Wedding and couple session photographer in the lavender fields of Provence

This is the image that brings couples to Provence, and it is also the one most often missed.

Lavender flowers for three weeks. Not a month, not a season: three weeks, and the dates move from one year to the next. Once the harvest comes through, all that remains is cut rows.

I document weddings. With lavender, my part starts well before the camera: it consists of getting the date and the hour right.

The window, and how it is set

On the Valensole plateau, flowering runs roughly from late June to mid July. The harvest closes the season, sometimes abruptly.

Sault, higher up, flowers later. Banon offers smaller fields and far fewer visitors.

Those dates depend on the year's weather. The practical consequence is simple and non-negotiable: the window is set at booking, not three weeks beforehand. A wedding planned for 25 July at Valensole will be photographed in cut fields.

When the date is fixed by other constraints, I will tell you plainly whether it falls inside the window rather than letting you hope.

The hour, and why it decides everything

The plateau is flat, open, without a tree. Nothing stops the light.

At midday in July the sun falls vertically, the lavender loses its colour, faces are flattened and the purple turns grey. That is the hour at which most failed photographs are taken.

At sunrise the light comes in low across the rows, the scent is at its strongest, and there is nobody there. Late in the day the same light returns from the other side, with cast shadows that bring out the relief of the rows.

A lavender session is therefore a window of forty minutes rather than an hour of photographs. And it asks you to be up early.

The crowds, the thing nobody mentions

The fields easiest to reach from the Valensole road are also the busiest. In July at eleven in the morning, a couple session there happens among parked cars and visitors.

There is a way round it. Away from the main roads, a few minutes' drive, there are fields where you meet nobody. You have to know which ones, and that cannot be improvised on the day.

Permissions

A lavender field belongs to someone. These are crops, not public landscapes, and the rows are damaged by walking in them.

For a session, the owner's agreement can be obtained and should be asked for. For a symbolic ceremony it is essential, and it is negotiated months ahead on the most requested fields.

Walking between the rows rather than in them, cutting nothing, trampling nothing: that is the minimum, and it is what makes an owner say yes to the next photographer.

On the day, or the day after

This is the main trade-off, and I almost always recommend the day after.

Valensole is an hour and a half from the French Riviera and an hour from Aix. Fitting a round trip into a wedding day means sacrificing the cocktail hour and leaving your guests waiting for three hours.

The next day, you set off as a couple, with no schedule, at sunrise or late in the day. You are dressed, without the previous day's tension, and nobody is watching. Those are almost always the images couples prefer out of their whole series.

What happens if it rains?

Lavender under a grey sky is better than under a midday sun: the colours saturate and the purple comes through. A downpour, on the other hand, makes the ground unusable and puts soil on your clothes.

Since the session usually happens the day after, moving it by one day is simple. That is a further advantage of this format.

Frequently asked questions

Can we marry in a lavender field? As a symbolic ceremony, yes, with the field owner's agreement. The civil ceremony takes place at a town hall, as everywhere in France.

When exactly is the best period? Late June to mid July on Valensole, slightly later at Sault. These dates are confirmed a few weeks ahead, never a year in advance.

How far is it from the French Riviera? An hour and a half to two hours depending on where you start, longer in July. That is what makes a session the day after more sensible than a round trip.

Do we need a particular vehicle? The fields away from the main roads are reached by tracks. A car with a driver, rather than a taxi, is the most comfortable option in wedding clothes.

Can we combine lavender and the Luberon? Over two days, yes, and it gives you both Provences that couples come looking for. In a single day, you have to choose.

Most couples set out from Aix-en-Provence, where the plane trees and the courtyards keep the town in shade, towards Valensole or Sault. Lavender is one of the five Provences described on the Provence page, and the only one whose window is counted in weeks.

Tell me what you have in mind, and we will work out together how it is photographed.