Share Your Wedding- Une Poignee D’Amour

Hello! Welcome to Share Your Wedding, a weekly feature that gives you the chance to re-live your wedding day and may just give soon-to-be–weds some inspiration.

This week we have an invitation to Marion’s wedding. Marion blogs over at Une Poignee D’Amour and can be found on Twitter so go say hi!

Hi Marion! Introduce us to your family. 

Matthew and I tied the knot in July 2014 in beautiful Devon where we had a Franco-Welsh wedding. We are currently expecting our first baby due mid- May (honeymoon baby – Made in Malysia!)

Let’s set the scene..

How did you meet?

We met in a bar called Mumbai Blu in Leamington Spa – it’s called ‘Loose Box’ these days it’s gone a bit down hill!

Matt says he tried to talk to me several times but I ignored him. He thought I was quite hard work but he persevered and eventually challenged me to a dance off. He treated me to his interpretation of ‘the robot’ and I must have liked it because the rest is history…

How long have you known each other?

We met in March, 6 years ago

How did he propose?

We took a month off two years ago to go travelling around South East Asia. I had no idea he was going to propose. We went to Cambodia, Thailand, Lao and Vietnam and he kept the ring in his pocket throughout the whole month… I can’t believe I didn’t notice. On the last day of our trip, we treated ourselves to a night in a 5 star hotel in Ho Chi Minh. After spending 24 hours on a train, I was looking forward to a nice bath. I started running the bath and I could hear him shout for me from the living room in the suite we’d booked. I panicked and ran over to see him down on one knee hold his grand mother engagement ring. I got really emotional, it was so sweet. I am french so I made him do it again after he’d done it in english, bless him! Then he told me he’d ask for my dad’s blessing before he proposed, I couldn’t stop crying, I was so happy.

How long were you engaged before you were married?

18 months.

Share Your Wedding

When did you get married?

18th July 2014

How many guests, bridesmaids etc did you have?

We had just over 100 guests, 4 bridesmaids, 4 ushers, 2 best men, a flower girl and a guard of honour made of Matt’s best mates from the Navy

Tell us about the Venue: Day / Evening

We got married at St Werburgh church in Wembury in Devon. The church is stunning, located on a cliff overlooking the sea. The reverend made a real effort to make it inclusive for everyone so she translated bits of the ceremony into French for the french guests. I got emotional and started crying the minute I walked down the aisle! We took a few pictures outside the church and headed to our venue, the Moorland Garden Hotel in Devon. A beautiful venue on the moors with acres of land and lots of wildlife. We had a drinks reception whilst we took pictures then moved inside for a three course meal and speeches. We hired a photobooth which everyone enjoyed whilst also going mad on the dance floor. The wedding carried on the next day with a big bbq and outdoor games.

Did your wedding have a certain style?

My husband is Welsh and I am French so we already had a bit of a theme going on. Everything as pretty much translated which was nice for everyone. We organised games at the table to break the ice and all the decorations were handmade by my mum and I. That saved us a lot of money and the result was fantastic

Tell us about the most important thing, the Dress?

I had a very precise idea in mind of the kind of dress I wanted. I desperately looked for a very low back lacy dress but couldn’t find quite the right one. After having tried on about 30 dresses, I discovered the designer Sophia Tolli and fell in love with one

of her dresses. The back wasn’t as low as I would have liked it to be but the rest of the dress was just exactly as I wanted it.

Description of your Wedding, as brief or as descriptive as you’d like, flowers, clothes, food, speeches, gifts?

We went for a traditional wedding with a ceremony at the church and followed by a sit down meal. My husband being in the Navy, he really wanted to get married in his uniform, get his navy friends involved and have guard of honour as we stepped out of the church. It was beautiful and everyone loved it, especially the French guests!

The fact that half our guests were French and half British made the whole wedding highly entertaining with everyone getting involved and trying out their language skills on each other. My dad did his speed in French, translated into English by a very dear friend and made everyone cry. My husband put a lot of effort into his speech and did it in both languages which impressed everyone followed by the best men which were both touching and entertaining.

The whole wedding was fairly simple with handmade decorations. I made all bouquets out of paper (apart from mine!), we had little paper birds floating around, DIY favours, etc. We opted for a stack of cheeses for our wedding cake.

My husband’s friend is a DJ so he took over after the meal and we partied until the early hours of the morning. We ended up on stage with best men, ushers and bridesmaids. People loved the photo booths and the fact they got to keep the photos as a memory of the wedding.

Everyone stayed onsite so we all had breakfast together the next day and then organised a BBQ on the grounds of the hotel and played games all afternoon, rugby, giant jenga, twister, etc. It was so much fun. The sun stayed with us all weekend.

What was your favourite part of your Wedding?

It is such a hard question! I loved it all. I loved getting ready in the suite with my bridesmaids. I loved the ride in the car with my dad all the way to the church. I loved taking the time every now and then to step back and seeing how much fun everyone was having. I love my first dance with my dad which got very emotional then my first dance with my husband on ‘let’s stay together’ by Al Green. I had a blast on stage dancing like mad with everyone. It was just all so perfect.

What extra touches made it special for you both?

We felt so grateful and touched that so many people had travelled from far away to come to our wedding. My parents did a 12 hour detour in France to pick up my gran and bring her to our big day. It meant a lot to us having her with us. I was worried that people would find it difficult to get on considering the language barrier but I was wrong. If anything, it made the day extra special as everyone played the game and talked with each other.

Did anything not go as planned? Any funny stories?

A few things didn’t go according to plan but nothing major went wrong. Some people couldn’t make it last minute and we also had extra guests but the venue was amazing and very accommodating so it didn’t cause any problem. We ran late for everything but again the venue went with the flow.

Would you do anything differently with hindsight?

No, it was all perfect. I just wish we could do it every year! Thankfully we have got an amazing video of it all so we can dive into it whenever we feel nostalgic.

What song did you or your wife walk into and what was your first dance song?

I walked down the aisle on Pachelbel’s in canon D.

The first dance with my dad was “I loved her first” by Heartland and then “Let’s stay together” by Al green with my husband.

Do you have any advice for the soon to be married?

Have fun with it. Do not get influenced by others in your choices and go with what you like, what reflects you and your partner’s relationship. On the day, leave any worry aside and be fully in the moment. Take time to step back with your partner a few times throughout the day and observe what’s going on, take it all in, savour it. It goes so fast…

Where did you go on honeymoon?

We went away for a month. We started in Bangkok, Thailand, cycled down to Koh Tao where we stayed for a week in the most relaxing and beautiful resort. We then got the sleeper train across to Malaysia and travelled all the way down to Singapore, with two stops on the islands on the East Coast. I fell pregnant the last week of our trip! Honeymoon baby 🙂

Is there anything else you would like to share about your wedding?

No – I just wish we could do it all again (without all the costs!)

Wow what a beautiful wedding, the photos are stunning! And how exciting you are having a honeymoon baby!! Not long to go now, I hope you are all ready for baby’s arrival 🙂

Thank you so much Marion for sharing your wedding with us all!