The Bride Wore a Cathedral-Length Veil to Marry at the Groom’s Family Basilica in Paris
Dahye Taffin de Givenchy and Sean Taffin de Givenchy’s meet-cute took place against an idyllic wintery backdrop while they were both undergraduates in Montreal, Canada in 2018. They were students at McGill University, and encountered one another by chance at a beginning of the semester kick-off party. “McGill is a school of many traditions, one of them being a ‘winter carnival,’ which is essentially a week long of parties, snow activities, and bar crawls—all in subfreezing temperatures,” Dahye explains.
“Dahye was on the event volunteering team and was helping run coat check, checking tickets, and handing out water bottles,” Sean remembers. “I spotted her the first night, but didn’t go up to her that same night. The next day, I saw her again, and my friends helped me muster up the courage to introduce myself. We chatted for a few minutes, I got her number, and the rest is history.”
They got engaged in New York City. “I told her my uncle was in town and that we were going to have dinner with him at Casa Cipriani that evening, so we took the train downtown to meet him,” Sean remembers. “Part of the story was that he wanted us to meet him up in his room before walking down to the restaurant together, but of course, when we got into the room, there was no uncle in sight, and I got down on my knee and proposed.”
“I thought I knew Sean so well and that I could read his face like the back of my hand,” Dahye admits. “But I was wrong! I genuinely did not suspect a thing and was in complete shock. His poker face leading up to the proposal was stellar. Having it be an utter surprise was the best thing—my emotions were so raw and pure. I still remember it very clearly.”
The engagement ring—and the couple’s wedding bands—are all from Taffin, the bespoke jewelry brand by James de Givenchy, Sean’s uncle. James’s signature is his colored ceramic bands, and Sean chose the light blue color for the engagement ring with a pear-shaped diamond. “I think it is a true reflection of my personal style,” Dahye says. “And I always get so many compliments on the uniqueness of the colored band.”
The wedding was held at the end of the summer in Paris, where Sean’s mother and brother currently live. Sean spent much of his upbringing in France, and given the couple celebrated their civil union in New York, it felt appropriate to have their church wedding in the groom’s home country.
They had three days of celebrations from August 28 to 30, starting with the rehearsal dinner for immediate family and the wedding party, then a welcome brunch for younger family members and friends to meet, and finally the wedding ceremony and reception. “I am so glad we were able to stretch out the events as it gave us time to genuinely connect and converse with family and friends who we haven’t seen in a while,” Sean says.
When the couple began planning, Dahye was in her master’s program, and Sean was working full-time, so they didn’t have much free time. “I think the hardest part was getting the ball rolling,” Sean remembers. “The good thing was that we had a full year and a half to plan following our civil union in New York City, so not having the stress of time pressure certainly helped a lot.”
They enlisted Marie Bitton from Maiden Agency as their planner, and the first thing they did was lock down a date with the main venue, Le Pavillon Dauphine. It checked off all the boxes: grand and historical architecture, a vast outdoor space, and just far enough from residential areas so that there was no risk of noise complaints. “My vision for the wedding was timeless, classic and undoubtedly Parisian,” Dahye says. “I am a big vision-board nerd, so I spent many a weekend finding images that show the vibe and inspiration for each event. Once I was happy with this vision board—which was a PowerPoint deck of 100-plus slides—I shared it with Marie, and she did her magic to scout the right vendors and designers from there.”
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