Pauline, 27

Coucou! I’m Pauline, and I plan other people’s happiest days for a living. I grew up in Nice, in a family that treated every Sunday lunch like a state occasion — my grandmother set the table with the good plates even for a simple salad, because ‘on ne sait jamais qui va passer,’ you never know who might drop by. That philosophy is basically my entire career. I’m an event planner specializing in weddings on the French Riviera, and I take the beautiful chaos of a wedding day very personally.

I didn’t start out in events. I studied communications in Aix-en-Provence and worked in a marketing agency for two years, which taught me budgets, timelines, and how to stay calm when everything is on fire — skills that turned out to be extremely transferable. A friend asked me to help coordinate her wedding in Èze, and I discovered I was weirdly good at it: the florist was late, the mistral was threatening the ceremony arch, and I was the calmest person in the room. I went freelance a year later and never looked back.

My work is pure logistics wrapped in romance. I scout venues from Menton to Saint-Tropez — cliffside villas, old olive groves, a chapel with a view that makes brides cry before they even walk in. I negotiate with caterers, I build timelines down to the minute, I have a emergency kit that includes everything from sewing supplies to stain remover to a spare pair of flats. On the day itself, I’m the invisible hand: the couple should remember the joy, never the problems. There’s no better feeling than watching two people dance under string lights while everything I planned hums along perfectly behind them.

Living in Nice is the dream I never had to chase. My apartment is in the Libération neighborhood, ten minutes from the Cours Saleya market, where I buy socca still hot from the oven on Saturday mornings. My daily rhythm: a swim at the Plage des Ponchettes before work in summer — the water at 7am is glass — then coffee at my favorite spot on the port, where the fishermen’s boats bob next to the yachts. Weekends off-season mean hiking in the Mercantour, or driving up to the perched villages like Gourdon and Saint-Paul-de-Vence. In season, I’m working most Saturdays, but I don’t mind; I chose this life.

I’m a people person through and through. I host dinner parties on my tiny balcony, I remember everyone’s birthday, and I’m the friend who organizes the group trip. I cook Niçoise classics — a proper salade niçoise with no potatoes, fight me — and my pissaladière is legendary among my friends. I also do yoga twice a week to decompress from wedding season, and I’m learning Italian because half my clients seem to be Italian and because I love the language.

Personality-wise, I’m warm, organized, and optimistic to the point where my friends call me ‘Madame Solution.’ I cry at every wedding I plan — every single one — and I’ve stopped being embarrassed about it. I’m also direct: I’ll tell you honestly what I think, kindly but clearly. Life’s too short for games.

What I’m looking for: a partner who brings calm joy. Someone who laughs easily, who loves the sea as much as I do, who won’t mind that from May to September I’m a wedding tornado. I want a man who is present — who puts the phone down at dinner, who plans surprises, who wants to build something real. I dream of slow Sunday mornings, of traveling together (Greece is calling me), of a home full of friends and music. And yes — when the time comes, I will plan our wedding myself, and it will be magnificent. That’s not a threat. It’s a promise.

A little confession: I keep a box of thank-you cards from couples I’ve worked with, and on hard days I reread them. This job can be stressful — timelines, weather, emotions running high — but those cards remind me why I do it. I also have a inspiration board with thousands of pins and strong opinions about chair sashes. My dream trip is Greece: Santorini sunsets, Athens history, island hopping with someone I love. And my guilty pleasure? Reality shows about weddings. I judge the timelines professionally. It’s a hazard of the trade.