We could have started with « Émilie & Stéphane, wedding photo and video duo based in Grenoble. » But honestly, that doesn’t say much about us. So here’s the real version.

Lyon, February 2017. We met at a climbing wall.

I (Émilie) had just come back from Australia and decided to settle in Lyon without really knowing why. I’d found a decent job and thought it might shake off the post-travel blues. Stéphane had been there forever. A mutual friend introduced us almost by chance, and it didn’t exactly get off to a smooth start. The beginning was a little complicated, as good stories often are. But we found our way. A year later, we bought two one-way tickets to New Zealand.

Six months in. Lost somewhere in the North Island, we decided to spend our whole lives together.

After a day charged with emotion, we got engaged. Just like that, a little on impulse, after a casual « you might as well put a ring on it » from me and an « absolutely, let’s do it » from Stéphane. We found the ring at an antique dealer in Wellington afterwards, and it fit perfectly on the first try. That’s roughly how the best decisions get made.

The Vosges, June 2021. The last weekend of lockdown.

We got married with fewer than twenty people, and honestly, it was incredible (Covid was still very much around). People are often afraid to trim their guest list, but when you’re forced to, you realize pretty quickly that a small gathering can be something truly special. Tents set up in the field in front of a little inn tucked away in a wild valley in the Vosges, a campfire in the evening, a vegetarian meal, a hike through the woods on Saturday afternoon. No complicated seating plan, handmade decorations, and the people who truly mattered. That wedding changed everything about how we look at other people’s weddings. Of course, we would have loved to have more guests, but Covid meant we had to scale down, and we refused to postpone. In the end, it was perfect.

And then Stéphane decided to join the adventure.

I (Émilie) had been photographing weddings since 2019, on my own, and things were going well. But I was looking for a partner to offer a combined photo & video experience. In late 2022, Stéphane, who had been working in the cycling industry, offered to become my full-time videographer. He didn’t say it like a passing idea. He said it like a decision already made, and it showed. He arrived with his cameras, his ear for sound, and a way of seeing things that’s different from mine, which, as it turns out, is exactly what we needed. We genuinely complement each other.

Today, The Clercs is the two of us, together at every wedding, one eye on photo, one eye on video, and eight years of shared life that mean we often don’t need words to understand each other on the ground.

Why this job?

Because it’s alive and creative. And because it gives us an excuse to spend all our time together.
What could be better than spending as much of your life as possible with the person you love most?

We photograph and film weddings because a wedding is a day unlike any other, and it deserves to be kept exactly as it was. Not retouched, not staged. Just real.

If you’re here, you’re probably planning yours. And we hope we get to be part of it.

Want to learn more about us? Visit our dedicated page.

Émilie & Stéphane