The famous Notre-Dame Cathedral was ravaged by a fire five years ago, but in a feel-good moment last weekend, it served as the site of the wedding of one of the men responsible for rebuilding the historical church.
The happy event was reported by the New York Post:
Martin Lorentz, 29, a craftsman who spent three years reconstructing the cathedral's medieval wooden framework, exchanged vows with his now-wife, Jade, on Oct. 25 inside the historic Paris monument — the first marriage there since 1995.
The ceremony was approved as a one-time exception by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, who granted special permission in honor of the workers who helped resurrect the 12th-century masterpiece.
Despite its revered status as a well-known landmark and tourist attraction over the centuries, the cathedral has hosted surprisingly few weddings, making last weekend's nuptials an even more rare and memorable event.
Weddings at Notre-Dame are exceedingly rare because the cathedral is not a parish church and does not normally conduct sacraments for individual couples.
As the seat of the Archbishop of Paris and a national monument, it serves primarily as a site for major religious and state ceremonies — Masses, funerals, and national commemorations — rather than private events.
Only the archbishop can authorize a wedding there, and such dispensations have been granted just a handful of times in its 860-year history.
The cathedral was devastated by a 2019 fire that destroyed much of the original roof and spire. Lorenz was part of the team of carpenters who utilized medieval tools and methods to reconstruct the damaged portions of the church.
If there was anyone who deserved to have an exception made it would be Lorenz.
Must have been a lot of hard work, but it apparently paid off with scoring a sweet wedding venue.
Congrats to the happy couple!
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