Planning a Small Wedding in France: How to Create a Luxurious, Intimate Experience

There’s something extraordinary about a small wedding in France.

It’s not just the setting — though the châteaux, vineyards, and gardens certainly help — it’s the atmosphere: calm, personal, and deeply intentional. A smaller guest list allows you to focus on what truly matters — connection, design, and experience.

At Bonjour Weddings, we love helping couples create intimate, multi-day celebrations in France that are just as luxurious and meaningful as larger weddings — often even more so. Here’s how to plan a small wedding or micro wedding in France that feels refined, relaxed, and unforgettable.

What Is a Micro Wedding (and Why They’re Perfect in France)

A micro wedding is typically a celebration with 10 to 40 guests — smaller in scale, but rich in detail and emotion. It’s not an elopement (which usually involves only the couple), but rather a beautifully curated event where every guest is part of your inner circle.

France lends itself perfectly to this kind of celebration. With centuries-old estates, private villas, and charming boutique hotels, the country offers countless spaces that shine in intimacy.

And because the guest list is smaller, you can focus on crafting an experience, not just an event — fine dining, beautiful design, and meaningful moments shared with the people who matter most.

A micro wedding in France isn’t about doing less — it’s about doing everything with more care, intention, and beauty.

Why France Is the Ultimate Destination for an Intimate Wedding

Few countries offer the variety and sophistication that France does. Whether you dream of vineyard views, city glamour, or coastal romance, each region tells its own story:

• Provence & the French Riviera: Sun-drenched landscapes, olive trees, and the scent of lavender in the air. Perfect for outdoor dinners and vineyard ceremonies.

• Paris & Île-de-France: Chic urban settings and grand private mansions where intimacy meets elegance.

• Loire Valley: Fairytale castles, manicured gardens, and timeless architecture.

• Southwest France: A slower pace, exquisite gastronomy, and countryside charm.

• Haute-Savoie & the Alps: Crystal lakes, panoramic views, and a sense of serenity — ideal for summer or winter celebrations.

France’s diversity means there’s a perfect setting for every kind of small wedding — from sunlit courtyards to candlelit château salons.

Small Guest List, Grand Experience

The true luxury of a small wedding lies in the freedom to go further. With fewer guests, every detail can be elevated — not just refined, but transformed into an experience that feels entirely bespoke. It’s not about scaling down — it’s about scaling deeper into emotion, creativity, and storytelling.

Imagine a week-long journey through France designed entirely around your love story — a wedding itinerary that begins in Paris, where your guests toast your engagement at a rooftop soirée overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The celebration continues through Provence, with wine tastings, lavender-field picnics, and an open-air dinner under olive trees, before culminating in a glamorous finale on the French Riviera, complete with a private yacht ceremony or seaside farewell brunch.

Here’s what luxury looks like when every moment is custom-crafted:

• Curated Wedding Week Itineraries: Multi-day experiences designed for intimacy and immersion — from private tours (think Versailles after hours, or like for some of our past clients, behind the scenes of the Boucheron maison on place Vendôme) to sunset hot-air balloon rides over Loire-Valley Chateaux. Each event becomes part of your shared story.

• Extraordinary Culinary Experiences: Invite a Michelin-starred chef to design your menus, or host a tasting dinner where each course reflects a chapter of your relationship. Add flair with champagne sabrage, private vineyard tours, or tableside mixology shows. Truffle Hunting and farm to table feasts, coocking classes... take your guests on a trip they'll remember for ever.

• Immersive Design and Guest Details: Think beyond beautiful décor — hand-painted plates, personalized ice cube stamps, and a bespoke invitation experience, where stationery takes a whole different dimension. Every texture and tone reflects you.

• Cultural and Artistic Touches: Explore French culture and let your guests be part of it. Have guests take part in creating their own fragrance at a historic perfumerie, or design the wedding fragrance together, arrange for a mini-opera or chamber concert in a historic venue or château ballroom, exclusive to your guests, an exhibition or performance curated around your passions in an intimate setting.

• Unforgettable Experiences: Ceremonies on boats gliding through Riviera waters, private museum dinners, or fireworks above your château as a live orchestra plays your song.

A small wedding gives you the rare privilege to create something extraordinary — not just an event, but a once-in-a-lifetime experience designed entirely around your story.

At Bonjour Weddings, we specialize in crafting these immersive, experience-led celebrations — intimate in scale, expansive in imagination. Each micro wedding becomes a full-sensory journey that blends refinement, artistry, and the effortless charm of France.

If you’re ready to turn your intimate celebration into something extraordinary, let’s begin designing a wedding experience that could only happen in France.

Start planning your bespoke micro wedding →

Budget Realities: What to Expect for a Luxurious Small Wedding

It’s true that some couples plan a small destination wedding in France with the hopes of having to spend less. With creative planning, this can allow for an intimate day focused on elegance and simplicity.

However, for couples dreaming of a fully immersive, design-led experience — multi-day events, high-touch service, and bespoke details — budgets typically start from €100,000–€150,000 and beyond.

This range allows for:

• Exclusive-use venues

• Professional planning and design services

• Top tier vendors on your team

• Multi-day catering and guest experiences

• Tailored floral design, lighting, and styling

At Bonjour Weddings, our services include full planning, artistic direction and concerge services reflecting the depth of creative direction, vendor management, and logistical expertise required to design an event that feels effortlessly luxurious — no matter the size.

A smaller guest list doesn’t mean a smaller vision — it means your investment can go further into crafting something deeply personal and exquisitely executed.

The Role of a Planner in a Micro Wedding

Even with fewer guests, destination weddings in France involve hundreds of moving parts — logistics, contracts, language differences, and design execution.

A planner ensures your intimate celebration feels seamless, not stressful:

• Venue scouting — finding hidden gems that perfectly fit your scale and vision, often exploring non-traditional wedding venue options.

• Vendor coordination — building a trusted, bilingual team of caterers, florists, and photographers specifically selected for you and your wedding project.

• Guest management — transportation, accommodations, and scheduling across time zones.

• Design cohesion — ensuring every detail contributes to one coherent story.

At Bonjour Weddings, we believe intimacy deserves just as much care as grandeur — because smaller weddings allow for bigger emotion, more authenticity, and a deeper sense of connection.

Inspiration: Small Weddings in Exclusive French Venues

Imagine a candlelit dinner under olive trees in Provence, with 30 guests gathered around one long table. Or a weekend in a private château near Paris, complete with a welcome party, ceremony in the gardens, and brunch the next morning. Or perhaps a celebration above ski slopes in the Alps, blending French refinement with breathtaking natural beauty.

These are the kinds of small weddings we love to design — luxurious, intentional, and effortlessly French.

Final Thoughts

A small wedding in France is not about cutting back — it’s about curating something extraordinary. With the right guidance, you can turn intimacy into an art form, crafting a weekend that feels like a private world designed just for you and your guests.

If you’re dreaming of a luxurious micro wedding in France — intimate yet impeccably detailed — we’d love to help you create it. Start planning your small wedding in France →