A Happily Ever After Wedding At The Ritz Paris

Melissa Hammam
May 13, 2022
Categories: Destination, Fall, Real Weddings, Seasonal Wedding Trend, The Blog

After having to postpone their wedding twice, this couple had the fairytale wedding of their dreams in Paris. Loli Events dreamed up a day that dazzles complete with all the bride’s favorites like white flowers, gold accents, and her favorite dessert- macarons! Floraison has us saying “oui” to their unforgettable floral design for a one-of-a-kind event in France. Sarah Stefani captured all the romance in imagery that will stand the test of time, take a trip to Paris in the full gallery.

From the bride… We had two wedding postponements. We started wedding planning in early 2019 for a July 31st, 2020 wedding date in Banff, Canada at the Fairmont Banff Springs. However, due to covid, the Canadian border remained closed throughout all of 2020, so we postponed it to a year later on August 6, 2021. Unfortunately, the border did not open until August 9th, three days past our 2nd wedding date, so we had no choice but to cancel this date as well. We chose Paris because this city has always been a special place for both Sam and me. We had our engagement photos taken in Paris in 2018, so it felt natural to also have our wedding in the magical city. We always knew we wanted a destination wedding, but also knew that it needed to be in a place that was meaningful to us as a couple.

With covid and the relatively quick turnaround, we knew and understood it would be difficult and/or stressful for guests to travel across the world for our wedding. We also knew those who truly wanted to be there and could be there, would be there, and we couldn’t be more grateful for every single person who made it work, and for those who congratulated and celebrated us from afar. We always wanted a smaller scale wedding, in which we could spend quality time with each of our guests throughout the day and evening, so it was perfect! Ritz Paris is one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. It’s iconic. We explored many other wedding venue options in Paris and surrounding areas but always came back to the Ritz. It felt right. It’s located in the city center, and it’s stunning with services and accommodations that are unmatched. I could envision us getting married there and having the perfect day, and it truly was! I had always dreamed of wearing Monique L’huillier on my wedding day, so that is where I started the search! I knew I wanted a lace or tulle ball gown style and ended up torn between the Kristen and the Olympia dresses. The team was so excellent and helped create a custom Olympia for our welcome event with the Kristen as my wedding gown.

As for the decorations, I stayed true to myself and what I love! I wanted the day to feel genuine and a representation of us. For example, I always have white flowers at home, so I knew I wanted white flowers at our wedding. Macarons are my favorite dessert, so we had small boxes from Laduree at all guests’ place settings. I prefer gold to silver, so we requested gold flatware for the dinner. The list goes on but we thought about all details in this manner, and at the end of the night the best compliment was how many people said the entire day and every detail looked like us. It was so exciting to see all our guests just as surprised and excited as we were. (Thank you Loli Events!) For the welcome event, we organized a boat cruise tour at Night on the Seine to explore Paris from the most magical angle. The boat cruise felt like the perfect tour of Paris for our guests. Some of them had never been to Paris so we wanted to make it as memorable as possible for them! Every aspect of this opportunity made us so happy, I love sunsets, Sam loves the water AND we saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle with our family and friends. It was truly the best way to kick off our wedding week and show our guests around one of our favorite cities. I daydream about this often!