14
Nov 2013

Cynthia + Arnaud 2

French DIY Forest Wedding – Part 2

If you haven’t been here this morning, then you’ve missed part one of this forest wedding. Don’t look any further, you need to see part one first. My sister already said a lot of things about her wedding, so maybe it’s my turn now. It was a lot of fun preparing this wedding, though I may have done a bit too much, I don’t know… you tell me!! Photography by Mait Jüriado.

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You may see tarps on some pictures, you know, those plastic sheetings… It rained. And, it was freezing. It’s actually funny: I took a few days off before the wedding to get the place ready and the whole week, there was a beautiful warm sun. We were sitting there in the late afternoon the whole week, thinking “What a beautiful light we’re gonna have at this time of the day!”.

We’re not stupid folks, I mean, wedding in the woods, end of August, France…. the chances that the weather was going be kind were small. So we booked some tents, you know, just in case. But until the previous day, the weather forecast was sun + hot, so we cancelled the reservation!

On the Saturday morning, we woke up to a grey sky, and I’m not maintaining any suspense here, it just got worse; the guests were supposed to arrive at 5pm, it started raining at 4. Fortunately, by the time it was 5, it stopped, and we still could have the ceremony outside! It wasn’t only misfortune though, as the sky was mostly threatening but barely any rain drops fell in the end.

Besides the beautiful rays of sunlight we did not have, rain didn’t waste the day. The other problem we had to face, as if risk of rain ruining everything wasn’t enough, was the cold. My mum had a brilliant idea though: my grandmother used to knee lots of sweaters for us, and my mother thought it would be a good idea to bring them all, in case the people staying late would end up feeling cold (just a lesson learned from our own wedding!). We didn’t imagine we would need them at 8pm, but still, we’re happy we had them. And the good thing is, there was a chimney that we thought it would be weird to use… Well, it wasn’t at all!

 

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There’s another particularity in these pictures: wolves. I guess you don’t see that very often at weddings! The whole wolves thing was actually decided very late. Everything started from a joke between the photographer Mait, my sister and I. When she accidentally said she wanted wolves at her wedding, I kept thinking how I was going to make an allusion to that joke when I finally had an idea.

I think it took me a few reassuring & supporting phone calls before I had the courage to expose my plan to all the guests… I had the feeling it was either super cool or super lame but I didn’t know exactly which one of the two it would be. The idea was to make the most possible guests wear a wolf mask and learn a choreography to Michael Jackson’s Thriller song. But that’s not it. They would have to hide somewhere in the forest without my sister and Arnaud noticing, and then slowly approach as the music began, to be on the dance floor precisely for the beginning of the choreography. Ahem. I was impressed by how many of them thought the idea was good!

I won’t lie to you though, it looks great on pictures and all, but nobody knew exactly what to do (even me, who was supposed to lead the group!), we couldn’t see through the mask holes, which clearly didn’t help, and didn’t make it to the dance floor the first time! But it was so much fun!!!! And it doesn’t look that bad on the pictures, doesn’t it?

 

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You can see even more pictures on the photographer’s blog here.

05
Aug 2013

Aurore + Jérôme

A French Wedding in Estonia with the Best Bride Entrance Ever!

Mait was one of the first photographers to appear on the blog, but I never get tired of checking out his latest releases. There’s a lot of softness in his pictures and the result on a wedding like Aurore and Jérôme’s is just fantastic. This couple is French, but had their wedding in Estonia; a wedding by the sea, with guests enjoying the day on the spot, and a bride and groom who chose to enjoy themselves rather than spend time on decoration and setting. And when the time for the ceremony had come, there was an old wooden viking boat… and the bride’s uncle back! Photography by Mait Jüriado.

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The wedding took place in Tallin and Kasmu, Estonia. It was a 4 days wedding in an old soviet summer camp with 140 relatives and friends from all around the world (4 countries were represented). You may already have seen the little sneak peek of this wedding I posted on Facebook, so here’s the story about the bride arriving at the ceremony place on her uncle’s back and everybody taking off their pants!

As we both come from the seaside in France, we decided to arrive on a boat to the ceremony place. We asked our relative to raw the drakkar, viking boat… The captain told us that he could drop us 3 meters away from the beach. But it appeared that we were too heavy on the boat and we got stuck 20 meters away from the beach… My uncle was the first one to take off his pants and he tried to move the boat… WE WERE STUCK!  It took me less that a minute to ask  him to carry me on his back to the shore! Which he did! Then all the family followed in underpants! What a JOKE!

 

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Name one thing you regret…

Nothing to regret… it happened as it should happen… naturally smoothly with lots of serenity and happiness! Of course I could have taken more times to set up the decoration… lot of stuff stayed in the boxes! But we preferred to play tennis, golf or to paddle on our SUP on the D-day than to set up the decoration! but thanks to our family and friend we finally had the time to set up the half of it in less than two hours!

 

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… And one thing you’re really happy about/ proud of.

To gather all our dearest family and friends for 4 days in a charming place in a lovely country! It was very nice to spent so much time with our guests!

 

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The word of the photographer.

As a photographer I am used to see so many wedding styles, dresses, decorations, etc. And sometimes, there’s too much of everything put into just one day. The more simple and home-made it is the more I love it. Aurore and Jérôme’s wedding was so far one of the simplest weddings I attended this year, but one of the nicest. Less is more in a way. For instance, Aurore’s hairstyle and makeup in the forest grove took about 15 minutes – amazing! She got ready on the beach, they all entered a boat to reach the shore—her uncle was carrying the bride on his back—and the flowers were picked from the nearby fields. The ceremony was emotionally speeches-rich and the natural light was perfect on the location – blue rainy background with sunlight. In Estonia it’s sometimes very common to have up to a few hours for couple pictures. With Aurore and Jérôme I had only 15 minutes, which can be really tricky as of course of would love to get as much times as possible, but with this kind of scenery and with this couple, 15 minutes was just perfect. Wedding days can be really really busy but their wedding was like a slow journey. Everybody had time. Like on vacation. I wish I could photograph some more two-(or more)-days weddings.

 

Aurore + Jérôme
04
Mar 2013

Lauren + James

Real Extravaganza Circus Wedding!

If there’s someone here who, deep down inside, still thinks weddings are boring and out of trend, this HAS GOT to be the one wedding that will shut this little voice up forever and turn you into a pro-marriage activist. This, my dear friends, is simply the most unique wedding I got to see and maybe feature in a very long time. Lauren wrote, We don’t like cliches or stereo types and we like things to be fun. Wearing a white dress was not part of my life dream. (…) James’ background is Singaporean Chinese, so the format we chose really pushed the boundaries and conventions as far as weddings go!! Actually, no need to be Singaporean Chinese to realize that boundaries were pushed — and you know we love that. Photography by the amazing Australia-based (but available for some May & June weddings or else in Europe/ France—reservations start now!) photographer Lakshal Perera.

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I know this shouldn’t be that exceptional, but Lauren proposed to James, and I think I haven’t seen that before, at least not since I’m running the blog. From Lauren:
The engagement happened on 29th of February 2012 in a reasonably non-conventional way. After living together for 11 years, I decided to propose to James by hanging a 13 metre poster across a freeway overpass leading into the city. He didn’t crash the car… and he did say “yes”.

 

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OK, I know that’s all you’re waiting for, so here’s about the circus theme.

After we became engaged, we threw around some ideas and very quickly settled on the circus theme. The more research and people I spoke to the more exciting it became. It wasn’t without some resistance from the traditionalists, but I guess people had 11 months to ask some questions and embrace the idea.

Everyone, including our guests, were in costume. During the evening all things were circus. Food presented in theme, the MC Heidi (miss Amour) was stunning and entertaining. Our events company showcased the various acts, with an umbrella foot juggler, an aerialist / contortionist who can hoola hoop,  and the “muscle boys” performed a comedy and athletic balancing routine. Just spectacular.

 

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Name one thing you regret… Maybe that sounds a bit of an unnecessary question, doesn’t it? Let’s just go on with more stories from Lauren and James’ circus wedding, because I don’t know you, but I can’t get enough.

We choose the traditional bits of a wedding we liked, like entertaining and heart felt speeches, being walked down the aisle by my Dad, the Chinese Yum seng, and a fabulous band and ditched the bits we didn’t. As promised, our Jack Russell dog, Milo Dinosaur, delivered the rings with her 6 year old assistants (the animal tamers) and even barked in response to the crowd’s round of applause.

 

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… And one thing you’re really happy about / proud of.

In terms of the Wedding day, we held both the ceremony and the reception at the same venue, doing photos the day before, something I would recommend to brides to be. I loved the way people got involved and proud of how the event unfolded and was just as we had envisioned it. Our friends and family really went to a great deal of effort to help with the festivities leading up to the event, making invites, a piece of art for decoration, a kissing booth, hen’s and buck’s nights and the list goes on. A lot of thought and effort went into costumes and the response to the invitation calling for “Dress: creative circus” was met with great creativity indeed.  The kissing booth seemed fitting for a wedding and has now become a feature of the venue. The later part of the night attracted greater participation in the booth!… and Lucky our photographer was able to capture it all through his lens.

 

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More pictures on the photographer’s blog here!

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You May French Kiss the Bride

You May French Kiss the Bride is a creativity-stimulating website for crazy-in-a-good-way photographers and couples. We are Joana and Marcio and we think you’re the best. Be in love. Be yourself—and let it spill over the web!

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• Have a cool idea for the next theme? Email us!

 Next themed post: (French) kiss.