“SO, this is a long review but very well worth it! We got married in New York City over Fourth of July weekend and had a big brunch party the day after the wedding. We had a build-your-own cream cheese shmear and bagel bar along with a "design your own tea bar," and we really wanted the tea station to be the centerpiece of the brunch.
My vision was for the brunch to feel like a mix of NYC and Paris. I know Paris isn't necessarily known for tea like London is, but I trusted my vision because of all the beautiful "salons de thé" in Paris. I wanted guests to have something refreshing, elegant, and a little unexpected with breakfast.
I found Maison Gabrielle on Instagram after seeing they created the signature tea for the HĂ´tel Martinez in Cannes. My now husband and I had stayed there on our pre-wedding trip, and I remember thinking, "How cool would it be if they were part of our wedding too?" At the time they weren't even on Zola, so I'm so happy they are now because more couples need to know about them.
Our first exchange was so great! They were very upfront with us that timing was a bit short notice - but they would make it work as best as possible. We ordered cartons of their French Breakfast, Vanilla, Earl Grey and Green tea bags for our bartender to serve both iced and hot. We even had fruits, herbs, and different infusions set out so guests could customize their tea. To my surprise, almost everyone drank the teas exactly as they came. They didn't need anything extra, which really says something about the quality. We had so many people tell us it was the best tea they'd ever had.
We also wanted to give every guest tea bags to take home in little organza sachets as an extra favor. Maison Gabrielle normally only does the sachets this with their gift tins, but when we shared our idea, they absolutely loved it and made every single sachet for us. We honestly thought we'd be sitting there assembling them ourselves, so this was such an amazing surprise. It saved us hours and hours of work, and any bride or groom knows how valuable that time is during wedding week.
We had about 85 guests at brunch and ordered about six boxes of each tea, which was perfect. I wish we bought more though so we have years of stock. :-D The tea bar ended up being one of the most unique parts of our wedding weekend and something people still talk about. Maison Gabrielle made everything feel so elegant, chic, and special, but more importantly, they made us feel genuinely taken care of. They cared about our vision as much as we did, and that meant the world to us. I truly can't recommend them enough.”
