Notre Dame holds first wedding in 30 years for carpenter who helped rebuild the cathedral after 2019 fire
After three decades, wedding bells have rung again in the iconic Notre Dame de Paris.
Carpenter Martin Lorentz wed his bride in the Paris cathedral under special dispensation by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich on Oct. 31, PEOPLE Magazine reported. No couple was more worthy of the honor as Lorentz spent three years helping rebuild Notre Dame after it caught fire in April 2019.
The cathedral reopened to the public on Dec. 7, 2024, with over 40 heads of state in attendance.
According to the National Catholic Register, since it isn’t a parish church, the cathedral normally does not host weddings, with its last private ceremony taking place in 1995.
However, Lorentz’ special circumstances allowed an exception.
Media outlet France 24 shared some clips from the special occasion. Officiated by the rector of Notre-Dame, Msgr. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, Lorentz’ wedding to his fiancée Jade was lit up by the restored cathedral’s bright lights and candles. There were about 500 guests in attendance, made up of family, friends, as well as Lorentz’s carpentry colleagues, who came to the ceremony carrying axes in tribute.
The monsignor greeted the couple warmly in his homily. “Jade and Martin, welcome to this cathedral. Martin, you know it well—you know it from above,” he said, referencing Lorentz’s roof work on the cathedral.
After the ceremony, Lorentz briefly spoke to some reporters outside.
“I just want to say that this is the best day of my life. I don’t think I can say anything else. I want to share my love, our love, with the whole world, with everyone who needs it,” the groom said.
For his fellow carpenters, attending the ceremony was like coming home.
“It’s incredible to see this happen,” one of them told France Info. “It was a wonderful moment to end like that, to get married in our cathedral, which is a bit like home to us.”
More than 2,000 artisans worked on the cathedral’s restoration, where they used ancient carpentry techniques to reconstruct the spire and frame. By hand, they prepared 20 kilometers of oak beams to achieve the original design of 19th-century architect Eugéne Viollet-le-Duc.
The Lorentz couple has joined the ranks of a few royals who also had their wedding at Notre Dame.
Among them were Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and François II, then King of France, who wed in 1558; and Napoleon III, the last monarch of France, and Eugénie de Montijo, Empress Consort of the French, in 1853.
