Wedding photographer at Castel Bay
I make documentary wedding reportages, and the Castel Bay lends itself to them like few places do: the whole day unfolds in one place, at its own pace, without a car or a journey. You follow the thread of the hours, and everything happens on site, apart from the town hall.
The house stands above the Almanarre beach, on the Giens peninsula, looking towards the Îles d'Or. Built in the Belle Époque, it marries Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and its interior staircase was designed for the couture house Paquin in the nineteen twenties. After ten years asleep, it reopened in 2021, restored down to its ironwork.
The amphitheatre and the due south
Ceremonies and chuppahs are held facing the sea, on a height that overlooks it. The guests watch the couple with the bay behind them through the whole exchange of vows.
The amphitheatre faces due south, and that is the first thing to know. In high summer, under that sun, the heat becomes unbearable, for the guests and for the two people standing at the centre. The answer fits in one line: keep the ceremony for the very end of the day. It is a decision taken at the first meeting, with the planners, months ahead.
At that hour, the light drops onto the water and turns gold. The place seems to have been built for that moment.
The Paquin staircase
An Art Deco staircase gives height, a clean geometry, and a landing where a couple stand still of their own accord. I use it early, before the guests arrive, while the light still comes in flat through the tall windows.
Five spaces for one day
The Mediterranean garden welcomes, the amphitheatre marries, the Florentine garden takes the cocktail hour, the main terrace lays the dinner, and the Art Deco glasshouse shelters the dancing.
Between two spaces there are always those few floating minutes when guests are still looking for one another. A father watching for his daughter, two friends finding each other after years apart, a child running across the lawn. Those are often my pictures.
The glasshouse, from day to night
Daylight comes in through the glass until evening. Then the lighting takes over, and the room changes character at the very moment the dancing begins.
I create my light there with off-camera flashes. The lighting installed in reception venues has grace and little power, and working at its intensity alone pushes the ISO up and adds a grain that costs a face its fineness. A brought light keeps the fineness and the truth of the colours until the last slow dance.
Where do the preparations happen?
The house has no bedrooms. The couple arrive ready, or settle into the spaces the estate opens from the morning. Better to decide early: the first hours set the tone for everything that follows.
Lawrence Banahan, documentary wedding photographer in Hyères and on the French Riviera. Castel Bay, above the Almanarre beach.