When there’s two ceremonies (eg. civil & religious/ secular), I always choose to show one only, to maintain a good consistency and make it easier for the reader to understand what’s happening. Today however, sorry but I couldn’t get rid of one single moment of their day; it looks like the newly weds thought about everything to make it extra special! They wanted a creative wedding, where everybody could enjoy themselves, they wanted people to gather for a joyful moment.. and I think they pretty much nailed this! Also, I encourage you to read the story of how they met, maybe my preferred one so far. Photography by Céline Hamelin (YES the same Céline who’s offering a free couple session in New York, it’s still time to participate!).

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It was the very beginning of Spring 2005… Both of us, still strangers one for another, were celebrating the end of the exam time. A few glasses of rosé, some wanderings and a bit of luck later, there we were, in the same night club.

Just an ordinary story, until Cupidon had some fun with us… that night, he took the shape of a 40 year-old, with glittering eyes and an unsteady gait. The guy grabbed my harm, kindly took me to a group of girls and called one of them: “I-dont-know-who, let me introduce you to I-dont-know-who!”. He then laughed out loud and left our lives forever, though he never knew he actually changed them forever.

First eye contact. First time we see each other. Then came our first smile, our first laugh and first laughter. Our first words exchanged… and our first kiss!… So yes, we had the chance to meet Cupidon that night and all we know is he hadn’t been taking it quite easy on mead!!!

Name one thing you regret…

Nothing we deeply regret, besides the dessert buffet maybe… We let a dedicated confectioner handle it, but didn’t really check whether the caterer knew exactly what he had to do with it. As a result, the dessert table was prepared by the caterer without the confectioner being there, and it didn’t really matched our expectations in terms of presentation.

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

Our invites, designed and created by us two and more generally, all the little paper details we did ourselves; the save the date video that we made (thanks to our friends for the camerawork); the unforgettable bachelor & bachelorette party; on the D day, the outdoor ceremony—under the old oaks, listening to the musics that made our story, the triplet, bubbles, some friends playing for us, the wind, and us two faintly exchanging our vows in front of a moved audience…—until now, the most beautiful 30 minutes of our lives! We’re also really happy about the implication of our friends, everybody enjoyed what we had prepared, which created a great atmosphere during the whole week-end.

The word of the photographer.

I knew from the beginning on that we would get on well together. Fred is voluble and a lot of fun, Leslie’s always smiling and caring. Two people that are really great together, with tons of ideas in their heads and tons of travels in their photo albums (the first night, we were talking Island and NYC for an hour drinking wine!), and a lot of “handy” energy! They spent nights and weekends of the past year inventing everything, creating, printing, sharing, antiquing… We got to know each other better during a fantastic photo shoot on an Eiffel bridge with their favorite objects… We had a lot of fun during their bachelor and bachelorette party where I was invited to by their friends… which ended up in a wonderful shoot on the beach… And then the D day, bucolic and fresh, lots of emotions, attentions and surprises for their guests. Authenticity, originality & happiness! What else?…