Veronique & Gary’s french countryside wedding; an elopement wedding
“would you be happy to fly to france in august to shoot our wedding?” i couldn’t say oui fast enough! veronique & gary’s wedding was the perfect way to finish the summer wedding season, and an insight in to the awesome french way of doing things.
it was a wedding in three parts, as the couple had a traditional church wedding, then a register signing to cover the legal bits in another location, before the coup de grace – the party!
stage 1 was the legal bit, which was a more relaxed affair and allowed the guests to have a chat, a lovely bit of anglo-francais mingling. although lacking the grandeur of the church, the more intimate and relaxed setting help ease the natural nerves and tension of the day for the couple. as per usual the registrar cracked a few jokes to help…except only half of the guests could understand them! the joys of an elopement wedding.
stage 2, the church – a beautiful, traditional, almost cavernous building – some stunning and beautiful architecture with grande pulpits for the couple’s readers to project from. the symmetry of the church was great (and perfect for any wedding photographer) and produced some great shots.
stage 3 – the main event! the continental side of the wedding had stressed how a french wedding differed from an english one – much more fun, informal, and of course with epic food.
veronique and her family had spent the week decorating a village hall in her home town of l’sables-delonne, situated on some lovely countryside near a french chateau. the hall was transformed into party central – with tables laid out for all the guests ready for the 8 (eight!) courses about to be served up.
the entertainment didn’t disappoint – with powerpoint presentations, quizzes, speeches and party games played in between each course. the order of the day made it feel like one constant party rather than breakfast + dancefloor, with everyone beaming throughout the entire thing (helped by the french table wine too).
before the end of the day there was time to see another french wedding tradition – the umbrella of happiness, where the newlyweds dance under an umbrella while each guest throws paper streamers over them – of course they do! just time after this for more food (obvs) and more booze, with the best shapes being thrown out on le dancefloor. magnifique! gary & veronique – thank you for choosing me as your wedding photographer!
