Mary Whitworth Danielson and Carter Henry Pearson first met when Mary Whit visited Sewanee to see her best friend, who at the time was dating Carter’s roommate. Even though it didn’t work out between the two of them, Mary Whit and Carter are especially grateful to the pair that first introduced them. “Lizzie and JD were both at the wedding. . .with new dates,” Mary Whit laughs.
“We had our first weekend away together at the three-room restaurant and inn called Table on Ten in the Catskills, complete with a dreamy picnic in a field of wildflowers,” Mary Whit remembers. Fast forward to 2018, the two needed a quick weekend getaway and decided to make a trip back to Table on Ten. “It turns out the impromptu weekend wasn’t as spontaneous as I thought—Carter surprised me by recreating the picnic from our first visit and popped the question.”
La Bastide de Marie’s hanging gardens, sun-drenched terraces, and blooming lavender fields created a scenic Provençal backdrop on Mary Whit and Carter’s wedding day. “As a Southerner, I never thought my mother would give up the dream of throwing her only daughter a proper early June, invite-every-friend-in-town affair,” the bride-to-be notes. “But, as I’d grown up with my parents taking me to Provence, she immediately agreed–admittedly even before I had.”
Mary Whit chose custom Amsale for her ceremony. “I met Amsale’s Chief Creative Officer, Sarah Swann, shortly before I planned to start my dress search, so it felt meant to be,” she says. “The dress felt perfect for a morning wedding in the South of France, casual, yet elegant.” On the day-of, she dressed her in her mother’s veil—her “something borrowed”—and a bouquet of peonies accented with olive branches completed her bridal ensemble. Ylva Langenskiold applied her radiant makeup look.
To kick off the celebrations, everyone met in France and toasted to the happy couple during a garden party at an old stone gîte. “We picked peonies from the gardens, lit all the candles, and arranged our marché finds du jour on the table alongside endless bottles of rosé,” Mary Whit remembers.
The next day, Château de Mille, a winery the Danielson family has visited for years, set the scene for a welcome picnic. That evening, the festivities began with a wine tasting at the Bastide’s vineyard, Domaine. A local jazz band took guests by pleasant surprise and led everyone to dinner. Delicate tablescapes featuring small paintings by the bride’s mother decorated every setting, and custom menus written by Charleston restaurant Chez Nous brought the couple a taste of home.
On June 7, 2022, lavender blooms surrounded guests as they awaited the bride’s arrival. Mary Whit and her father walked along a stone pathway toward an old iron arbor with foraged smilax, under which Carter stood. The groom’s cousin officiated the ceremony, adding some gravitas to the occasion. “Once I saw her, everything else kind of melted away until she and her father got to the altar,” Carter remembers of his first glimpses of Mary Whit. “He was crying and that moment of levity and happy tears brought me back to the joyful moment.” Once pronounced officially wed, guests tossed sachets of lavender, as they cheered for the newlyweds.
“After the morning ceremony, we had ‘French Lunch,’ a tradition my family does every Sunday,” the bride explains. “It’s about eating slowly and abundantly, enjoying the afternoon together, and not rushing to get up from the table.” A string quartet strummed as everyone practiced the art of French laissez faire living. Parasols were on hand for anyone who cared for extra shade.
“Later that evening the real fête began,” Mary Whit says. A London-based band played jazz songs for cocktail hour before Soul Supreme’s Motown set under the stars had everyone out of their seats. Heavy hors d’oeuvres were served amidst a wooden floral presentation—a nod to famed Provençal marchés—and the newlyweds danced to Etta James’s “At Last.”
At midnight, the band capped the reception with a lively rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” as pizza made its way around. Afterward, everyone headed to an ABBA-themed after-party complete with a ’70s deejay and saxophonist. “We couldn’t have planned it better—come to think about it, this might have been my favorite moment,” the bride shares.
Everyone spent the night—and some of the morning—celebrating and toasting to the newlyweds. “The police were actually called by a neighbor, as the party was going too late, but we were able to make amends with him by gifting a case of wine,” Mary Whit laughs.
The next day, Mary Whit and Carter flew to Tanzania for their honeymoon. The pair spent the following days on safari in the Western Serengeti to track the Great Migration, then traveled to the Ngorongoro Crater and ended it all on the beach in Pemba, soaking up the sun.
