From Restoration To Celebration: Notre-Dame Cathedral Honors Carpenter With First Wedding In Decades

The Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris has been granted a rare special dispensation to host a wedding for a carpenter who helped rebuild it after the devastating 2019 fire.

Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich granted special permission for the ceremony to thank Martin Lorentz for devoting his time and talent to helping rebuild the cathedral, per The National Catholic Register.

Notre-Dame is not a parish church, so weddings aren’t usually allowed and require special dispensation from the archbishop. The last known wedding was in 1995, the outlet noted. Dispensations for nuptial ceremonies have only been granted a few times in the cathedral’s 860-year history.

Lorentz married Jade on October 25 in the renowned cathedral he helped restore, as 500 guests looked on, including other carpenters who worked on the project.  

“I just want to say that this is the best day of my life. I don’t think I can say anything else,” the groom told reporters after the ceremony, per a translated news article published on France Info. “I want to share my love, our love, with the whole world, with everyone who needs it.”

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“It’s incredible to see this happen,” a fellow carpenter who attended the event told the outlet. “It was a wonderful moment to end like that, to get married in our cathedral, which is a bit like home to us.”

Notre-Dame reopened on December 8, 2024, with Archbishop Ulrich presiding. The ceremony with French President Emmanuel Macron featured 1,500 guests, including major world leaders like then-President-elect Donald Trump, then-First Lady Jill Biden, Prince William, Elon Musk, and others. 

The massive restoration process reportedly cost more than $700 million.

French authorities have said they suspect the fire started due to a lit cigarette or a faulty electrical connection, but The New York Times noted in 2024 that the investigation was ongoing and the cause “may never be determined.”