A+J from Italy and FranceIntimate Wedding Above Paris at Ciel de Paris, Tour Montparnasse
Paris
France - June 2021
When a wedding photographer chooses his own wedding photographer, the honor lands differently. The groom of this story is a colleague I had already photographed weddings alongside, and he knew exactly what he wanted for his own day: the kind of trust that obliges you, in the best sense of the word.
The bride wore an Oxana Mucha gown, a designer I hold particularly dear and whose creations I have had the joy of photographing several times over the years, in France and in Italy alike: the Franco-Italian loop closed all the way down to the couture.
A first look in Montmartre
The groom being a photographer by training, the images counted double: so we took real time, on the day itself, to cross Paris. The first look happened in Montmartre, a moment full of emotion in one of the city's most cinematic settings, and we then moved through several Parisian locations before ascending to the reception. It was the Covid era, masks were still part of the picture, and it took strictly nothing from the party: the reception was magnificently joyful and high-energy, definitive proof that the essence of a wedding is not worn on the face.
A Franco-Italian wedding at the summit
Their Franco-Italian celebration unfolded in central Paris with a rarity built in: unlike most Parisian weddings, where the civil ceremony happens in the city and the reception migrates to an estate sometimes an hour away, everything here stayed intra-muros, and even above the city, at Ciel de Paris, the restaurant at the top of the Tour Montparnasse, with the Eiffel Tower straight ahead. Photographing a wedding reception with the whole of Paris as a backdrop, from dusk into the city's night lights, is a privilege few days offer.
Crossing Paris in wedding attire
A practical note for couples dreaming of a similar day: crossing Paris in wedding clothes is prepared like a small expedition, and that is what makes it delicious. You choose few locations but the right ones, you sequence them by the light rather than by the map, you accept the applause from café terraces (there is always applause, and it makes images), and you save the summit for last: arriving at the restaurant as daylight fades gifts the reception a Paris that switches itself on progressively behind the glass, the Eiffel Tower going from grey to sparkling between the starter and dessert.
Wedding Team
Photo/Video: Il était un Pixel, Jérémie
Venue: Le Ciel de Paris (Tour Montparnasse)
MUA: Sophie Narboni
Hair: Jean-Louis David
Gown: Oksana Mukha
The rarest backdrop in Paris
It bears repeating, because couples planning Paris rarely realize how rare it is: a wedding reception with the Eiffel Tower in the window is close to a unicorn. Paris receptions overwhelmingly happen at street level or outside the city entirely; the handful of venues with that view guard their calendars accordingly. Which is planning advice in disguise: if the skyline matters to you, it is the first booking to make, not the last, and the rest of the day should be built to arrive there exactly as the light turns.
What this day confirmed
Two convictions came out reinforced. First: Paris photographs best when you give it real time on the wedding day, and a couple willing to cross their city in wedding attire is repaid a hundredfold, in images and in the memory of the crossing itself. Second: when a professional of the image entrusts his own day, sincere documentary beats staging, among photographers too; he knew exactly what real moments are worth, and that is precisely what he came for.
And for your Parisian wedding?
If Paris is your setting, from the mairie steps to the rooftops, the Paris guide tells how I work the city, and my Paris-region venues guide completes the picture for the reception.