Celebrity Weddings: Kathy Chow and Julien Lepeu
Famous Hong Kong model, 38-year-old model Kathy Chow (周汶錡), finally tied the knot with her French boyfriend of six years, 35-year-old Julien Lepeu, in southern France on September 29, 2012. With the blend of both Chinese and French wedding customs, Kathy and Julien’s wedding was not just a wedding for the couple, but a wedding for two cultures.
Kathy and Julien held their $20 million, fairytale-like wedding at ancient castle located in Grasse, the perfume city of France. The couple’s welcome dinner was first held in Cannes on the night of September 28, and their wedding ceremony was held in the garden of Chateau Diter on the afternoon of September 29.
The wedding was a blend of two cultures – Kathy and Julien had a traditional Chinese wedding customs in the morning, followed by a French wedding reception in the afternoon. The entire wedding celebration ended with a small tea gathering hosted by the newly-wed couple on September 30.
Currently filming for A Good Heart Goes Haywire <好心作怪> for TVB, Kathy’s younger sister and maid of honor, Niki Chow (周麗淇), took several days off of work to help Kathy prepare for the wedding. The sisters took a tour around the castle a few days before the wedding commencement, and took many pictures for lasting memories.
Kathy said, “I wanted my wedding to have a very romantic feel. With such beautiful greenery, flowers, and perfume, Grasse is the perfect place. Julien chose this place himself! It is indeed really beautiful!”
The Bride’s Exquisite Wardrobe
Kathy and Julien followed Chinese wedding customs that morning. A hair-combing ceremony was held, in which the bride’s mother would brush her hair while the family members give them blessings aloud. When Kathy’s mother recited the first blessing, “First combing, together all your lives,” she immediately burst into tears.
Instead of eating rice balls after the combing, Kathy chose to eat macaroons, a type of French biscuit. Afterwards, she changed into an exquisite red lace qipao, designed by Barney Cheng (鄭兆良). With Julien, the couple knelt down and served their parents tea.
After the traditional Chinese tea ceremony, Kathy changed into her $10,000 bridal gown, designed by Elie Saab. The gown was made entirely with lace and chiffon. For her heels, Kathy chose to wear a pair of plain but delicate pumps designed by France’s own Roger Vivier. Kathy’s jewelry was sponsored by Richemont, a Swiss company.
Celebrities including Christine Ng (伍詠薇) and her husband Kasey Lin (練海棠), Christine Au Yeung (歐陽妙芝), and Almen Wong (黃佩霞), especially flew from Hong Kong to France to attend the wedding. Kathy exclaimed, “We had about 180 guests attend. I’m so happy that so many friends and family could come! I am really touched.”
Julien’s Background
Julien Lepeu is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Interstar, a retail property company. He is the son of wealthy businessman, Richard Lepeu, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and the Manufacturing Director of Richemont Group, a luxury goods holding company. Prior to joining Interstar, Julien worked as a member of Richemont’s marketing team and was the head of development for Agatha Asia-Pacific, a Hong Kong retail company.
Watch Video Clip of Kathy Chow’s Wedding
[vsw id=”yB3__qHJhMM” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]
Source: ihktv.com, Apple Daily via ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
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wow , a romantic fairytale wedding in France , congrate to her, just like a prince & princess wedding.
Very nice dress but her husband allows her to wear red in the Western wedding? Isn’t it an unlucky color for the Western wedding?
There is nothing wrong with the colour red that I know of. The only rules that I am aware of are:
1) You can’t wear white – only the bridge can wear white
2) You shouldn’t wear a bright colour that will stand out. That goes for red, orange, blue, or green. You can wear a dark red, or a muted colour. But not bright. You don’t want to wear anything that will draw attention away from the bride.
Given that it was the bride wearing bright red – that’s fine 🙂
well if you’re talking about red in western then whats up with white in a chinese wedding. white is for funeral. for vietnamese red is unlucky when blue is lucky complete opposites from CHinese. they said it is a french and chinese wedding. they didn’t say french wedding only.
shoshotah: Since when is the red color unlucky to Vietnamese culture?
or vietnamese red is unlucky
Huh, where do you get it from? Red to Vietnamese is Lucky.
What does her husband does in french? Rich businessman?
It’s in the article – “Julien Lepeu is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Interstar, a retail property company”
As for Richemont, if i remember correctly they own companies such as Alfred Dunhill, Cartier, Bulgari etc.
oh sorry i missed out that line and thank you at the same! for pointing it out.
So he’s a COO from a retail line company, not bad, got big salary.. but wed at a castle? a little overspent not?
Don’t worry veejay, it’s not your money they are spending
@ Veejay
You also missed the part that says his dad is a wealthy businessman.
well Veejay.. he is super rich so I guess she really hit the jackpot with this one! Lucky her. She looks great, beautiful dresses too! It’s great that she married someone who is NOT Chinese too – think of the pressures you have to face marrying into a wealthy Chinese family.
Yup she really hit the jackpot this time.. the man is younger than her and is very rich too, the man can actually find a prettier and younger woman than her..
Honestly, i cant imagine she will marry any poor dirt guy in the end, i guess that’s her life.. being the top model, living in luxury life etcc.
Some guys may not want younger wife, but a stunning wife. You gotta admit, she looks stunning. MAin point, body to die for.
I think what Veejay means is that there are plenty of stunning young women to choose from. She’s really lucky even though 3 years is not much of a difference once you hit your late 30s. As for the Chinese/Westerner thing, I don’t think any wealthy Chinese man would have married her because of her age… the ability to have children without complications is still a top priority.
What u mean it’s great she didn’t marry a Chinese!?!? Such a dumb comment! Smh! Self hating Asians like u are what’s holding us back in society, siding with the gweilos who want to keep Asians down.
@Mr.Chow,
I don’t think that is what everyone meant. I feel it is great to marry someone who you love and are compatible with so race/nationality should not matter at all. But she is lucky to marry someone wealthy who seems to really love her…
I also want to add that i am not sure about Chinese, but one of my Korean friends tell me that traditional Korean guys do not want to be with single Korean women that are over 30 since they feel they are too old.She is now 33 and is still single and is considered late for marriage in Korea. However, I think in more western societies that is still ok and not too old…
mr chow no sir too quick with your assumptions in this one. lee is just saying something else.
Why do i keep seeing how much this cost, how much that cost, etc etc etc?
Funn, it’s all about the money!
Because the media wants to remind us that we can’t afford it.
yet the media can not even spy to their wedding show. lame!
Maybe right. Hahaha.
just to let us regular people know this can happen to rich people, not to us lol..
Reinforcing the age-old stereotype that Asian women are the best pieces of ass that money can buy by the white guys. Just like Pinkerton fancy his Madam Butterfly and William Holdern his Suzy Wong.
Judging from some of the reactions here, very little has changed.
don’t understand why asian media love to reinforce these postive stereotype for westerns while westerners reinforce negative stereotype for asians.
Yup you are right. chinese in china are very fond of white people. even their farts smell like perfume to them. chinese look donw on their own kind. and yes white people do talk a lot of **** about chinese.
Kathy looks great! Congrats to the newlyweds!
On a side note, I never knew Kathy was 38, I always thought she was just a year or two older than Niki. Nevertheless, she still looks amazing.
She is 38?? I never knew that… She looks great at her age and is lucky to be able to marry such a well off guy at that age…
She look gorgeous! He’s a lucky guy! She may be order but man does she look younger then him! May they be blessed with happiness and many children in the future!
Congrats! Never realized Kathy is 38 already. The wedding looks romantic and happy. Love the 2nd picture of Kathy and Niki laughing.
who say money can’t buy happiness? they can buy all type of happiness.
Not really, money can introduce disaster as well if not utilized properly.
please tell me what kind of disaster that money can’t make it all better? beside dead and murder.
A few eg: attract gold diggers, living life to the excess.
Just look at Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston etc.
wow, what’s up w/all these HK women marrying all these westerners hahaha…. well, at least this one is not that old ahhaha i remember that COCO LEE one my god old enough to be a dad or some sort. awwwwww….
It’s called “white worshipping”. I don’t see any of them marrying with black westerners.
The line describes this phenomonon is a line from the movie “Social Network”:
“Hey, we might be unattractive geeks with nothing going for us but there is one group of women who will always go for us because we’re white: Asians”
hahahah lol i know, it’s like a trend to be marrying whites. some do marry blacks but i think japanese or koreans go more w/blacks and chinese go for whites. some of them they dont even speak the language no? haahah i remember there was this china celeb my mom tells me she probably cant communicate well in english yet she marries a white dude hahah… man that’s insane…
That is why Asians will never fully be respected by the gweilos, because the women keep running to them.
I teach my daughter, she better not date anyone that is not Chinese.
Mr.Chow,
How old is your daughter? ^^
@Mr.Chow,
You should not be so close minded.. You should allow your daughter to marry who she loves regardless if they are Chinese or not. What if she fell in love with someone that isn’t?? What would you do?? My sister in law’s family all married non Chinese but are all very happy and that is what matters,NOT what nationality and race you are…
@kiki,
Are you talking about Ning Jing? She married an american actor but I heard she can’t really speak English and he can’t really speak ChineseIi think they just fell in love at first sight…
HeTieShou: haha LOL i dont know…she was just telling me this china woman actress and i no nothing of china stars so i was like ok ok when she told me hhaha but i think she already have an EX HUBBY n he was taiwanese and started to be popular again n ppl thinks he is HOT but i dont think so hahahaa… but whatever she snapped this westerner and he is actually quite good looking so when she told me i was like wow WTH, these westerners like marrying asian women who cant even speak the language well ahhaa.. like a sick trend right now..
@Mr Chow
Are you going to lock your daughter up if she decides to date someone out side the Chinese race? Geegee…your strict. What if she liked a chinese girl!
the last part of your comment shows you as the perpetrator and that’s bad! at least to the readers here but i see where your coming from
mr chow hey,
You said ‘the last part of your comment’. Who did you mean by ‘you’? Terminator or smile?
@kiki,
Thanks for the info! Ok, so it is not Ning Jing since I do not think Ning Jing was ever married before her current husband.
@Kiki,
Oh, I know who you are talking now! You are referring to Ma Ya Shu who is Nicky Wu’s ex wife. She was married to Nicky from 2006 to 2009 and then fell for this foreigner named James. I know communication would be hard but I guess there aren’t any boundaries when you are in love. My great aunt married a French man too and she hardly knew any French, however, she was happily married to him until the end of life. Therefore, it is possible and people can be happy regardless of nationality or race which is not important at all.
HeTieShou says:
hahahhahha wow u r GOOD… i think thats it. yes, nicky something is the dude hahaa… yea, i guess you can say they can use ‘body language’???? hahhaa as one of my aunt used to say about one of her distant friends marrying a non asian hubby ahaha…
nice expan$ive wedding.
or expen$ive wedding
I say 1 year before they divorce. damn shame such a pretty woman wasted on a gweilo, But nikki was always prettier and more talented
What do you have to be so negative and so anti foreigners?? Sorry, but you sound really close minded,racist and prejudice…
don’t be the perpetrator be the victim.
Marrying an Americian or any Caucasian is great. First you’ll make beautiful unique Japanese animation like babies. Second you don’t have to cook 2-3 hrs in the kitchen for a family Chinese dinner. Third my husband are very sweet and respectful. True story of my life! Azn guys they follow tradition where you’ll have to live with your mother in law and brother/sister in law…etc. They have a hard time saying I love you due to their “big man” attitude, hate that!
Myth #1 debunked: I knew an Euroasian girl once and she had a face that would sink a thousand ships (out of horror to the crew)
Myth #2 debunked: my sister married an asian guy who does all the cooking and romance her to death
Myth #3 debunked: my cousin married an Italian Guido who is a loud and annoying assh^le. He lost his hair by the time he was 30 but his body hair kept growing.
this can’t be true because their caucasian and in the movies caucasian males are heroic and brave, and in the movies they always say that asian are nerds and really traditional so it must be true.
I about who you marry…..not all Asian guys are like that. But then you have the traditional mother-in-laws to deal w/and thats why I say stay away and don’t like too close to the MIL (mother-in-law)
this is true all american guys are like this and all asian guys are traditional. no such thing as a american guy wanting a “flower” as a fetish.
yeah, agree with chinese mother-in-law’s rules hate it too.
The bride looked stunning! Amazing body for her age! She is def’ marrying up to a wealthy life style and there is nothing wrong with that as long as she is in love…I think money can’t buy happiness. If she is truly in love whether you have money or not you should be happy. Marriage is hard I truly hope their marriage last forever.
Congrats to the couple!
The bride looks very beautiful and has a great body for her age. Her dresses are pretty too.
saw photo on her weibo yesterday. She look amazing! Congratz to her once again. Every girl would love to have a fairytale wedding.
Why are people so negative about Asian girls marrying non-Asians. Kathy is the ‘westernised’ type, 6 years together already proved they’re stable (which means they started when Kathy was already 32, a very matured woman). He’s rich and can have any other woman (or any other race for that matter because his profession would have him exposed to all sorts) and to be so receptive to the whole chinese wedding custom thing shows they are a couple who can compromise. And THAT is the secret to cross-racial marriages.
Only one comment: Kathy’s in-laws, although going with the eastern theme, are truly underdressed (especially the MIL who could at least put on a nicer looking top). And Niki ?? With Kathy’s connection, I’m sure she’s next to catch a big fish.
The reason for negative reaction to this particular instance is because of the word “wealth”, “rich” and “marrying up” is mentioned to ad nauseum in describing this HK woman’s nuptial to the white dude. It reinfornce what the late So. African Steven Biko described as how his compatriots had lost all dignity and will to pursue their national dreams once they have seen the way the white men flex their power and wealth at will.
Someone here had mentioned that Japanese and Korean are more prone to marry blacks ; what I have to say is great because I have nothing against interracial unions. But when the object of these unions are exclusively one racial group, Caucasian as in the case with HK/ Chinese women, than something is in the amiss.
She is very beautiful!!!!
Yeah, she is gorgeous, beautiful body and high class look.
never knew who athy chow is but she’s looking really good for a 38 year old. she even look way better than so many girls in their 20s. she even looks younger and better than niki maybe because of the sharper chin. she also looks younger than her husband. lucky her. beautiful face will get you a rich husband and then you’re all set for life just taking care of your children.
Yes she looks great her age for a 38 year old and even look younger than her original age. Anyway age is just a number, it’s better to look good and younger than original age rather than age is 28 but looks older than original age.
funny how many actresses are resorting, marrying european partners..
Always thought Kathy was the pretty sister. She looks great in her white
wedding dress.
I have a lot of cousins who are married to westerners, but not for me.
Gweilos have called me racist because i choose not to go out with them
but is just preference.