A bride skied down the aisle in her wedding dress and tied the knot 8,000ft up a snowy mountain.
Jess and Ladis Hoefkens, both 36, got married on March 28, at the top of Mont Brévant, in Chamonix, France, in an intimate ceremony with just 20 guests – in their formalwear with guests in skiwear.
Father of the bride, Jon, 70, accompanied his daughter by skiing the 60-metre distance to meet groom Ladis – before the couple exchanged vows with the French Alps as their backdrop.
The newlyweds then had canapes and champagne with their guests — before they skied down the mountain with 15 members of the wedding party and photographer in tow.
Bride Jess, a fitness coach, from Weymouth, Dorset, said: “It’s quite a lot of pressure, which is why we kept it to small numbers.
“I come from a family of pretty hectic mountain people, but Ladis’ family are all non-skiers.
“It was just beautiful.
“We waited to get the word that everyone was there.
“I went up with my mum, Barbara Ayling, 70, dad and sister, Nicki Affleck, 38.
“My dad was delighted to be skiing down the aisle.
“There are two lifts to get up there, and the second one punches through the clouds.
“It was just amazing, coming down the aisle obviously I’ve never skied in a dress before.
“We only had a short distance, so I thought ‘I hope this goes well’.
“Everyone is still talking about how amazing and special it was up there.”
The couple met in 2019 on Tinder — with both having an interest in the slopes.
After proposing on a walk at sunset in September 2022, Ladis said Jess “mentioned she’d love a mountain wedding”.
“When we first went skiing she saw something similar,” Ladis said.
The wedding was “a bit more expensive” than a typical big day, with family and friends put up in chalets by company Marmotte Mountain.
After doing “multiple seasons” as a chalet host in Chamonix, Jess is a friend of the owner.
Ladis, an ROV offshore worker, said: “We did know [that Jess was going to ski down the aisle] but obviously I had not seen her dress.
“Her mum made her dress for her, and she didn’t know if she’d be able to ski in it, she just winged it.
“It’s pretty incredible, she made it look effortless.
“I’ll never forget her, I’ve done 300 of the million views [of the video] watching it over and over.”
After skiing down the mountain, family and friends joined the newlyweds at the chalets.
Jess said: “We had the most amazing, cute reception back at the chalet, it was après basically, and we had a really great band, Revolverlites, playing too.
“It was a really awesome day, but also casual and low-key.”
Read the full article here
