Wedding photographer in Antibes

Ramparts dropping straight into the water, and a dress passing in front of them. The umbrella pines of the Cap cutting the light into pieces. A speech that goes off the rails, and that everyone prefers for it.

Press photography since 1992, applied to weddings. In Antibes, it applies to two territories in one day, the stone of the walled old town and the pines of the Cap, and to the speech that goes off the rails somewhere between them.

Antibes brings together two territories that have nothing in common: a fortified old town, dense and built of stone, and a residential cape of pine woods and private estates. A reportage that uses both looks like no other in the département.

Bastide du Roy

This is the Antibes venue I know best. The formal gardens produce plays of light I rarely find elsewhere, the Provençal architecture brings a warmth cold stone does not have, and the water feature adds a depth to the gardens that serves couple portraits particularly well.

The whole estate holds together, which means you can spend a full day there without the images repeating themselves.

Cap d'Antibes

The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc spreads across nine hectares, with its Grande Allée, terraces, gardens and sea. Discretion is the rule, and the light on the rocks has to be handled: it is one of the most contrasted places on the Riviera in the middle of the day.

Villa Eilenroc and its gardens open another possibility, more botanical and less hotel-like.

At Juan-les-Pins, Belles Rives offers the terrace and the beach in warm weather, and La Passagère as an Art Deco interior when the season cools. Arriving by boat is still possible there, and it is an entrance few venues allow.

The old town and the ramparts

Vieil Antibes gives what the estates cannot: narrow lanes, ochre façades, staircases, and the rampart opening suddenly onto the sea. Twenty minutes there build a complete series.

As everywhere in the coastal old towns, the hour decides. Midday brings crowds and hard shadows. Early morning and late afternoon change everything.

Combining the cape and the old town

By separating them in time rather than running them together. Preparations and ceremony on one side, couple session on the other, with a single transfer between.

The journey is short, ten to fifteen minutes, but Antibes traffic in July and August doubles it without warning. Thirty minutes of margin prevents the delay landing on the couple session, which is what invariably happens without it.

What happens if it rains?

All the venues above have indoor spaces, La Passagère at Belles Rives being an example of an alternative that does not feel like a fallback. For the couple session, I would rather reschedule it for another day, later that week or beyond. You get your images in the light you had in mind.

Twenty minutes along the shore, Cannes is where my office sits, on Rue Meynadier, with the hills of the hinterland behind it; on the way, Vallauris stacks the potters' upper village above the bay of Golfe-Juan.

Frequently asked questions

Can we photograph on the ramparts and in Vieil Antibes? Without particular difficulty for a wedding reportage, choosing the hour to avoid the crowds.

When is the best season in Antibes? Weddings run from April to October, with a marked preference for May, June and September. Some venues on the Cap concentrate their dates in spring and autumn.

How far is Nice or Cannes? Fifteen minutes from Cannes, half an hour from Nice outside high season. Antibes sits at the centre of the département.

Do you travel to Juan-les-Pins, Biot and Vallauris? Regularly, as well as across the whole Cap and to Villeneuve-Loubet.

How early do dates go at Antibes? I advise blocking a summer Saturday around eighteen months out. Antibes carries two territories that couples want together, the walled old town and the cape, and the venues of the Cap d'Antibes are among the earliest to fill on this coast.

Tell me about your day, and we will work out together how it is photographed.