Ardelle
A long dinner table under olive trees at dusk, lit by candles in glass, guests seated along both sides, the valley behind.

Ardelle · weddings and evenings in the Lebanese hills

The day, as you will want to remember it.

We plan and direct weddings and small celebrations, from the first call to the last song. Calm on the day, careful in every detail before it.

Ask about your date

You should be a guest at your own wedding.

  1. One

    One planner, start to finish. The person you meet at the first coffee is the person holding the run-of-day on the night.

  2. Two

    Everything on paper. Two weeks before, every supplier and every family member who needs it has the same minute-by-minute plan.

  3. Three

    A plan for the weather. We agree plan B with you months ahead, so on the day nobody has to decide anything in a hurry.

An evening we planned

One evening in September, in four chapters.

A wedding for one hundred and forty guests on an olive terrace above Batroun. Scroll slowly.

  1. Arrival5:40 in the evening
    Guests walking up a lantern-lit path through olive trees.
  2. Ceremony6:25, as the sun goes
    The ceremony arch of olive branches at sunset.
  3. Dinner7:30, under the trees
    One long table under the trees, lanterns and flowers down its middle.
  4. The night9:50, and late
    Dancing on the terrace under string lights.
i.

Arrival

5:40 in the evening

Guests in linen walking up a stone path between olive trees hung with paper lanterns, seen from behind at dusk.

Guests walk up through the grove. The lanterns were hung the afternoon before, and tested at dusk.

A hand taking a linen napkin tied with an olive sprig from a wooden tray, candle beside it.

Each guest is handed a napkin tied with olive from the grove. Their seat is already known.

An old stone house with three arched windows glowing at blue hour, an olive tree with lanterns on the terrace.

Nobody is looking for the bar. Someone has already shown them.

ii.

Ceremony

6:25, as the sun goes

Guests on wooden benches seen from the back row, pollen floating in low golden light.

We moved the ceremony forty minutes earlier, after standing here at the same hour a year before.

A couple seen from behind under an arch of olive branches and white roses, facing the valley at sunset.

So the sun sets behind the two of them, and not in their guests' eyes.

Two hands holding each other, a thin gold ring, a linen cuff and an ivory silk sleeve in sunset light.

Eleven minutes. Nobody looked at a phone.

iii.

Dinner

7:30, under the trees

The long dinner table under the olive trees as night falls, candles lit from end to end.

One table. One hundred and forty chairs, under the trees her grandmother planted.

A hand pouring red wine beside torn bread, halved figs and thyme on white linen, a candle in front.

Bread from the village oven. Figs from the terrace below.

Silhouettes of guests raising glasses at the candlelit table under string lights.

Her brother's toast ran long. The kitchen had been told it might.

iv.

The night

9:50, and late

Dancers as blurred silhouettes on a stone terrace under warm hanging bulbs.

The dancing starts when the couple decides. Not when the schedule says.

The long table after midnight, candles burned low, a linen jacket left over a chair.

By midnight the candles are low. A jacket stays behind. We post it on Monday.

A couple walking away down a lantern-lit stone path late at night, seen from far behind.

They left at twenty past one. The terrace was swept by two.

fin.

Planned over eleven months. Lived in one evening.

Read the whole story

Other evenings

Every celebration has its own weather.

A vaulted stone room set for a winter supper, a long table with cedar branches and candles, fire burning at the far end. January · 40 guests · a mountain house A winter wedding for forty A whitewashed courtyard at dusk with a lemon tree, small round tables in linen and candles on the stairs. June · 60 guests · a Beirut courtyard An engagement dinner under a lemon tree A sheer veil lifted by the wind against a dusk sky, the bride small and far away on a hilltop. September · 140 guests · above Batroun The olive terrace, told in full
A planner's worktable from above: an open notebook with small sketches, fabric swatches in ivory and rust, an olive branch and a cup of coffee.

How we work

Taste you can feel. Calm you can rely on.

We take on a small number of weddings each year, so every couple has our full attention. Most start planning nine to twelve months ahead. Many of them live abroad and plan with us by video call, while we are their eyes on the ground.

How a year with us goes
A cream envelope sealed with dark red wax and an olive sprig on linen beside a candle.

Four things are enough to begin.

A date, or a season. Roughly how many people. A place, or a feeling about a place. And one sentence about how the day should feel.

Ask about your date