Couple Marries on Mountaintop in France, Bride Makes Entrance on Skis (Exclusive)

An adventurous couple took their love to new heights on their wedding day.

Ladis and Jess Hoefkens, both 37, tied the knot on a snowy mountaintop in France on March 28 — and the bride made a dramatic entrance on skis, with her father leading her down the slope.

Ladis tells PEOPLE the unique wedding venue on Mont Brévent in Chamonix was “an obvious choice” for Jess, a CrossFit coach who has worked out in the picturesque resort town for several seasons with Jonathan Law, the owner of Marmotte Mountain, a boutique luxury chalet company. She has also been a mountain skier for most of her life.

“She just needed to find someone mad enough to go along with it,” jokes the groom, an offshore senior ROV pilot.

The couple was joined at their mountain nuptials by 25 loved ones. Ladis, who says his own family members are not “big skiers,” admits that some guests were “a little nervous about the location and logistics side of it all.”

“We had to coerce my eldest sister up the mountain as she is terrified of heights,” he says.

When guests arrived at the wedding site, however, their anxiety quickly turned to awe.

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“Everyone was gobsmacked when they got to the location — the views were amazing,” Ladis recalls. “We had cloud inversion and a shining sun. It was perfect.”

In photos taken by photographer Olly Bowman, Jess can be seen swishing down the slope in her white wedding gown while holding her ski poles and a bouquet of flowers. Her father skied alongside her in a suit. Ladis, who wore a dark green velvet suit, had his snowboard for the occasion.

The couple stood on the snow, surrounded by stunning mountain views, and exchanged vows. Once they were declared husband and wife, their guests lined up and held out ski poles for them to walk under.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds did some skiing and an epic photo shoot with Bowman. “Lots of jumping, tight turns and near collisions. We also had a few laps with all our family who could ski/snowboard,” Ladis tells PEOPLE of the fun.

Then it was time to celebrate. Marmotte Mountain handled the catering, and Ladis says they “absolutely knocked it out of the park.” Befitting the setting, the team used shovels to create a bar and seating area out of snow. A makeshift kitchen was set up on a boulder.

“We didn’t do any tasting sessions, simply told them dietary requirements, and they took the lead,” Ladis says of the catering staff.

“We partied for a couple of hours at the top of a mountain with all our immediate families and our best friends. It couldn’t have got any better,” he adds of the festivities.

Thanks to Bowman, Jess and Ladis have an incredible collection of photos to remember their one-of-a-kind wedding experience. “Olly was agile, creative and really easy to work with,” Jess says of the photographer. “Ladis found him on Instagram, and when I saw his commercial ski photos, I knew he was the one for us.”

Adds Ladis: “It’s hard to keep up with Jess, let alone photograph her in such style.”

In a post on Instagram, Bowman said it was “one of the most unique weddings” he has ever shot in his career.

Ladis and Jess first met in 2019 after extending their search radius on a dating app. “Jess is my Tinder-Ella,” jokes Ladis. While they were both in jobs that had them away a lot, they decided they would spend as much time together as possible in those early weeks, and their relationship grew from there.

They got engaged in September 2022, six months after welcoming a baby son. Ladis secretly took his drone on a family sunset walk and asked to take a photo. While filming — unbeknownst to Jess — he slipped the ring out of the drone bag, got down on one knee and asked Jess to marry him.