French wedding venue back in summer 2005. I wanted an intimate wedding in a spectacular venue and the chateau provided just that!

The chateau itself is a fairytale venue both inside and out. During our first visit my husband and I couldn't take it in - it was, and is, breathtaking.

Our bridal party stayed with us on the eve of the wedding at the chateau, while our remaining 30 guests stayed in the nearby Le Clos des Guibouleraies Guesthouse, equally beautiful, with a rustic French charm. The accommodation at Le Clos des Guibouleraies was recommended by Cynthia, the chateau owner, and our guests absolutely loved it. It was so wonderful to wake up on the morning of our wedding feeling like a princess in my own castle - the bedrooms are to die for!

As we had a Catholic ceremony we brought our own priest along and were married in a church in a neighbouring village which our priest negotiated for us.

Then it was back to the chateau for the reception. Our guests were truly gob-smacked when they arrived at the chateau - and the rest of the day matched up to this first impression. Fabien and Jean-Marie, Cynthia's right hand men, couldn't have been more accommodating. They served champagne and canapés to our guests as they wandered around the sumptuous gardens and explored the chateau's interior, alongside the sounds of the saxophonist, Kevork, from Paris, who moved among the crowd. Fabien even brought Russell and I some champagne and canapés of our own as we were having our photos taken.

These 2 men, florists by profession, also created our bouquets and all of the floral arrangements for the day, and we were so impressed by

Cynthia, I've been trying to think of the words to adequately describe my appreciation for you since before we even left your chateau. I still don't have the words, but until then I want you to know that I'm so grateful for everything you've done for us. Memories of the day keep coming back to me and with each time, my appreciate for you grows boundlessly. Despite the look on my face, I believe I took in as much of the beauty of the day as I could. I kept hearing Jason compare you to a life saver and other things to that extent. I didn't understand initially, but as our wedding day progressed I came to understand that you truely are amazing. I'm sure that because of you, I was not aware of everything that was happening around me as I was getting ready, but I was aware of enough to know that you were creating and protecting an environment that I desperately needed. As I continue to come to a better memory and understanding of the day, I am in shock and awe of the grace and ease with which you handled everything and everyone. It was very apparent, even in the craziness of my mental state and behind the blur of my tears, that you had a knowledge, understanding, and control of everything and were working for Jason and my best interests. Every bride and groom need a Cynthia Nicholson! Thank you so much for EVERYTHING!!! Melissa P.S. I keep saying that I wish I was able to spend more time with Rebecca. For only the few minutes that I did have with her, she was loads of fun.

I'd like to express a most heartfelt thank-you. Your warm hospitality that fills the chateau makes one feel exceeding welcome.Our stay at the chateau was an all encompassing experience evolking all of ones senses. From the beautiful grounds and the exquisite interior design to the tantalizing aromas wafting from the kitchen gallery hintiing of the feast that lies ahead, and the melodic chiming of the chapel bells to the decadent fine dining to satisfy anyone's palate. But what truly made the experience so memorable is you and your incredible staff who seem dedicated to satisfy and surpass the expectations of each guest. Like a conductor directing a symphonic orchestra you masterfully bring all the pieces together to creata harmonious event of breathtaking splendor. So thank-you again for making this fairytale dream wedding, for Melissa and Jason, become a reality far beyond what anyone could expect. Sincerely, Cry for happy - Grace

Dear Rebekah, We got back to Poland succesfully last Sunday evening, although with some troubles, most on the Paris end of the highway at payment gate it was incredible bottleneck. Had to go back to work Monday and now I cannot believe it was real. I remember staying at your place like a dream.. :) It was the best part of our visit in France - no hurry, no visiting, no turists, beautiful and charming place. We dind't have ocassion to say it to you, but we engaged during this trip to France, pity I didn't wait till visit to you, but howether when we recall our engagement we remember mostly your place - so calm, so romantic, so beautiful, so adequate for it. It was most romantic part of our visit to France. Pictures from our visit to you are marvelous. We send you some. Zeus was great. How is the bat? Hope come back in the future to this marvelous plase, please remember to contact us if you would like or would have ocassion to visit to Poland. Best regards for You and Zeus Maciej and Anna

Hi Rebecca, Thank you so much for making mine and Dai's wedding day so special.
You really made us feel welcome and it was a shame we had to leave so soon.
It was lovely to have you as our wedding planner and I couldnt have wished for a nicer person to carry out our wedding.
We will have to keep in touch and if you ever want to come to wales for a holiday just let me know.
Hope yo speak to you soon and thanks again for making our day so special.
I have placed a thank you card in the post to you also as I just cant thank you all enough.
Speak to you Soon Nia Love xx

One evening in the beginning of 2007 we discovered this amazing place on the web for wedding celebrations. We had looked for an untraditional wedding (compared to Norwegian tradition and standards) for quite a while. Rapidly we decided to make our own wedding celebrations in what seemed to be a fantastic fairytale surrounding. This was our, an especially the brides dream weeding to come true. So we contacted the wedding planner, Cynthia with our request and quickly got a positive answer for the 30th of June 2007. Friends and family members was rather surprised when they got the invitation for a wedding in France and the expectations grew... "Wedding at a chateau in France, who would have thought!?" was the common phrase we heard. We kept the name to our self so that the invited guests would not find more information about the location. This only increased their curiosity... All the wedding coordination was settled at forehand and a contract was orderly and easily cooperated and completed with Cynthia. Thursday the 28th of June we were greeted by the warm and friendly Cynthia and her lovely daughter. Our nervousness and fear of what to expect felt instantly gone by this lovely family we met for the first time. After a tour at the chateau we coordinated the last preparations easily and quickly to our great relief. The bride, Lise felt that Cynthia was on top of the situation and calmed her instantly. The guest arrived filled with anticipation at the chateau Friday the 29th of June. Everybody was gathered for information regarding the wedding and the surroundings. Saturday the 30th of June - wedding day; Our wedding day started with a warm and lovely breakfast in the Romance suite early at 0730 a.m. At 0900 we had a guided wine tour to an amazing wine museum held by a form Dutchman named Theo. For some of the guest this seemed to be rather borin

Marvellous

My girlfriend and I recently returned from our first major vacation to Paris, France where we have spent 10 beautiful days. We've been together for five years and I wanted to propose but I wanted to do something very special for her. Since she was from France and couldn't stop talking about the place I figured there's no better place than the city of love.

 Being together that long, I needed to pull out all the stops. I knew clearly how I wanted to pop the question but I just needed the perfect setting to pull it off...... I wanted to blow her mind so I started to do some research on castles situated in France since she's into fairy tales. While surfing the web, I came across Chateau-de-Challain. After reading several reviews and numerous visits to the web site, I realized it could have made the perfect setting and would blend well with my ideas so I decided to contact the owner by the name of Cynthia. With very limited knowledge in French language, I was delighted to know she was from North America and spoke English, what a relief! After explaining my ideas to her, we started working on the proposal almost one year in advance... being a perfectionist; I wanted everything to be done perfectly for the special day.

When planning the trip, I told my girlfriend I needed at least one day out of our schedule to visit the country side of France as I've seen it on television and it looked so beautiful. She knew I liked nature so she agreed for one day only. For months prior to the grand trip, she kept asking "where in the country side are we going"? I would respond "I don't know, I will decide eventually, just give me a map of

Hello Cynthia,
 
We had two wonderful nights in the chateau!! The room was perfect, the dinners amazing and everything went as i hoped (for example my girlfriend said YES :) . Unfortunately we forgot to write something in the guestbook, I'm sorry for that. I would also like to give my compliments about the staff. Both ladies were very friendly and very very helpful. Thank you also for the option of staying an extra night. We didn't do it only because we still had to drive for 8 hours and still wanted to visit our parents and tell them the good news before going to work on Monday. Thank you again for making my proposal everything my girlfriend hoped it would be. I will surely recommend your chateau to anyone who wants to do something of this sort.
 
With kind regards,
 
Connor Vermeer

We had been searching for the perfect location for our wedding for about 4 months: the moment we saw Chateau Challain we knew we had found it.  Cynthia made us feel welcome and confident about how our day there would be a success.  Importantly for us, we were given a lot of freedom to plan the details of the day exactly how we wanted it. It turned out to be the magical day we hoped it would be and more.
 
Chateau Challian is so much more than just a beautiful castle and park.  Too many venues are a mere pretty shell devoid of any character, whilst Chateau Challain is full of the intricate details, furnishings, knick-knacks, curiosities and embellishments that you would associate with the historic family home it is. On our wedding day we felt it was OUR castle, solely for our pleasure and of our families and friends.  The castle and grounds also give many fabulous opportunities for amazing photography to help keep the memories strong.  Cynthia and her staff were there but in the background and just let us get on with it.
 
We would heartily recommend Chateau Challain to any prospective brides and grooms.

David & Sheridan

Hi Cynthia,
 Just a short thank you for our wonderful stay at Chateau de Challain. Your castle made our honeymoon extra special and unforgettable. We will definitely come back with family and friends.
 Many compliments for the amazing place you made of this castle and surroundings.  

Many thanks. Kind regards, Bram Polak

Dear Cynthia, Jean-Marie et Fabien,

Jim & I would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the most lovely & fabulous visit to Chateau Challain. Every single thing was perfect! The delicious meals, the beautifully appointed rooms, the lovely flower arrangements, the champagne, the tours....we simply cannot say enough about how wonderful everything was. However, the thing that added the most to our wedding was the beautiful people...Jean-Marie & Fabien, you are jewels and we appreciate your kindness & all that you did to make the entire weekend incredible! We can't stop raving about our entire experience and we will most definitely plan to visit again in the future. Please also pass along our thanks to Therese and Bridgette! You all were amazing & have given us an experience that was above & beyond what we ever dreamt! Hope you enjoy the photos-there are some great ones! With our kindest regards, Melissa Ternes & Jim Bonnet

We can not thank you and your family enough for the wonderful service you provided us for our wedding at Chateau de Challain. Everything was way beyond our expectations. Our guests are still talking about the "wedding of the century". I could write a book about all of the things we truly enjoyed at the Chateau but here is a brief summary. First the Chateau is beautiful and amazing, both inside and outside. It's hard to see the true beauty in pictures or on a website but it will blow you away when you arrive in person. I'm so glad we decided to have our wedding outside on the grounds. It was so easy to work with you and all the vendors you chose for us as well. Every facet of our wedding was handled for us with few queues or need for requests. If something went wrong on our wedding day I have no idea. I think that's what makes a wedding coordinator the best in the business. I gave very little direction on my flowers, colors, etc. and all of the decorations were incredibly elegant and beautiful. We would definitely recommend the jazz band and DJ again to another guest, especially if they are from the States. They did an excellent job singing in English as well. The food was exquisite. I wish we could have brought Simon home with us to cook every day for our family. I think my mother ordered boxes of his homemade chocolates to go. Smile. The pricing was very reasonable compared to having our wedding in the States. Our guests also really enjoyed the acting troupe and chateau tour on the rehearsal dinner night. If someone would like to speak to me in person feel free to forward them my email address or home phone number. I can also share our pictures online with them. Thank you again for making our wedding my perfect "fairytale". Best wishes,
Nakisha and Sebronzik Wright

We wanted to thank you for helping give us the wedding of your dreams. We owe the attention to detail and special touches to you and all your hard work. Our family could not get over the beautiful setting, the sumptuous dinner, and all the subtle details that you put into the event. It was a beautiful, romantic day that we will cherish always. Because you were so attentive and because you worked so hard, we could relax and focus on the love that brought Kyle and I together. You gave that gift to us by taking care of all the details so splendidly. The flowers and decor were just as I had imagined, even better than I imagined! The hairstylist and make-up artist were fantastic and did such a wonderful job. Living over 3,000 miles away, I could have never done it on my own. Sincerely, Amy Barry

Dear Bride to be,

"We completely fall in love with Challain La Potherie when we first saw it last year. We were very exited as we walked in and learnt that the owner was organizing wedding there. Cynthia has done an amazing job to restore it to it's full "splendor"(beauty). Cynthia is also making everything to make you feel at home in her castle. That's why it is such a unique experience to stay in Challain. Because we wanted our family and friends to experience this, we decided to rent out the whole place for 3 days for our wedding. We had only 3 month to organize our wedding in France and living in the UK wasn't facilitating the project. I had to rely on Cynthia's experience to organize our big day which took place in April this year. She is a hard working lady and get everything under control, from the timing, the outdoor indoor decoration, the table service...etc everything was perfect. She has build up a network of very good professionals in France (make up artist, hairdresser, the Chef, the florist). I appreciated their flexibility a lot when my timetable was getting tight. They all did a great job and made it the most fantastic day of my life!."
Regards, Nathalie

Dear Cynthia,

Sorry, had a slight technical problem with the computer which seems to be OK now. Thank you so much once again for another memorable weekend at the Chateau - it was so relaxing and we were made to feel so much at home. The dinner at Simon's Saturday night was simply fabulous. James and Zeus were like long lost friends and they was very content Sunday evening curled up in front of the fire with us in the kitchen, (Zeus and James). I would also like to take the opportunity to say an enormous thankyou for our magnificent wedding at your Chateau. Our friends just can't stop talking about it, I guess we'll just have to do the same over again each year! not to mention the weekends in between. No but seriously, it was wonderful to have all the stress of organizing a wedding eliminated - for once, I only had to concentrate on myself. This, of course, all taken care of by you personally and we were all made to feel incredibly welcome and as for the buffet it was simply second to none and with those fabulous table settings and decoration everything looked a million dollars. I had to pinch myself that it was all real! and as for the elegant sumptuous bedrooms - wow! In short, there are no words good enough to describe the whole day, other than to say that you, Cynthia and you fairytale Chateau are the ultimate. It was a dream that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. It would be impossible to better this venue for a wedding, as I am sure all of your couples would no doubt agree. It really is possible to be a princess for the day. Will be in touch very soon. Take care, Love. Liz and Eric.

Hi Cynthia,

Alasdair and I would like to thank You and your very professionnal staff for the wonderful stay we spend at New year's eve in Your castle.   It is the first time we enjoyed one of your suite and it was beyond our expectations.   You did an amazing work with the decoration of this bedroom, we loved it !   We will come back for sure and will look into your wedding packages offers.   Would You please thank again Manu and Brigitte for all their attentions and their kindness, they made our stay one of the greatest in our life,   Regards,   Marion Guilé & Alasdair GRAY

Hy Cynthia,

  Thanks for the e-mail. We had a wonderful time at the chateau. The Empress Room is beautiful; we love the décor, just perfect. Oh my, and the bedding is so beautiful! It has been a while since we've been to chateau so the newly done rooms and gazebo in the back yard were lovely surprises. We made it up to Mont St Michel during our stay as you had recommended the last time we were at the chateau. So this trip we made a point of going up. Thanks for the tip! We had a wonderful afternoon on the island.   Well done with the renovations and continued quality of the chateau experience. The chateau is still the ultimate romantic destination.   Sending out best,   Amy & Kyle Barry