While dining with their respective friends, Ashley Bernadette and Gautier Coiffard first met over martinis at the Upper East Side bar Penrose. Soon enough, they began dating and opened a superb French bakery in Brooklyn, L’Appartement 4F. On a trip to Maui for Ashley’s thirtieth birthday, Gautier proposed inside an old sugar mill with a soundtrack of their favorite songs playing overhead.
The newly engaged couple knew their wedding would have to be somewhere in the South of France. “Gautier’s grandparents had an apartment close by, and he spent his summers growing up there,” Ashley notes. Once they settled on the French Riviera village of Grasse, they enlisted the help of Mudari Creative to plan the wedding.
The bride-to-be is quite fond of “a dramatic sleeve moment,” which is precisely what her lace Eisen Stein dress offered with a corset and velveteen bows and, yes, detachable puffy sleeves. To avoid competing with the dress, she kept her jewelry—vintage Givenchy drop pearl earrings, shoes—Manolo Blahnik Maysales, and makeup by Trine Juel simple. “French weddings tend to go until the morning, so I knew I wanted to change into a silk dress that I could dance and feel comfortable in during a long dinner,” Ashley contends. “We take food very seriously, and I knew our dinner was going to be long.” The Galvan London Cropped Sienna Dress allowed for easy movement and dining all night long, paired with Jimmy Choo Samantha Mules. The morning of the wedding, she and her bridesmaids readied themselves while wearing embroidered silk Morgan Lane pajamas.
The groom-to-be looked dapper in his classic J.Crew tuxedo topped off with a black silk Saks bow tie. For the bridal party, Ashley wanted to keep their looks easy and personal, so she encouraged them to pick something they loved to wear–of course with the caveat they avoid black and white! A few bridesmaids donned vintage, others chose a ruffled tulle number from The Bar. The bride’s white robe was further embroidered by Susie Cowie, a British artist, with her and Gautier’s initials, dog’s name, and small symbols and dates that are special to them.
On August 30, 2022, guests gathered on the chateau steps, surrounded by greenery. They found their seats by hand fan with their calligraphed name artfully drawn out. The Incanto Musique string quartet serenaded the small crowd with the couple’s favorite songs—a few repeats from the same playlist of Gautier’s proposal. Each member of the bridal party stood on the stairs leading up to the floral arch by Miss Rose by Perrine.
Ashley’s best friend’s mother served as the officiant and exceeded all very lofty expectations. The bride and groom had to restrain themselves from sharing a premature kiss several times, much to the amusement of their guests. “We had so many people in the audience from different aspects of our lives, French and American sitting next to each other,” Ashley recalls. For French attendees, Gautier delivered his speech in English and then translated it line-by-line in French. Nancy Ebert photographed every magical moment.
Cocktail hour soon commenced with delectable French hors d’oeuvres, including rich foie gras. The couple loves hosting, and their favorite part of any dinner is observing their friends and family as they enjoy their meal. Naturally, their wedding would be no exception. Guests relished the De Bouche en Bouche menu of a Piché Champagne dish, a veal medallion with pomme anna and legumes, and a cheese plate. The cake, made by one of Ashley’s best friends of From Lucie, was supreme. As soon as the wedding party portraits were snapped, the baker snatched one of the bridesmaid’s bouquets to decorate the raspberry yogurt cake, decked out with basil Swiss meringue buttercream and raspberry jam.
The dinner was thoroughly enthralling with speeches from the mother of the bride, Ashley’s two best friends, Gautier’s best man, his brother, and his father that he said in French, followed by an English translation by Gautier’s brother. “We included a couple of Persian traditions and his French family’s, making the dinner about three hours long,” Ashley shares. “Our dinner was so long that we skipped our first dance!” Instead, the couple decided to save it for their first anniversary.
Out of the entire evening, Ashley pins her favorite memory to one moment. Her mother led a Persian tradition to celebrate the newlyweds’ journey. “My sisters took a beautiful piece of lace and held it over Gautier and me. All the women who want to wish us a sweet life rub sugar over the lace with us underneath,” she explains. “You are supposed to pretend to rub the sugar, but our guests really did rub the sugar all over us so we were covered in sugar, similar to our days baking in our apartment.” A full-circle moment for the two—now married—bakers.
The couple danced with their guests until four in the morning before going off to their honeymoon at the Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives.
