Weddings at
Four Seasons George V
31 Avenue George V. A guide for couples and their cake designer.
Few addresses in Paris
carry the gravity
of 31 Avenue George V.
The George V opened in 1928 just off the Champs-Élysées and has been hosting weddings ever since, most of them quietly, most of them never published.
Receptions usually take place in the Salon Vendôme, the Salon Marie-Antoinette, or in the Galerie. The hotel is known for the floral arrangements of Jeff Leatham, who has shaped its visual identity for nearly two decades. Capacity goes from a dozen guests at a private dinner to two hundred in the larger salons.
The George V is on the Atout France Palace list. All catering and pastry is in-house, under executive pastry chef Michael Bartocetti.
A piece made for you alone.
For couples planning a wedding at 31 Avenue George V who want a cake hand-finished in a Parisian atelier and delivered to the palace on the morning of the wedding.
Some couples want a cake made for them only. Hand-shaped, considered for weeks, finished in their colours, never offered again.
My medium is sugar paste. The work happens at home in my Paris atelier, on a granite slab that has held every commission I have ever signed. Petal by petal, fold by fold. The cake is built for the room you have chosen, scaled to its ceiling, paired to the season.
An external cake designer is something the events team agrees in advance with the couple. It is the way couture cakes have always travelled into Paris palaces, signed off by the hotel and delivered straight to the salon.
I have delivered commissions to châteaux and venues across Paris and Île-de-France using the same protocol. The Ritz is the next address on the list.
Planning a wedding at Four Seasons George V?
From sketch to Place Vendôme.
Every commission begins with a charcoal sketch on the desk. The first conversation is about the room, the light, the season, you.
From there I work alone in the atelier for six to eight weeks. The structure comes first, then the textures, then the flowers. You taste the flavours separately at the table.
I deliver the cake myself on the morning of the wedding and assemble the piece on site at the palace. Sugar paste holds its shape at room temperature, so the cake stays standing through the whole reception, dinner, and dancing.
I take a small number of commissions a year. For a Ritz wedding, write to me six to twelve months ahead of the date.
Couples often ask.
Will Four Seasons George V allow an external wedding cake designer?
Yes. The decision is agreed between you, the events team at The Ritz, and me. I have delivered to châteaux and venues across Paris and Île-de-France using the same protocol. Paris palaces are no different.
How does delivery and setup work at the palace?
I deliver myself on the morning of the wedding and assemble on site. Sugar paste holds its shape at room temperature, so the cake stays standing through the whole reception, dinner, and dancing.
What does a Ritz wedding cake cost?
Each commission is bespoke. I review every inquiry personally and reply within 48 hours.
Is sugar paste different from buttercream or fondant cakes?
Yes. Sugar paste is what makes the work possible: vertical height, fine botanical detail, gilding. Buttercream cannot hold its shape in summer heat or outdoors. Sugar paste does.
How early should I book?
Six to twelve months before the date. I take a small number of commissions a year, and peak season runs June through September.
The château guide
Five Paris and Île-de-France venues I return to. History, the cake I would design for the space, and one observation from working there.
Château de Bouffémont
A 19th-century private château on thirty-two acres north of Paris, historically a finishing school for young women of European nobility. Today it hosts a small number of weddings each year, often with terrace ceremonies overlooking the park.
For Bouffémont I design something restrained. The château carries itself. A four-tier piece in soft ivory, with peonies and garden roses sculpted to fall slightly out of formation. No rigid symmetry. The room does not need a loud cake, it needs a cake that feels like it grew in the garden outside.
The terrace side-light at the end of the afternoon is the best natural light of any Paris château I deliver to. Brides photograph their cake there before dinner, not after.
Château de Champlatreux
Built in 1757 for the Molé family, Champlatreux is a Louis XV masterpiece with stone-white interiors and a grand salon whose proportions are almost unsettling the first time you walk in. Classified heritage. Rarely photographed.
The cake I design for Champlatreux is tall. Six tiers at least, straight-sided, dressed in pale ivory sugar paste with sugar flowers layered only at the base and crown. The room is the ornament. My job is to echo its vertical line, not compete with it.
What I learned delivering here: the parquet in the grand salon is soft. I bring a reinforced board under every commission for Champlatreux because the floor flexes. Nobody tells you that.
Château de Ferrières
Baron James de Rothschild commissioned Ferrières in 1855 from Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace. It is the largest privately built château in 19th-century Europe, on a 125-hectare park. The scale is simply different.
Ferrières is where I design tall. My eight-tier Fally cake, carrying more than a hundred and fifty hand-made wafer paper flowers, was conceived for rooms like these. The ceilings can absorb it. A five-tier piece would look underdressed.
A practical note from delivering at Ferrières. The service entrance is a long distance from the grand salon and the route includes two turns most people underestimate. I scout the path the morning of every commission here. Never assume the hotel staff will know it.
Ready to commission a cake for your Paris château wedding?
Vaux-le-Vicomte
Nicolas Fouquet's château, finished in 1661, is the project where Le Vau, Le Brun, and André Le Nôtre worked together for the first time. The gardens are Le Nôtre's first full composition and the direct blueprint for Versailles. Fouquet was arrested three weeks after the inaugural fête. The place has a particular atmosphere because of that.
For Vaux I design a cake that answers the gardens, not the interior. Botanical. Three or four tiers, wrapped in sugar ivy and wild roses, finished with sweet peas climbing irregularly. Something that looks like it was cut that morning from the parterre outside.
The cour d'honneur gets windy. I set cakes inside only, never on the terrace. I have seen other suppliers learn that the hard way.
Four Seasons George V
César Ritz opened it in 1898. Chanel lived on the third floor for thirty-four years. Hemingway drank at the bar and claimed he liberated it in 1944. The address on Place Vendôme remains the single most recognisable palace hotel in Paris.
Ritz weddings are almost always intimate. Forty guests, a private salon, dinner before ten. The cake I design for this setting is small and dense with craft. Three tiers, ivory and blush, every surface carrying hand-textured detail a camera can read at close range. The room rewards precision, not height.
The service lifts at the Ritz are narrow. I assemble on-site whenever a commission crosses four tiers here. Driving a finished piece through the kitchens is not worth the risk.
Tell me about
your day.
I take a limited number of commissions each year to ensure every piece receives my full attention. If you are planning a wedding in Paris or anywhere in the world, I would love to hear from you.
I also create bespoke wedding cakes for other Parisian palace hotels. See my guides for wedding cakes at The Ritz Paris, the Hotel de Crillon, and Plaza Athenee weddings.