Sunday, July 08, 2007

A French Wedding

07/07/07 was a popular date for wedding in France. We attended one and it was fun.

The wedding started at 3pm. The bride arrived with her father outside the Town Hall. (My MIL was very surprised that the Malaysian wedding start in the morning)


They had first their civil wedding inside the Town Hall, getting ready to sign the official marriage contract.


It followed by a church wedding. This was the part where the priest directed them to ask each other the big question. I felt weird that the couple actually have to say the full sentence (xxx, do you want to take me as your husband for the rest of your life?...) instead of the priest. It's like a dialogue in a movie and they are the actor and actress of the day.


They are finally husband and wife! Now start the photo session. They took photos with everybody and it took a long time to finish.


I really like this gown, white with red flowers, a good match.


After the photo session, they have the vin d'honneur, something like appetizer before the real wedding dinner. There were more downing patisseries


We finally got seated at around 7pm. The hall is decorated with the red and white hortensia, the term colour of the wedding. You can find hortensia in every corner of this region.


The feast started with my favorite foie gras, this one is really really good.


I ate quite some appetizer, so I was full at this point. The salmon was very good but I only managed to eat half.


In between meal, people sing. The first song was sang by the grandmother of the bride. When she finished, all the men in the hall went to kiss her. So every times a woman sing, the men in the room went to kiss her, and vice versa.


The second main course was steak and french fries. I only managed to eat some french fries. That's the problem with the French dinner, there is just too much food!!!


We had games during the meal, and this time each table has to follow the DJ of the night for a song with gesture.


The dessert. Those were real cakes, the French told me. Yes, not those fake one like during wedding in Malaysia. I was so embarrassed.


The cake was very good especially the raspberry sauce. I finished it all after making some space in my stomach.


At around 12.30am, we started dancing. As usual the couple led the first dance. I left soon after the dances as I was extremely tired at that point. The French wedding last too long time compared to the Malaysian one. My husband and her friends got back to hotel only at 6am in the morning.

7 comments:

  1. I really like French wedding dresses - I think it's nice that they usually have a touch of color on them, instead of always being all white or cream like they are in the US.

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  2. Anonymous12:59 AM

    WOW finish at 6 am the next day?!

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  3. Our wedding start at 11am. I think our church service lasted about 1 1/2 hrs :) (lighting of candle, walking down the hall, sermon, singing of hymns, exchange vow and ring). After the service, we have photograph session and proceed to the hall for makan :). A Chinese restaurant catered our lunch. After makan, we hanged around till 7pm cos most of dh friends flew in from out of state.

    European weddings are grander :)-. I have a gf whose mom is Germans, she has her reception dinner from 6pm to 6am the next day ! Her mom family flew all the way from Germany, they dance (everyone from grandma to cousins). Most Americans friends left after 10pm :).

    I have a lot of good friends who are Greeks and Italians while I was in Aust. Their weddings were very grand and lots of family and relatives :):).

    Europeans have quite different culture from Americans (even though many of them were from Europe long time ago but living in America definitely have changed them). My husband maternal ancestry is from France but no where they are near French culture.!

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  4. The wedding looks like it was fun! So much food! We got married in Melbourne but had a half western, half Asian wedding. The food was Chinese (naturally!) but the ceremony bit was western (ie. no tea ceremony etc). And I had a red wedding dress!

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  5. Anonymous9:54 AM

    Samantha,
    I agreed with you, it's very nice to have some colour on the gown beside white.

    kuanhoong,
    Yes, people dance until early in the morning. French wedding is tiresome for me bcos it started at 3pm and it lasted until the second morning.

    Jamy,
    I think American prefer to spend the time in more meaningful stuffs like earn money isn't it?

    colourmecrazy,
    Hey one day you need to show your red wedding gown, I'm curious now. I have seen one French wedding with pink gown and the groom wore in pink tie and suit.

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  6. U think that is meaningful ? "spend the time in more meaningful stuffs like earn money isn't it?"
    I think they are less tradition lah.

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  7. Yes I think earning money is meaningful in my situation. Of course we need entertainment, but a wedding that start from 3pm and finished at 6am, plus second day have the retour de noce, that means the whole weekend you spend just for the wedding.

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