Sparkly Christmas

Like a desire to celebrate and bring together partners and wedding planning professionals, Sonia de Jolibazaar has imagined a Christmas cocktail with pastel and elegant notes. With the complicity of CORAMOUR who brilliantly signs this artistic direction, Christmas is at once pop, colorful and sparkling. A deliciously regressive atmosphere that makes eyes shine and warms hearts.

With the beautiful images of Thomas Audiffren and Valery Villard, Sonia shares her inspirations with us…

How did the initiative for this shooting come about? 

"During our events, it is difficult as a service provider to be able to take the time to talk with other service providers. The pace is very fast, the season is intense and everyone is very busy, even with their heads under water. However, in the era of networks, teleworking and yet another Covid wave, it is essential to continue to communicate face to face. Indeed, we believe in coopetition, that is to say the possibility of exchanging our experiences to improve the quality of our respective services, and this to the greatest benefit of our common clients, the bride and groom! 

A small group of service providers based in Provence therefore thought of offering our main prescribers, the event organizers (and who will be called wedding planners here) a friendly moment during a friendly Christmas cocktail. It was also an opportunity to present the new furniture and tableware catalog of Jolibazaar and present our many exclusives.

After sending out the Save The Dates, we received so many positive responses from the planners that we were under pressure to create an exceptional scenography (in front of such an audience of experts in the field) and one thing led to another, the simple little cocktail became a magnificent editorial shoot that we are proud to present on Le Blog de Madame C (which is for all of us our favorite blog!). »

Pastel Christmas at Domaine de Valbrillant

“We had to find a location that was close to our Aix-en-Provence showroom for logistical reasons but which also had beautiful spaces. Le Domain of Valbrillant was perfect with a beautiful heated room and exteriors with a view of the Sainte Victoire. 

The shooting team

“To take on this great challenge, we were surrounded by talented, responsive and efficient service providers!

For photo, Thomas Audiffren had produced with the Blonde and the Bearded Man in design most of the images published in the Jolibazaar catalogue, so it was symbolic for us to have him at our side for the launch of the catalogue. We also contacted Valery Villard, another Fine Art photographer with a poetic and elegant style. 

Thomas has been very busy making beautiful portraits for the planners (the first to register, there was not enough time to individually shoot 70 participants!), a gift offered to thank them for their loyalty and a gift that always pleases at Christmas.

Karine Brossard and her team of hairdressers/makeup artists came to give a little brush stroke and paintbrush before the photo. As for Valery, he shot the magnificent decoration and the general atmosphere.

Fora video, we called on Laurent Rostaing, a very well-known videographer in the industry and his video captivated us. 

Regarding the scenography, we called on the agency CORAMOUR, Wedding & Event Designer. Every collaboration with Cora is a real success as her talent and creativity are immense and she was not afraid when we gave her the brief (a pink, glittery, original but not kitsch Christmas!).

For floral design, Eva of Flowdles et Charlotte Flower and twig formed a remarkable duo: Eva is a young florist full of potential and who was the revelation of this shooting. Charlotte was contacted as reinforcement given the scale of the event and we were delighted to benefit from her experience and her mastery of floral design.

About the signage, we called on Marina from Gang of Twins who won us over with his custom-made creations made in record time!

Pretty-Days lent us a nice one neon light which was the key element of the photocall imagined for this bold, girly and colorful Christmas!

The Delights2Gladys had prepared a lovely cake buffet for us which accompanied the delicious desserts from the Favalesssa pastry shop.

previously art of cooking et the Bistro Truck treated us to refined bites, including an exceptional truffle risotto. To quench the thirst of our guests, Sebastien de Bar Events offered superb and delicious cocktails and Margnat Wines generously donated the wines.

The scenography of Coramour

"The watchword for this event was clear: it has to shine!

Like a desire to let go, to treat yourself and glitter for Christmas is always very nice! 

We gave Cora carte blanche to create a Christmas atmosphere by simply imposing the Jolibazaar color palette which is composed of very girly colors and punchy in shades of pink, peach and gold. 

So Cora imagined a pop, girly and colorful decor but which nevertheless remained elegant, which is the trademark of Jolibazaar! Disco balls and colored tulle were part of it for a modern and offbeat side. To stay in a Christmas atmosphere, the team played on the accessories: Christmas' balls, fake snow and Custom made decorations with an XL nutcracker as a welcome sign and a beautiful pink and peach backdrop for photobooth.

The highlight of the scenography was indeed this custom-made backdrop which served as a meeting and entertainment space thanks to a photobooth provided by the Domaine de Valbrillant. Cora imagined giving it a second use by also using it as a support for guest gifts.  We personalized Christmas baubles for each planner by engraving their agency name: a gift that really made an impression!

To dress the interior of the room which was very spacious, we placed a inspiration table in the center of the room with the Jolibazar dishes and furnitureThe idea was to occupy the immense central space and for guests to be able to easily move around to admire the small details and the talent of all the service providers. (place markers, flowers, scenography, etc.)

Regarding the rest of the scenography: high tables and lounge areas have been set up in the room so that guests can have spaces to sit down and encourage discussion around a good cocktail. 

We also had some Hot air balloon chandeliers from Phos Events to mark the space of the makeup bar and the catering buffet.

Finally, we must return to the particularly original welcome panel designed by Cora and Marina: it was a 40 meter nutcracker accompanied by small snowy decorations, disco balls and beautiful floral arrangements!

A budgetary approach

The overall range on a basis of 100 guests is approximately 50K€

The breakdown by expense item based on 100 guests:

• Organization : very variable depending on the agency you hire
• Scenography: from €3
• Furniture and crockery rental: from €15 per person + delivery/installation
• Chandelier rental: from 1000 €
• Location: from €6700
• Catering: from €50 per person for a cocktail lunch, €120 for a seated dinner
• Stationery and signage: €1500
• Flowers: from €5000 + travel
• Photographer: from €3000 for Valery Villard and from €5000 for Thomas Audiffren + travel
• Videographer: from €3000 + travel
• Hair and makeup: from €1100 for 6 hours + travel
• Wedding cake: €1150
• Mixologist: from €11 per person + travel

Professional advice for future brides and grooms

• Our first advice is to know how to surround yourself well. In general, a wedding is a mix between a marathon and show jumping: a marathon because you have to plan well in advance, especially for booking rooms and show jumping because you very often have setbacks or even annoyances before being rewarded by the immense joy that fills you on your wedding day. 
• Given the potential difficulties and complex decisions that must be made at each stage of the organization, we advise you to call on wedding planners which will save you time and limit the stress caused by preparations.  Good professionals can even save you money because their experience will help you avoid mistakes that are always very costly in the end. 
• However, it is advisable toavoid choosing low-cost providers because they will probably not provide you with the best service. For example, when renting equipment, we advise you to find out about the condition of the equipment offered (some providers, even very reputable ones, do not invest as much as Jolibazaar in maintenance and this can be seen in the photos, and it can even have dramatic consequences in terms of safety!). 
• En picture/video, it is necessary check full galleries rather than limiting yourself to a few well-edited photos on Instagram.
• For the game meal, nothing beats a good tasting.
• In scenography, Choose a designer who has an original vision and who is not going to just copy what is already on Instagram or Pinterest. 

Many brides and grooms are afraid of losing control if they delegate their preparations, but the exact opposite will happen if you have good planners at your side. You can trust them to guide you through the maze of preparations and fully enjoy both the preparations (of which you will only see the good sides) and your big day! And if you don't know which planner to dedicate yourself to, don't hesitate to ask other service providers, they will be able to recommend the most efficient ones because it is also in their interest!

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The credits

Location - Domain of Valbrillant

Caterers and pastries
Culinary Art
The Bistro Truck
Favalessa Pastry Shop
The Delights2Gladys

Wines and cocktails
Margnat Wines
Bar Events

Hair & Make up – Karine Brossard

Photographers
Thomas Audiffren
Valery Villard

Videographer – Laurent Rostaing

Flowers - Flowdles wedding, Charlotte Flower and twig, The Blonde and the Bearded Man
Furniture and tableware rental – Jolibazaar
Neon – Pretty Days

Chandelier Rental – Phos events

Scenography – Coramour Wedding & Event Designer
Signage – Gang of Twins

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