Music | You May French Kiss The Bride

Oct 2013

Swann + Julien

An Exotic French Wedding, Sun & Percussions

After 20 years as a banker, Sylvain quit his job to start a whole new career as a photographer. And he got noticed! It’s only quite recently that he decided to specialize in weddings. I discovered his work when he contacted me, and I was keeping this lucky find for me since then like a little treasure. I am now super happy to let you discover his work also. I think he really (reeeally) has a special eye and style, very different from what we usually see in the wedding photography world (in French I would have said—and probably sounded cheesy doing so—that he’s like “a diamond in the rough” but I’m not sure this makes any sense in English!). Anyway, this guy’s available to shoot your wedding in 2014… or later! Now let’s focus on the wedding. What to say? I just love this couple!! The energy of those people (all of them!), the live music… And, isn’t it crazy to look at those pictures and imagine this was shot in France? Wow. Ok, I think you got it, I’m impressed. Photography: Sylvain le Lepvrier.

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The wedding took place on the 3rd of August 2013, in Visan and then Grignan, France.

We met at high school 9 years ago, where we were attending the same math class; we were only 16 and 19 years old! We got engaged 5 years ago… and then finally set the wedding date 2 years ago. Well, let’s just say we took the time to think! :)

Name one thing you regret…

Should we do it all over again, we would hire a wedding planner for the day. I have to say there’s a lot that need to be taken care of and I guess not many people want to deal with the caterer on the day of their wedding, asking him to bring one more plate on the very last moment or to go take non-alcoholic drinks for the thirsty kids.

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

We’re happy we had a party on the Friday evening with the guests already there. We didn’t really want this at first and decided to do something quite improvised with around 50 persons. In the end, we got to relax and enjoy some precious extra time with our dearest friends. In the next morning, it seemed there were only bad news anyway, so this evening was a real blessing! We went to bed at 00:30 with a smile on our faces – best friends and beers, the perfect combination!

The word of the photographer.

What can I say about that day, when the bride and groom are giving you “carte blanche”, when you look right and see Guyana, you look to the left and there is China, and then suddenly Martinique? All this in the gorgeous setting of the Enclave des Papes and this Jimmy Hendrix song that would not leave me, I can assure you that Paradise isn’t very far away…

Well she’s walking through the clouds, With a circus mind, That’s running wild, Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams, And fairly tales, That’s all she ever thinks about… Fly away, little wing.

May 2013

Sonia + Tony

Parisian Jazz Musician Wedding

If I say Paris, you’ll probably start telling me how beautiful the city is, you’re gonna mention one of those famous jazz clubs and the way all couples look so in love everywhere… But you know how it is when you actually live in such a place; you don’t really take the time to enjoy these little things that seem to make the city so special to everyone, and end up thinking all those stuff are for tourists. But when I was preparing this blog post it hit me again: Paris is fabulous! And if you like all the clichés about this city, you’re probably gonna enjoy this post.

Second, when you’re preparing your wedding and decide to go for a music themed wedding because, say, you’re both musicians, there are many options. One of them is to put miniature instruments on your tables, old vinyl records in a corner, and all kind of music-related details you can think of. Which is great. One other choice is to decide to live your theme and be the detail that will make your wedding so special: Sonia and Tony rented a houseboat to host their party, had a very intimate/ jazzy atmosphere, and during the night, started an ox with some musician friends of them! Now how does that second option sound? Photos: Photography by Winter.

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Let me tell you a bit more about today’s couple, or even better, let the bride tell us a bit more about them.

We’re both jazz musicians and met at a concert organised by the Conservatoire. At the end of the repetition, we went to a restaurant and I found myself in front of Tony at the table. After 2 minutes, he said something really funny and quite unexpected. I looked up… a few weeks after we were inseparable, and here we are now beating all odds (we were both against marriage) a bit more than 5 years after that night, married! Never say never, as for me, I even had a veil.

And here’s about all those “music-related” moments of the day.

In the end it was an artists’ wedding – we had MC friends rapping a very beautiful text at the city hall (they even managed to involve Tony and everyone ended up following their lead), and my friends from the batucada waited for us outside with their drums and literally set the court of the city hall on fire! On the houseboat later that night we played a few songs with our friends who brought their instruments, and our dear friend Chris—DJ and funk singer—made everyone dance like mad to songs inherited from the 60s… This is what I like to call a party.

Name one thing you regret…

No regret! Everything was as we wanted it to be.

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

It was a wedding with a lot of friends and very few family members, which is what we wanted. Our families were the best: no pressure, no expectation, no one telling us what to do. We really appreciated that, even if this may be the result of long years of “we’ll never get married” speeches… But still, it was a quite unconventional wedding in the sense that we got rid of everything that didn’t make sense to us: no paper invitation but an email instead, no traditional sugar-almonds, no wedding cake, no church, no wedding list, no seated dinner, no table map, no folding paper crane workshop… The least possible stress for a maximum of pleasure, that was our idea. (But hey, I’m not saying we didn’t work on that wedding!)

Nov 2012

Tuuli + Teet

Amazing Couple Session with a Cow

For all countryside lovers, animal lovers, photography lovers, and oh well, everyone else, because this is huge! Amazing couple session by Mait Jüriado, from Estonia! There are some people we’d actually like to know; Tuuli and Teet, I think we could be friends.

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Teet is a musician in a band called Jäääär, in which Tuuli appears as a guest performer from time to time. And these are their wedding pictures, taken in Viru-Jaagupi, in the North-East of Estonia. You may also rapidly notice Allu, a regular at beauty contests.

Allu was trained to walk for shows hence chosen for this shooting. You may be disappointed to not find any information about the dress and headpiece, but maybe as me, you’ll like Tuuli’s concept of a wedding dress:

As we liked the idea of our wedding being a natural part of our life and not something standalone, we thought that it would be great if we could use our clothes later on as well. My dress was combined – it was two-part, the upper part being purchased from a little wooden shop in my hometown Pärnu about 4 years ago (with no intention of wearing it at my wedding) and the skirt sewn by my mother-in-law a few weeks before our wedding party. My headband was almost improvisational, a thin silky scarf that I tied around my hair.

I think I love her dress even more now!