Ann and Matthieu’s French American wedding took place on 14 and 15 August 2026, at the town hall in Niort and then at Château Alexandra Palace, in Mazières-en-Gâtine, Deux-Sèvres.
Ann grew up in Iowa. Matthieu has lived in the United States since 2012, in Chicago since the end of 2022. They got engaged in Bordeaux in 2024 and came back to marry in the region Matthieu’s family is from.
A French American wedding rarely fits into one day. On the Friday, the civil ceremony at the town hall in Niort, about fifty people, the exit on the steps, then drinks at Matthieu’s parents’ house. Everything else happened the next day at the château, with a hundred guests.
Saturday ran long. Getting ready through the afternoon, then a couple session at 3.20pm, before the ceremony: they had decided to see each other alone, away from the house, while the first shuttles were pulling in. The processional was built on two songs, Matthieu walking in with his parents, Ann with hers. Ceremony in the chapel, petals on the way out.
Ten group photographs in half an hour, names called over the microphone, then cocktail hour on the terrace with the Samovar Swing Trio playing live. The two fathers, Bill and Robert, spoke one after the other, one from each side of the Atlantic.
Dinner was in the Orangerie. The couple came in to Music for a Sushi Restaurant, and three more rounds of speeches ran through the meal, up to the cheese buffet. The cake was cut at half past ten, with sparklers. First dance at half past eleven, and the dance floor opened straight after.
A wedding photographer based in France, between La Rochelle, Île de Ré, Île d’Oléron, Bordeaux and Paris, travelling anywhere. My approach is documentary: I photograph what happens, without staging it. Fully bilingual after five years shooting weddings in the United States, and a French American wedding, often spread over two days, is the kind of day I work on most.
