It's been awhile!
Our wedding was on Saturday, July 21st!
It was perfect!
We only did the (required) civil ceremony at the Mairie (City Hall) of the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
It went really fast!
Our wedding time was 10 a.m. We set up the meeting time to be 9:30 a.m. but the BF and I showed up at 9:45 a.m. since we had a last-minute bridal bouquet emergency (as in the florist didn't have it ready for us the night before, so we had to stop by the florist at 9:30 a.m.)
When we arrived in front of the mairie, all our guests were already gathered there, along with another wedding party.
Some guy who worked at the mairie came up to us at 9:50 a.m. and asked if our party was ready - we weren't ready yet because the FIL was parking the car. The other couple waiting outside with us went in before us, and at 9:55 a.m. we entered the mairie and posed for pictures at the bottom of the stairs while some other employee went around checking that all our witnesses were there (so, basically, total mayhem for about 3 minutes).
At 9:57 a.m. we were upstairs and had to wait outside the "Salle des Mariages", where all weddings take place. At the same time, a totally different couple (not the one waiting outside with us) came out of the salle des mariages.
9:59 a.m., they herded us into the room and assigned our seats (BF and I in the center, mothers next to the bride and groom, and the witnesses all the way over on the side of the room). Some weird guy showed up and started taking pictures - turns out he is some sort of freelance wedding photographer who takes pictures of all couples getting married at this particular mairie.
The ceremony started at 10 a.m. on the dot. The deputy mayor basically just read the marriage certificate and stated all the important wedding info (i.e. You will take care of your children together) while staring menacingly at the BF and myself. After she was done reading everything, the BF and I signed the marriage certificate, and then our witnesses signed it too.
After we signed the certificate, an employee of the mairie came around the room with a basket, asking for donations for the mairie. Minor chaos ensued, since no one had thought this would happen, thinking, rightly enough, that while this was a common practice at a church wedding, it was really unexpected that the mairie would ask for money. My MIL had to give up 10 euros, since she only had a 10 euro bill on her, and my mom had to give about 20 cents, since that was all the change she had.
The entire ceremony was over at 10:14 a.m. (according to one of my witnesses, who timed the whole thing). We posed for pictures in the room for our friends and guests, while being frantically ushered out of the room by the mairie employees. As we left the room, there were two more couples waiting outside to be married.
Then we headed outside, where we posed again for pictures in front of the mairie, which was also total chaos as there were 2 other couples waiting out in front to enter for their wedding.
All in all, the actual ceremony was quite nice, but a little surreal.
More later about the party!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Yes!
Aha!
I have managed to pull myself together for the wedding (in about 12 days!!).
I didn't get around to booking a facial, but I did manage to get my hair cut, buy a headband (I refuse to do the French tradition of wearing a gigantic hat), and booked myself a manicure/pedicure for the Friday before the wedding.
I also ordered my bouquet (white calla lilies), and a boutonnier for the BF (a white rose) and we ordered the "centerpieces" (in quotes, since it's a buffet and not very fancy at all, but we did pick out 2 different bouquets to put on the buffet table) from the small town florist near the in-laws (more on that in another post).
I decorated the bread baskets with ribbons this afternoon, and will decorate the mini vase things next week.
We picked up the dragées that we will be giving out as wedding favors to guests.
Finally, my mom arrives in Paris on Friday!!! I'm actually very nervous because my mom doesn't speak a word of French and the in-laws don't speak a single word of English. My mom has not bothered getting a phrasebook in French and the in-laws do not seem the least bit motivated to practice saying a few words in English.
I can just imagine all the awkwardness and silent dinners....
I have managed to pull myself together for the wedding (in about 12 days!!).
I didn't get around to booking a facial, but I did manage to get my hair cut, buy a headband (I refuse to do the French tradition of wearing a gigantic hat), and booked myself a manicure/pedicure for the Friday before the wedding.
I also ordered my bouquet (white calla lilies), and a boutonnier for the BF (a white rose) and we ordered the "centerpieces" (in quotes, since it's a buffet and not very fancy at all, but we did pick out 2 different bouquets to put on the buffet table) from the small town florist near the in-laws (more on that in another post).
I decorated the bread baskets with ribbons this afternoon, and will decorate the mini vase things next week.
We picked up the dragées that we will be giving out as wedding favors to guests.
Finally, my mom arrives in Paris on Friday!!! I'm actually very nervous because my mom doesn't speak a word of French and the in-laws don't speak a single word of English. My mom has not bothered getting a phrasebook in French and the in-laws do not seem the least bit motivated to practice saying a few words in English.
I can just imagine all the awkwardness and silent dinners....
Friday, July 6, 2007
J-14
So, yesterday I was on theknot.com, which is kind of like this wedding planning website. I registered with them, put in the date of the wedding, and there's this huge checklist of things to do, in addition to the site automatically counting down the days to your wedding.
Imagine my surprise when I logged on (admittedly, before yesterday, I had logged on once, and it was at J-79 days to the wedding), it said "15 days until wedding".
Yikes!!!!
I cannot believe how fast time has flown!!!!
I went through the checklist (mostly useless for this wedding, since the checklist has things like "Book photographer and videographer", "Buy garter", "Book honeymoon tickets", "Final tasting appointment for wedding cake and caterer", and "Confirm flower decorations for church". I ended up checking off all the unnecessary things on the list (like, 100 things) and now have a teensy tiny list with things like "Book manicure/pedicure" and "Final fitting for wedding dress."
I often pride myself on my organizational skills, but this time, I have realized my organizational skills are practically nil when it is about me. For example, I completely let the whole facial thing slide, so now it is too late to book a facial. I also completely forgot about the whole hairstyle thing and it is too late to book an appointment at a nice hair salon, so I am stuck going to the likes of Franck Provost or Jean-Louis David (which is all fairness, is actually not so bad, though not as great as a fancy hair salon). I literally just decided last night how I want to wear my hair, so I am going to hop over to Franck Provost and get my hair cut short, then I guess I'll need to go shopping for hair accessories. I suppose I should also book a manicure/pedicure for the day before the wedding. Oh, yes, and I have to pick out my bouquet and get ribbons for decorating it, plus the few mini vases on the tables, and for the cars.
Finally, the wedding dress is coming along beautifully - I designed the dress and gave the sketch to the SIL (she is 18, and in her first year at fashion school, and she is really good at all the technical aspects, like sewing and pattern making - she sews to relax!) who has spent the last few days sewing the dress together and trying to get it done before she went on vacation with her BF's family this morning. We ended up draping the entire dress directly on me and pinning and marking things in place - we have the sheath part of the dress completely finished, and yesterday was the next to final fitting, where we draped the other parts of the dress. I just have to say that my dress is really beautiful, and I'm very proud of the SIL for doing such a great job. She'll be back on the 16th (J-5), and so the dress should be finished by the 18th at the latest.
I absolutely cannot believe how much work goes into planning such a tiny wedding - I mean, at current count, there are 21 people, including the BF and myself.
I cannot even begin to imagine how crazy it would be to plan a normal sized wedding (by "normal sized" I mean like, 100 guests).
Though, when a wedding is normal-sized, you can totally register for gifts. To my great dismay, the BF and I are not registering, given the tiny number of guests, which would have meant that we'd have gotten 1 knife, 1 plate, and like, 2 wine glasses.
Imagine my surprise when I logged on (admittedly, before yesterday, I had logged on once, and it was at J-79 days to the wedding), it said "15 days until wedding".
Yikes!!!!
I cannot believe how fast time has flown!!!!
I went through the checklist (mostly useless for this wedding, since the checklist has things like "Book photographer and videographer", "Buy garter", "Book honeymoon tickets", "Final tasting appointment for wedding cake and caterer", and "Confirm flower decorations for church". I ended up checking off all the unnecessary things on the list (like, 100 things) and now have a teensy tiny list with things like "Book manicure/pedicure" and "Final fitting for wedding dress."
I often pride myself on my organizational skills, but this time, I have realized my organizational skills are practically nil when it is about me. For example, I completely let the whole facial thing slide, so now it is too late to book a facial. I also completely forgot about the whole hairstyle thing and it is too late to book an appointment at a nice hair salon, so I am stuck going to the likes of Franck Provost or Jean-Louis David (which is all fairness, is actually not so bad, though not as great as a fancy hair salon). I literally just decided last night how I want to wear my hair, so I am going to hop over to Franck Provost and get my hair cut short, then I guess I'll need to go shopping for hair accessories. I suppose I should also book a manicure/pedicure for the day before the wedding. Oh, yes, and I have to pick out my bouquet and get ribbons for decorating it, plus the few mini vases on the tables, and for the cars.
Finally, the wedding dress is coming along beautifully - I designed the dress and gave the sketch to the SIL (she is 18, and in her first year at fashion school, and she is really good at all the technical aspects, like sewing and pattern making - she sews to relax!) who has spent the last few days sewing the dress together and trying to get it done before she went on vacation with her BF's family this morning. We ended up draping the entire dress directly on me and pinning and marking things in place - we have the sheath part of the dress completely finished, and yesterday was the next to final fitting, where we draped the other parts of the dress. I just have to say that my dress is really beautiful, and I'm very proud of the SIL for doing such a great job. She'll be back on the 16th (J-5), and so the dress should be finished by the 18th at the latest.
I absolutely cannot believe how much work goes into planning such a tiny wedding - I mean, at current count, there are 21 people, including the BF and myself.
I cannot even begin to imagine how crazy it would be to plan a normal sized wedding (by "normal sized" I mean like, 100 guests).
Though, when a wedding is normal-sized, you can totally register for gifts. To my great dismay, the BF and I are not registering, given the tiny number of guests, which would have meant that we'd have gotten 1 knife, 1 plate, and like, 2 wine glasses.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Surprise
This wknd the BF and I had an appointment with the patissier to discuss the wedding cake.
We had already met with him sometime last month, to see if he could make at least part of the cake gluten free, due to my gluten intolerance. He confirmed that it was possible, and told us to come back when it was closer to the wedding to reserve the cake.
Now, I should point out that the patissier is a source of pride from the BF's parents. As they never tire of telling me every weekend, he is the "third best baker in all of France". (Quick explanation: in this country, every year there is a competition which unites all of the bakers and/or chefs, and every year there are several picked for the "Meilleur Ouvrier" title. "Ouvrier" means "worker" although for some reason, I keep thinking along the lines of "proletariat" and I always laugh to myself when the in-laws tell me how this patissier they picked out is the 3rd best proletariat worker in all the country).
Anyway, so we showed up on Saturday at 11 a.m. and informed the people working there that we had an appointment with the Man himself (He has his own bakery/pastry shop and a salon de thé).
Mr. Cassel (the Man himself) greeted us in a corner of his bakery and we started explaining to him what we wanted. I had brought along a copy of Martha Stewart Weddings (special color theme edition!) which has beautiful photos of cakes and decorations, to give him an idea of what the cake should look like. As I showed Mr. Cassel the photos, I said the cake should be white, with some decorations like so, and Mr. Cassel looked at the photos and shook his head. "Nope. Not possible." "What do you mean, it's not possible?" I demanded, trying not to sound like a Bridezilla. "Well, these are 'American Wedding Cakes'," he explained. "I don't have the same ingredients, so the decorations and icing will not look at all like in these photos." I felt like saying, "Dude, you're a baker and you don't have marzipan? You don't have icing tools?????" but I refrained myself. "Well, I get the idea of what you want though, but just so you know, it won't look exactly like in the pictures." "Oh," I said, mollified. "It doesn't have to be exactly the same. But similar. You know," I said. The BF interrupted: "We'd like the cake for 30 guests, so everyone can have extras, and we'd like to use some of your crystallized lavender grains or violet petals as decorations as well, since the color theme is white, with a few highlights of lavender." "Yes, okay," said Mr. Cassel, nodding enthusiastically. The BF and I exchanged a glance, since we were both starting to get worried - we had been giving Mr. Cassel a rundown of all the details for the cake, yet he was not writing one thing down. "I got it," said Mr. Cassel. "Is that all?" "Ummm...yes...." said the BF and I nervously.
Mr. Cassel then took us over to the cash register where people pay for their baguettes, and opened a large ledger. He took down our names, then noted "framboisier" (raspberry cake), then he wrote down that the top tier would be gluten free and "sauf framboises" (I detest raspberries, and had asked for something without raspberries). He also noted "American wedding cake" and "lavender/violet". We then paid Mr. Cassel for part of the cake, and confirmed the delivery time.
As we left, I said to the BF, "okay, I'm confused. So, what exactly is he going to do? He kind of noted the ideas, but didn't specify anything. What is the gluten free part going to consist of??" The BF shrugged. "All I know is that the regular part of the cake will be in raspberry. And he understood that the colors will be white and lavender." "So....we don't even get to taste any samples?" I asked. "I think he's going to sort of make it up as he makes the cake," explained the BF. "You see, he's an artist. So you're not supposed to question him. Let the artist create." "Um, okay, but what is the cake going to look like?" I asked. "I don't know. I guess it will be a surprise," shrugged the BF. "Great," I muttered. "We just ordered, like, a 200 euro cake and we don't even know what it is going to look like, and we don't even know what it's going to taste like." "I told you," the BF said, "he's an artist. You're not supposed to question an artist. "
Hmmmph. Well, I'm pretty sure the cake will be a good surprise, considering, as the in-laws pointed out yet again when we got back to their house, Mr. Cassel was voted the 3rd best proletariat worker in all of France, so surely the cake will be a good one.
I just happen to think it is hilarious that we are paying 200 euros for a surprise wedding cake.
We had already met with him sometime last month, to see if he could make at least part of the cake gluten free, due to my gluten intolerance. He confirmed that it was possible, and told us to come back when it was closer to the wedding to reserve the cake.
Now, I should point out that the patissier is a source of pride from the BF's parents. As they never tire of telling me every weekend, he is the "third best baker in all of France". (Quick explanation: in this country, every year there is a competition which unites all of the bakers and/or chefs, and every year there are several picked for the "Meilleur Ouvrier" title. "Ouvrier" means "worker" although for some reason, I keep thinking along the lines of "proletariat" and I always laugh to myself when the in-laws tell me how this patissier they picked out is the 3rd best proletariat worker in all the country).
Anyway, so we showed up on Saturday at 11 a.m. and informed the people working there that we had an appointment with the Man himself (He has his own bakery/pastry shop and a salon de thé).
Mr. Cassel (the Man himself) greeted us in a corner of his bakery and we started explaining to him what we wanted. I had brought along a copy of Martha Stewart Weddings (special color theme edition!) which has beautiful photos of cakes and decorations, to give him an idea of what the cake should look like. As I showed Mr. Cassel the photos, I said the cake should be white, with some decorations like so, and Mr. Cassel looked at the photos and shook his head. "Nope. Not possible." "What do you mean, it's not possible?" I demanded, trying not to sound like a Bridezilla. "Well, these are 'American Wedding Cakes'," he explained. "I don't have the same ingredients, so the decorations and icing will not look at all like in these photos." I felt like saying, "Dude, you're a baker and you don't have marzipan? You don't have icing tools?????" but I refrained myself. "Well, I get the idea of what you want though, but just so you know, it won't look exactly like in the pictures." "Oh," I said, mollified. "It doesn't have to be exactly the same. But similar. You know," I said. The BF interrupted: "We'd like the cake for 30 guests, so everyone can have extras, and we'd like to use some of your crystallized lavender grains or violet petals as decorations as well, since the color theme is white, with a few highlights of lavender." "Yes, okay," said Mr. Cassel, nodding enthusiastically. The BF and I exchanged a glance, since we were both starting to get worried - we had been giving Mr. Cassel a rundown of all the details for the cake, yet he was not writing one thing down. "I got it," said Mr. Cassel. "Is that all?" "Ummm...yes...." said the BF and I nervously.
Mr. Cassel then took us over to the cash register where people pay for their baguettes, and opened a large ledger. He took down our names, then noted "framboisier" (raspberry cake), then he wrote down that the top tier would be gluten free and "sauf framboises" (I detest raspberries, and had asked for something without raspberries). He also noted "American wedding cake" and "lavender/violet". We then paid Mr. Cassel for part of the cake, and confirmed the delivery time.
As we left, I said to the BF, "okay, I'm confused. So, what exactly is he going to do? He kind of noted the ideas, but didn't specify anything. What is the gluten free part going to consist of??" The BF shrugged. "All I know is that the regular part of the cake will be in raspberry. And he understood that the colors will be white and lavender." "So....we don't even get to taste any samples?" I asked. "I think he's going to sort of make it up as he makes the cake," explained the BF. "You see, he's an artist. So you're not supposed to question him. Let the artist create." "Um, okay, but what is the cake going to look like?" I asked. "I don't know. I guess it will be a surprise," shrugged the BF. "Great," I muttered. "We just ordered, like, a 200 euro cake and we don't even know what it is going to look like, and we don't even know what it's going to taste like." "I told you," the BF said, "he's an artist. You're not supposed to question an artist. "
Hmmmph. Well, I'm pretty sure the cake will be a good surprise, considering, as the in-laws pointed out yet again when we got back to their house, Mr. Cassel was voted the 3rd best proletariat worker in all of France, so surely the cake will be a good one.
I just happen to think it is hilarious that we are paying 200 euros for a surprise wedding cake.
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