How Angelina Jolie Honored Her Mom at Her Wedding

By Mary Green

@MaryGreen1969

09/02/2014 AT 03:30 PM EDT

Though she was surrounded by her family and closest friends, Angelina Jolie was missing one very special person when she walked down the aisle on Aug. 23: her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away in 2007 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive new cover story, the actress reveals how she, Brad Pitt and their family remembered her mother during the intimate, joyful ceremony at their French estate, Château Miraval.

“Brad had a dedication to Marcheline engraved inside the chapel where we stood,” Jolie tells PEOPLE, and the couple stood on a special stone with a tribute etched onto it when they officially said “I do.”

In addition, Jolie, 39, and her brother James Haven honored Bertrand by wearing pieces of her jewelry. “I also wore a little flower ring that was hers, and Jamie wore an angel pin from her jewelry box,” Jolie says.

The actress was very close to her mother, telling PEOPLE following her death at age 56 that she was her “best friend.” Jolie and Haven added, “There are no words to express what an amazing woman and mother she was.”

More recently, when she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award before the Oscars last year, Jolie credited her mother for inspiring her philanthropic work. “She believed nothing would mean anything if you didn’t lead a life that was of use to others,” Jolie said.

For Brad and Angelina’s complete wedding album, all the details of their big day and more of the couple’s interview, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Wednesday