Inside a two-day October wedding in Antibes. From a colourful welcome dinner to a candlelit celebration at La Bastide du Roy on the French Riviera.
BASTIDE DU ROY, Antibes
Two days · 55 guests · USA
Welcome dinner · Ceremony · Black-tie dinner
Photography: Nastia Vesna · Florals La Blonde et Le Barbue · Catering Rolland Paix
From Riviera Colour to Candlelight: An October Wedding at La Bastide du Roy
Mid-October on the French Riviera can be deceptive in the best possible way. The days are often still warm and bright, with temperatures around 72–75°F. But once the sun disappears, the evening changes quickly. For Raisa and Mike’s two-day wedding in Antibes, that distinction shaped one of the most important production decisions of the weekend.
The celebrations began the evening before at Baba, at Cap d’Antibes Beach Hotel. A seated welcome dinner designed in vivid pinks, citrus tones and unapologetically bright colour. The original intention had been to make full use of the Riviera setting, but with the temperature dropping in the evening, we moved dinner indoors. It was a small adjustment compared with what would follow the next day, but it came from the same principle: the setting matters, but never at the expense of how guests actually feel in it.
Designing for an October Evening
The wedding itself took place at La Bastide du Roy in Antibes. A historic estate surrounded by gardens and olive trees. One of the most distinctive wedding venues on the French Riviera.
One of the great advantages of the property is its permanent marquee, particularly for weddings outside the height of summer. But having a covered space and having a room in which you genuinely want to host dinner are two different things.
For an October celebration, serving dinner entirely outdoors would have meant asking guests to remain seated for several hours as the temperature dropped. It was technically possible. From a guest-experience perspective, it was not the right choice.
Raisa trusted us completely with the alternative.
The decision was to transform the marquee rather than simply use it as it stood. The entire 400-square-metre structure was draped from ceiling to floor, a production that took two full days to install. The result no longer felt like a contingency space. It became the dining room: soft, architectural and deliberately understated, with fabric overhead, warm lighting, long tables and olive trees integrated into the room.
It was a significant production decision, and an expensive one. But this is exactly where planning a wedding in France becomes less about finding a beautiful venue and more about understanding how that venue will actually work at a particular time of year.
Two Moods, One Wedding
The visual contrast between ceremony and dinner was entirely intentional.
For the ceremony, Raisa wanted colour. The garden was filled with saturated pink, coral, blue, green and hydrangea, with flowers running along the aisle and surrounding the ceremony platform. Against the greenery of La Bastide du Roy, it felt joyful and almost exuberant.
Then, for dinner, everything changed.
Inside the marquee, the palette became quiet: natural linen, cream, soft beige and warm candlelight. Rather than large floral arrangements, individual roses and delicate flowers sat among candles and small table lamps. The tables were highly detailed but never busy, with printed menus, carefully chosen tableware and personalised napkins created for the guests.
The room was intentionally restrained so that the atmosphere could do more of the work.
And it did.
As dinner progressed, The Sugar Daddies, a four-piece roaming band, moved from table to table rather than performing from a fixed stage. It changed the entire rhythm of dinner. Guests were singing, standing, laughing and interacting with the musicians long before anyone formally opened a dance floor.
For us, that is often the difference between entertainment being something guests watch and something they become part of.
Truffle Pizza, Ice Cream and Rap Until 2 A.M.
Food mattered enormously to Raisa, so it became another thread running through the evening rather than simply a dinner menu.
Truffle pizzas were served during cocktails. Later came the wedding cake, but also an ice-cream cart stocked with the bride’s favourite flavours. Just one of those personal details that had nothing to do with wedding convention and everything to do with the person hosting it.
After dinner, the mood shifted again.
Raisa loves rap, so the after-party did too. Custom caps printed simply with “Merci” were handed out to guests before everyone moved onto the dance floor, where the party continued until 2 a.m. For a bride from Hawaii, where she told us evenings tend to finish rather earlier, dancing into the early hours in the South of France became a memory in itself.
What made this wedding work so beautifully was not one installation or one design decision. It was the consistency of the team behind it. Raisa chose almost exclusively from photographers, florists, musicians and production partners we already knew and trusted. On the wedding day, that familiarity matters. Everyone understands the level expected, communication is faster, and problems are solved before they ever reach the couple.
The result was one of those weddings where the mechanics disappeared completely.
Guests saw colour in the garden, a warm candlelit dinner, roaming musicians, very good food and a packed dance floor. What they did not see were the two days required to transform a 400-square-metre marquee, or the decisions made months earlier because an October evening on the French Riviera behaves very differently from an October afternoon.
That is one of the lessons of planning a wedding in the South of France outside the summer months. A Plan B should never feel like the place you ended up. It should feel as though it was always the plan.
