A Chadian and French Wedding Celebration in the Heart of Bordeaux Wine Country
Imane Abba-Kaka and Patrick Guerriero got married at Château Bellefont-Belcier in Saint-Émilion, in the middle of the vineyards that make that part of Bordeaux what it is. Their guest list came from three continents, Europe, Africa and the United States, and the weekend was built to hold two very different traditions without asking either one to shrink to fit the other.
We filmed the wedding. It was recently featured in Vogue.
A Destination Wedding at Château Bellefont-Belcier
Overlooking the vineyards of Saint-Émilion, Château Bellefont-Belcier provided an extraordinary setting for a luxury destination wedding in France.
The château became the backdrop to several distinctly different celebrations throughout the weekend. There was the elegance of the French countryside, the drama of a transformed all-red celebration space, the intimacy of family traditions and, finally, a wedding ceremony surrounded by vineyards and white flowers.
For couples planning a wedding in Bordeaux or Saint-Émilion, this is what makes the region so remarkable for destination weddings. The landscape itself brings a sense of scale and timelessness, while the historic châteaux offer the possibility of creating an entire world around a wedding weekend.
For a wedding filmmaker, Château Bellefont-Belcier offered something equally important: contrast. Grand architecture and quiet vineyard landscapes. Carefully designed celebrations and completely spontaneous emotion. Huge moments surrounded by hundreds of guests and the small, private exchanges between two people at the centre of it all.
That contrast became an important part of this film.
Celebrating Chadian Tradition in the French Countryside
The first night belonged to Imane’s Chadian heritage. Red ran through everything: the fabric, the flowers, the carpets, the candles. Imane wore traditional Chadian bridal attire with gold jewellery brought over from Chad. There was a henna ceremony, singing, dancing, and a tradition where guests shower the couple with money as a blessing for prosperity.
Imane carried an umbrella, which in Chadian tradition symbolises protection. Patrick carried a ceremonial sword, standing for strength and responsibility. Most of the guests on Patrick’s side had never seen any of this before, and you could see it on their faces, the mix of not quite knowing the customs and being completely drawn into them anyway.
From New York to Saint-Émilion
Imane and Patrick met in New York in 2021. They got engaged later at the New York Athletic Club, going back to where they’d had their first date. None of that history stayed behind when they flew to France for the wedding. Imane walked down the aisle to a violin arrangement of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, and the couple left the ceremony to Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind”. Two songs, one city, carried across an ocean into a French vineyard.
The wedding ceremony
The following day had a completely different register. Imane wore a custom Pnina Tornai gown. White petals lined the aisle, and an installation of white flowers framed the ceremony against the vineyard behind it.
The moments that stayed with us from that afternoon weren’t the big ones. It was Imane’s father, watching her walk toward him before he’d even reached the end of the aisle. Patrick’s face the second he saw her. The way her father held onto Patrick a beat longer than usual during the embrace mid-ceremony.
After the ceremony, the two of them slipped inside the château on their own for a few minutes. No photographer, no film crew, just a drink and a moment to sit with the fact that they were married. We weren’t in the room for that one. We didn’t need to be.
The wedding Reception
Cocktail hour ran long, with oysters, canapés and local Bordeaux wine, before the evening turned into a proper party that carried guests from every part of the couple’s life late into the night.
Weekends like this one are becoming the norm at the top end of destination weddings in France. A welcome celebration, cultural traditions, the ceremony itself, and a reception that runs well past midnight, each one distinct, all under one roof or one estate. For a filmmaker, that structure is a gift. By the time the couple says their vows, the film already has three days of context behind it: friendships forming over the welcome dinner, families meeting for the first time, the anticipation building night by night.
Creating a Cinematic Wedding Film in France
Our approach to luxury wedding videography is rooted in storytelling.
We do not want a wedding film to feel like a chronological record of everything that happened. We want to create something with atmosphere, rhythm and emotional movement: a film that reflects what it actually felt like to be there.
At a wedding like Imane and Patrick’s, that means allowing the story to move between the spectacle and the intimacy.
The grandeur of Château Bellefont-Belcier and the Bordeaux vineyards needed to feel expansive and cinematic. The Chadian celebrations needed to retain their energy and cultural significance. But the film also needed space for the quieter moments: the anticipation before the ceremony, the exchanges between family members and the brief moments when the couple could simply be together.
After their ceremony, Imane and Patrick disappeared inside the château for a few minutes alone together. Amid an enormous wedding weekend, it was one of their favourite moments: a chance to sit together, have a drink and absorb the fact that they were finally married.
Those are exactly the kinds of moments we are always looking for.
The best wedding films are not built only around what was planned. They are built around what happens in between.
Filming at Chateau Bellefont-Belcier
Saint-Émilion gives you vineyards and centuries-old architecture in the same frame, which is part of why it draws couples planning a destination wedding in Bordeaux. If you’re getting married here, or anywhere in France, and you’re looking for a wedding videographer, the question worth asking isn’t who takes the prettiest pictures. It’s who can hold a Chadian tradition, a New York love story and a French château wedding in the same film without any one of them feeling like a detour from the other two.
That was the job here, and it’s the job we’re built for.
You can see more of our latest films here.
If you’d like to know more about the venue, you can find it here.
