# Wedding photographers in Reims

> A coronation cathedral, chalk cellars under the hill of Saint-Nicaise, and the vineyards of the Montagne de Reims on the slopes south of town.

- URL: https://lensandvows.com/france/burgundy/reims
- Burgundy & Champagne: https://lensandvows.com/france/burgundy
- France: https://lensandvows.com/france
- Français: https://lensandvows.com/fr/france/burgundy/reims.md
- Lens & Vows: https://lensandvows.com/

Reims is the city of coronations: by the city’s count, 33 sovereigns were crowned here, the last of them Charles X in 1825. Its cathedral, begun in 1211, carries 2,303 statues, the Smiling Angel among them by the north portal of the west front, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site with the former abbey of Saint-Remi and the Palace of Tau. Under the hill of Saint-Nicaise, the Champagne houses’ chalk pits, the crayères, belong to a second listing, the Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars.

A wedding here moves from stone to chalk to vines: the civil ceremony in the Hôtel de Ville, begun in 1627, a church service, a toast in a cellar, then dinner in a château or a Champagne house’s reception rooms. For the portraits, the Montagne de Reims — a wooded hill whose slopes hold grand cru villages such as Verzenay and Verzy — rises just south of town.

## Wedding photographers in Reims

They shoot everywhere in Burgundy & Champagne — in Reims too. Their whole weddings are on their pages.

https://lensandvows.com/photographers?region=burgundy
https://lensandvows.com/photographers?region=burgundy&sort=rating (Highest rated)
https://lensandvows.com/france/burgundy.md

## Where couples marry in Reims

- **The Hôtel de Ville:** Weddings are held every day except Sundays and public holidays, for up to 80 guests: you choose the day, and the registrar sets the hour once the file is complete. The file goes in by appointment, both of you present, after the city has checked your documents by email; the city offers a video recording of the ceremony.
- **The cathedral parish:** The parish of Notre-Dame–Saint-Jacques holds its weddings, baptisms and funerals at the church of Saint-Jacques, not in the cathedral. Contact it at least six months ahead and do not fix the date before meeting the priest; preparation takes three days, and the civil marriage certificate must be shown by the start of the service.
- **Champagne houses:** Vranken-Pommery hires out rooms for private events, weddings included, at the Domaine Pommery and at the Villa Demoiselle, an Art Nouveau and Art Deco house of 1904–08 whose cellar takes up to 200 guests. The Verzenay windmill, owned by Mumm, is not for hire.
- **Château hotels:** Domaine Les Crayères, a château of 1904 on the Saint-Nicaise hill, has its own wedding-planning service. Out on the Montagne de Reims, the Château de Sacy, with 12 rooms, hosts weddings and can be taken over entirely.

## Where to take your portraits

- **The cathedral’s west front:** The cathedral’s axis runs south-west to north-east, so the west front takes the afternoon and evening sun. The cathedral opens at 8:00 every day. Around Christmas, Regalia, a free ten-minute light show, plays on the façade on Friday and Saturday evenings — a backdrop for winter portraits.
- **Saint-Remi:** The basilica, 126 m long, built in the 11th century with a Gothic choir from the end of the 12th, shares the cathedral’s UNESCO listing.
- **The Porte de Mars and Place Royale:** The Porte de Mars, a Roman arch from around the turn of the 3rd century, 30 m long and 15 m high, is the largest known in the Roman world, restored in 2023–24. Nearby, Place Royale was begun in 1757 in honour of Louis XV.
- **Verzenay: the lighthouse and the windmill:** A lighthouse among the vines, built in 1909 to advertise a Champagne house, with 101 steps to a 360° view and a vineyard museum (closed in January). Nearby, the Verzenay windmill of 1818 stands over the grand cru slopes. The vines are working plots: at harvest, keep to the paths.
- **The Faux de Verzy:** Twisted beeches in the state forest of Verzy, a protected biological reserve. A 3 km loop open to everyone passes them; the trees stand behind barriers, because even walking at their feet packs the soil, so the portraits are taken from the path.

## When to marry in Reims

There are no 1991–2020 normals for Reims itself; Météo-France’s station at Chambrecy, in the vineyards 20 km south-west, gives average highs of 19.8 °C in May, 23.1 °C in June, 25.4 °C in July and 21.1 °C in September, with 53 to 68 mm of rain a month, on 8 to 10 days — summer is mild, and no month is dry. The harvest usually comes in September, sometimes from mid-August: in 2026 picking started on 6 August, the earliest ever seen in Champagne. Late May brings Reims, l’épopée légendaire, the city’s historical festival (29–30 May 2027), and from late November the Christmas market fills the Promenades.

Burgundy & Champagne, month by month:
- **Best:** June, July, August, September
- **Good with planning:** May, October

## Good to know before the day

- **Getting there and around:** TGVs from Paris reach Reims in 45 minutes, and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport is about 30 minutes from the Champagne-Ardenne TGV station at Bezannes, which the tram links to the centre. The city has a low-emission zone: cars need a Crit’Air 1 to 3 sticker — check before booking a vintage wedding car. Épernay is 27 km south.
- **At the town hall:** The city takes two deposit cheques with the file. It keeps one if you arrive more than 30 minutes late or cancel on the day without warning, and the other if confetti, rice or petals are thrown on the forecourt or the steps. The banns are posted inside the Hôtel de Ville, not online.
- **Drones:** In the open category, French rules ban flying over public space in a built-up area and flying at night. The official map marks the cathedral, Saint-Remi and the Parc de Champagne as no-fly, the Verzenay lighthouse too, and limits drones to 30 m over the vines around Verzenay, Rilly and Ludes. A flight over a populated area in the specific category is declared to the préfecture at least 10 working days ahead.
- **The legal route:** A civil wedding needs one of you, or a parent, to live in Reims, with at least a month’s continuous residence when the banns go up for their 10 days; a church wedding comes only after it. Most couples from abroad marry legally at home and hold a symbolic ceremony in a château or a Champagne house.
- [How to marry legally in France](https://lensandvows.com/journal/getting-married-in-france)

## Questions about marrying in Reims

### Can we marry in Reims Cathedral?

The cathedral parish holds its weddings at the church of Saint-Jacques, so ask the parish before you hope for the cathedral itself. Contact it at least six months ahead, after your civil wedding is planned: in France the religious ceremony may only follow the civil one.

### Can we hold our reception in a Champagne house?

Some houses rent out rooms for weddings: Vranken-Pommery at the Domaine Pommery and the Villa Demoiselle, for example, and Domaine Les Crayères has its own wedding service. The Verzenay windmill, though, is not for hire.

### When is the Champagne harvest?

Usually in September, though it can start in mid-August: in 2026 it began on 6 August, the earliest ever recorded. Some 120,000 pickers come for it and the houses are at their busiest, so a wedding then means golden vines but vineyards full of work.

### What is the light like for a June wedding?

Long: on 15 June 2027 the sun sets in Reims at about 21:51, and golden hour runs from 21:00 to 22:17. Average highs are around 23 °C in June (Météo-France, Chambrecy), so an evening ceremony and late portraits in the vines are comfortable.

### Do we need a permit for photos in the streets of Reims?

The city asks film and TV productions to declare their shoots, and other shoots go through its event-request form; events in public space are asked for two months ahead. It does not say whether a wedding session alone needs one, so your photographer should ask.

## Marrying in Burgundy & Champagne

- [Burgundy & Champagne](https://lensandvows.com/france/burgundy): The whole region: when to marry, the kinds of places, the light, getting there. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/france/burgundy.md)

## Read before you plan

- [What a wedding photographer costs in France, and what changes the price](https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-photographer-cost-france): Published prices for photographing a wedding in France run from under €1,000 to €12,000 and more. The ranges with their sources and dates, by length of day and region by region, what goes into a price, the French specifics (two ceremonies, TTC or HT, kilometres) and how paying works on Lens & Vows. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-photographer-cost-france.md)
- [Getting married in France as foreigners: the mairie, the church or a symbolic ceremony](https://lensandvows.com/journal/getting-married-in-france): France’s routes for couples from abroad — why only the mairie can marry you, the residence rule, the banns and the documents, a church wedding after the civil one, same-sex couples, and where the photographer fits in. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/getting-married-in-france.md)
- [A symbolic wedding in France: marry legally at home, celebrate in France](https://lensandvows.com/journal/symbolic-ceremony-france): Why couples from abroad sign the papers at home and hold a cérémonie laïque in France, what the law says about it, who can lead it and what it costs, where you may hold it — beaches, parks, protected sites — and what it frees up for the light and the photographs. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/symbolic-ceremony-france.md)
- [The best time to get married in France: month by month, region by region](https://lensandvows.com/journal/best-time-to-marry-in-france): Météo-France’s climate normals for eight places couples marry, how many couples marry in each month (INSEE), the best months for each region, the holidays, ponts and events of 2027, and sunrise, sunset and golden hour for 2027 in eight cities. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/best-time-to-marry-in-france.md)
- [How to choose a wedding photographer: the steps, and the questions to ask](https://lensandvows.com/journal/how-to-choose-a-wedding-photographer): The decision in order — whole weddings, style, availability, the package, the contract and deposit, cancellation, delivery and a conversation — then a checklist of questions, with why each one matters. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/how-to-choose-a-wedding-photographer.md)
- [Wedding venues in France: châteaux, bastides, vineyards and Alpine chalets](https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-venues-france): Twenty-two places that say on their own sites that they host weddings — palace hotels in Paris and an abbey outside it, Provençal bastides and wine estates, a Riviera villa and a castle on the sea, Loire châteaux, Bordeaux and Dordogne hideaways, Norman and Breton manors, a lakeside abbey and Alpine chalets, Burgundy and Champagne châteaux — with where they are, what they look like, capacity from their own pages, and what each means for your photos. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-venues-france.md)

## Sources

- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/demarches-administratives/demande-dactes-et-formulaires-detat-civil/ceremonies-de-mariage
- https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F930
- https://www.reims-tourisme.com/activite/hotel-de-ville/
- https://www.cathedrale-reims.com/infos-pratiques/baptemes-mariages-obseques
- https://www.cathedrale-reims.com/infos-pratiques/accueil-horaires-douverture
- https://catholique-reims.fr/en-pratique/se-marier-a-leglise/
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/601/
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1465/
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/reims-et-son-patrimoine/reims-et-le-patrimoine-mondial-de-lunesco
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/reims-et-son-patrimoine/cathedrale-notre-dame-de-reims-et-le-palais-du-tau
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Reims
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Ange_au_Sourire
- https://www.vrankenpommery.com/reception/prestation
- https://www.vrankenpommery.com/reception/
- https://www.reims-tourisme.com/activite/villa-demoiselle/
- https://www.lescrayeres.com/en/faq.html
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domaine_Les_Cray%C3%A8res
- https://chateaudesacy-reims.fr/vos-evenements/
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_de_Verzenay
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/festivals-et-evenements/regalia-spectacle-multimedia
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/reims-et-son-patrimoine/la-basilique-et-lancienne-abbaye-saint-remi
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/reims-et-son-patrimoine/la-porte-de-mars
- https://www.reims-tourisme.com/activite/place-royale/
- https://www.phare-verzenay.com/histoire.html
- https://www.phare-verzenay.com/informations.html
- https://www.parc-montagnedereims.fr/decouvrir/les-faux-de-verzy/
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_(AOC)
- https://meteofrance.s3.sbg.io.cloud.ovh.net/data/synchro_ftp/REF_STATION/FICHECLIM_51111001.pdf
- https://www.champagne.fr/fr/approfondir/mediaroom/communique-presse-champagne/champagne-2026-une-vendange-hors-norme-un
- https://www.champagne.fr/fr/visiter-la-champagne/vivre-la-champagne/les-saisons-en-champagne
- https://www.champagne.fr/fr/visiter-la-champagne/vivre-la-champagne/le-tourisme-en-champagne
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/festivals-et-evenements/reims-lepopee-legendaire
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/festivals-et-evenements/le-marche-de-noel-de-reims
- https://www.reims-tourisme.com/organiser/acces-et-transports/venir-a-reims/
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89pernay
- https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/exploitation-drones-en-categorie-ouverte
- https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/documents/Fiche_reflexe_specifique.pdf
- https://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/donnees/restrictions-uas-categorie-ouverte-et-aeromodelisme
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/demarches-administratives/tournages-cinema-et-audiovisuel
- https://www.reims.fr/la-ville-de-reims/demarches-administratives/organiser-un-evenement/une-manifestation-sur-le-domaine-public
- https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html