What I Do
"I know what a space can do to a day. And I know what a day can do to a life."
What Lemon & Hazel does
The hard part of marrying in France is rarely the dress or the flowers. It is planning a wedding in a country you do not live in, often in a language you do not speak, under rules nobody has explained to you. That is the part I take off your hands. Lemon & Hazel plans and coordinates the whole of your wedding in France, and I protect what you actually want while I do it.
I resolve the four difficulties that meet almost every couple marrying here from abroad, the legal confusion, the language barrier, the opacity of French pricing, and the impossibility of choosing a venue from photographs, early enough that none of them becomes a crisis.
I plan every wedding personally, the venues, the contracts, the budget, the vendors, from my first call with you through the lead-up to your day. I choose every venue myself, in person, and I'm the one who shapes the ceremony and meets the people who'll host and supply it. Day-of coordination is arranged individually for each couple, so you'll always know exactly who's with you on the day itself.
How the year goes
- I.
The first conversation
I begin by listening, not proposing. I want to know how you live, what you will not compromise on, and what you already dislike. I take only a handful of weddings a year, so this first conversation is also an honest measure of fit.
- II.
The foundations
Before any beautiful work begins, I settle the four things that quietly govern a French wedding. The legal pathway: France recognises only the civil ceremony at the town hall, so most international couples marry legally at home and hold a symbolic ceremony here. The real budget: I translate what a French quote actually means. The shape of the guest list. And the region and the season.
- III.
Reading the venue
Before the mood board, not after. This is my part.
The room decides more than the flowers ever will. I do not look at a venue the way you look at a photograph; I stand inside it, and read what it asks of you and what it can hold. The venues I would put my name beside live in my Venues collection, a short list rather than a catalogue.
- IV.
The design
I set the direction from what the room and the two of you can carry, and I shape the ceremony itself. From there I develop the wider design and produce it with the suppliers. Part of my work is protecting your originality, because Pinterest leads almost everyone toward the same wedding.
- V.
The makers, the weekend, and the morning after
I meet the venue owners and the key suppliers in person, and I handle the contracts and coordination across French, English, Romanian and Russian, so you are never left dependent on an interpreter. I build the weekend, Friday to Sunday, and arrange the team who will run the day itself, so that nothing reaches you. By the slow brunch on Sunday, the only thing I am really measuring is whether it felt like yours.
How the work is shaped
One accompaniment
I take a small number of couples each year, and accompany each one completely, from the first conversation to the final morning. I arrange day-of coordination individually for each couple, so it's never an afterthought.
Who this is for
This serves you best when you know what you want and want someone who will hold the line for it. If you want someone to make every decision in your place, or the lowest price above all else, I will gladly point you toward a team built for that. This one is built for this.
Beneath all of it sits a single conviction: that the day should remain yours.