The Bride Wore Prabal Gurung to Her Château Wedding in the Middle of a Normandy Wheat Field
Olivia Ong, the vice president of global sales and merchandising at Prabal Gurung, and Previn Waran, a partner at a law firm, first laid eyes on each other when she was actually on a date with someone else. “It was Cinco de Mayo 2017 and a Friday,” Olivia remembers. “I was slated to meet a Bumble first date for dinner at the Nomad. When I arrived my date was waiting for me outside and apologized for not being able to secure a table because it was so packed inside.” Previn happened to be outside finishing a phone call, heard Olivia’s date’s dilemma, and offered to help get a table as he was friends with some of the people who worked there. “He secured us the center table in the library, and my date, as a gesture of appreciation, offered to buy Previn a drink, and he sat down with us,” Olivia says. “An hour and a half into eating and drinking, Previn asked us how my date and I happened to know each other, my date explained that we were on our first app date. Previn felt so mortified, he paid the bill and left!”
At this point, Olivia had been texting with her best friend (who would later serve as matron of honor in her wedding) about the handsome third wheel on her date, and broke out in a panic when he suddenly left without leaving any contact information. Still, she forged on with her original plan for another hour and a half. As the the date wrapped up, she went to the bathroom only to discover that Previn had been waiting for her. “He profusely apologized for (1) crashing my date and (2) what he was about to do next, which was ask for my number,” Olivia says. “The rest is history! On our third date we also figured out that a mutual friend of ours had tried setting us up seven years prior, so we knew it was meant to be.”
The two had been seeing each other for 13 months when Previn proposed in Paris. He worked with Olivia’s colleague to plan a surprise proposal while she was there on a work trip. “Previn flew to Paris hours before my coworker Kelly and I were set to go,” Olivia explains. “Kelly had arranged for our hotel to expect him so he could shower and change into a suit before heading to the Luxembourg Gardens.”
Kelly then lured Olivia to the gardens under the auspices of wanting to see an art installation. “Previn snuck up behind me speaking French and handed me the surprise of my life,” Olivia says. “I screamed like I was being mugged and then immediately started crying hysterically. He got down on one knee, I said yes, and then we had breakfast at Café de Flore. It was the most romantic moment of my life.”
From day one, Olivia and Previn knew they wanted to get married in France and that they wanted what they decided to refer to as an “adult camp” venue that could house most of their guests; they wanted to spend the long weekend with as many of their loved ones as possible. Château de Carsix and its adjoining cottages was able to sleep 94 of out 117 guests, and the wedding weekend was a non-stop party for three days. “It was also a gorgeous venue in the middle of a beautiful Normandy wheat field, but only one and a half hours outside of Paris,” Olivia says. “It really embodied an effortless French elegance, and it was a perfect canvas to build on as we got to choose and bring in all the vendors we wanted.” They worked with Anne Varnier of Agence les 5 Elements to plan every aspect of the weekend.
At the onset of the process, Olivia also knew what she wanted to wear. “I was in a Met Gala 2017 fitting for the Atelier Prabal Gurung gown that would end up being my dress,” she says. “I wasn’t even engaged, but it was the only time, in my life as a fashion professional, where I felt like I saw a gown that was precisely what I wanted and fully embodied how I wanted to look on my wedding day. I knew I wanted a dramatic yet simple veil, so I picked the Vera Wang Fernanda—royal length doubled layers of French tulle with horsehair trim and a blusher.”
About 10 years ago, Olivia rediscovered unworn Tom Ford for YSL Eva lip heels in her closet and thought they would make for a whimsical wedding-day touch and could serve as her “something old.” Since she was a child, she knew she wanted to wear the pearl-and-diamond earrings her mom wore on her wedding day, and those served as her “something borrowed.”
Previn wore a Ralph Lauren Purple Label peak lapel tuxedo—“the most perfectly classic and fit tuxedo on Earth,” Olivia says. “We wanted him to look absolutely timeless when we showed our wedding photos to our grandkids in 50 years.”
Guests were welcomed to the château with custom jute tote bags from Camaloon printed with the couple’s’ dog, Manny, on the front and full of their favorite snacks and toiletries, and then the festivities kicked off with a welcome dinner, featuring a classic bistro menu of escargot, duck confit, and steak and moules frites. “If you can have french fries at your wedding, I highly recommend it,” Olivia jokes. “And chocolate mousse and crème brûlée!” Previn’s friend, the talented Stephane Wrembel, played a jazz manouche concert, and they ended the night with a screening of the cult classic The Princess Bride in the courtyard.
The next day, Olivia and Previn were committed to having a ceremony that felt like “them.” They met with their deacon, Roman Stawski, beforehand and had mile-long email exchanges with him about what they wanted the message of the ceremony to convey. They ultimately landed on the tenets of service to others, partnership to each other, and equality for all. “One of our readings was from the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges that guaranteed the right for same-sex couples to be married,” Olivia says. “We also had our moms start the ceremony by entering the church hand in hand in their cultural dress to light the separate candles [that] we would eventually join together in one candle during the ceremony. Our lives as individuals started with our moms, so we wanted our lives as a couple to start with our moms united, too.”
Previn wrote Olivia a four-page letter that she read the morning of the wedding. “I was already so emotional and so full of love for him as I was walking down the aisle, but also happy because I knew I had picked the best partner for life,” she says. “We had an opera tenor sing Ave Maria during the ceremony. That’s when I felt truly overwhelmed with all the love I was feeling in that moment for Previn, my parents, family, and friends.” After Olivia and Previn were pronounced husband and wife, a brass trio led the newlyweds out of the church playing Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and “Countdown,” Stevie Wonder, and the Beatles as they processed from the church down the country road to the château.
