A French woman whose fiance asked her to marry him two days before he was killed in a car crash has been granted a posthumous white wedding in their village.

Magali Jaskiewicz, who has been grieving for her partner since his death a year ago, became his legal widow in a ceremony held with family and friends.

The 26-year-old, who had lived with Jonathan George for six years and had two children with him, stood beside a portrait of her late partner as the marriage rites were read in Dommary-Baroncourt in the east of France.

Under French law posthumous marriages are possible as long as evidence exists that the deceased person had the intention while alive of wedding their partner. According to Christophe Caput, the mayor who married Jaskiewicz, her request was "rock solid".

The couple had come to the town hall on 25 November last year asking to be married in January, he said. But two days later the 25-year-old groom-to-be was killed in a road accident.

"The bride had even bought her wedding dress," added Caput.

Wearing that same dress, Jaskiewicz married the father of her two daughters on Saturday. "I'm not really in the mood to celebrate," she told journalists. "We're going to drink a cup of coffee and I will thank those who have supported me."

Caput, visibly moved by the ceremony, said that the young bride had "become a widow at her wedding". Jaskiewicz, who will now take the name of her late husband, wears his ring around her neck.

Government figures show that posthumous weddings, although unusual, are not as rare as might be expected. Dozens are said to take place in France each year.