Welcome dinner under the stars
On Friday night we welcomed 70 of G&A’s friends and family to the first location of the wedding weekend.
Domaine de Bagatelle was the perfect setting. The grand entrance was our welcome drink spot where guests enjoyed champagne to the sound of the string quartet. There were audible gasps as guests arrived down the driveway, and even more so when the couple joined the group in their first looks of the weekend. We then moved to the back of the chateau for dinner. The first element guests were greeted with was the watercoloured linen table plan, draped from the tree. This was one of my favourite design elements to work on.
We opted for small tables of 6 to fit nicely in the space. Tables were dressed with local produce and illustrated table numbers on handmade paper. Each place setting had a lavender sprig, a nod to Grace and Amar’s Provençal engagement. The abundant grazing table featured chefs live carving meats and gravlax. After the starters, the chefs fired up the plancha and pasta stations, with raclette topping the gnocchi (of course).
Festoon lighting and live strings provided the perfect romantic ambiance and set the tone for the weekend. The guests were on top form, with the love and energy being totally infectious.
The wedding day
We chose to style Grace and Amar’s dining space with one long table sat alongside the manicured hedges of Domaine de Lavy. The table featured clusters of antique candle holders with gorgeous tapered candles to provide a romantic ambience both before and after dark.
A design highlight for me was the hand painted linen menus which, with added structure, sat so perfectly on the bowl of each place setting. This was a concept dreamt up many months ago, and one of my favourite tablescape features. The detail of the menus really elevated the place settings alongside the oyster name tags. Grace and Amar selected Green Tomato Vine candles from Jo Malone to scent their tablescape and it completely filled the outdoor space. It is now one of my new favourites and I just know the scent will totally transport me back to this celebration in the future.
After dark the couple cut their raspberry millefeuille and made their way to the dancefloor for their first dance. BEAT from ALR music was the perfect party starter and performed for the first 2 hours. We then transitioned into the surprise after after party. On our initial site visit we had scoped out an unused outhouse, which was then converted for us into the ultimate after party barn turned club. Vibes were high and the guests partied the night away until 3AM!
Le Club '25: the anti-recovery day
Grace and Amar wanted their day 3 to be another full event, not just hungover lounging. We took favourite elements from multiple South of France beach clubs and pulled them together, creating G&A’s own club.
Influenced by luxury brand activations, we wanted to showcase our branding, without it being tacky. We set our colour scheme as the punchy yellow and white stripe, with navy accents and created branded goods for all of the guests to take away with them: caps, fans, towels, pool floats and matchboxes. We welcomed guests at the door with our host desk, where guests could shop for their Le Club ‘25 branded goods. Of course we added a few little nods to iconic beach club features, if you frequent the SoF you’ll know what we mean.
Beach club style restaurant seating was set on the upper terrace, where guests enjoyed a BBQ meal. Naturally we had to serve Grace’s favourite, tarte tropezienne, which you cannot host a beach club without.The embossed lemons were my favourite element and were handmade the night before. They were such a chic way to feature the logo, and were the perfect table centrepiece.
There were a few delicate souls at the beginning of the day so DJ Joel made sure to build the energy with his set. Before you knew it, Amar and Grace were on the decks and everyone on the poolside dance floor.
Photos by Jack Henry
