Planning A Wedding In France {The Legal Ceremony}

So if you’ve been following my story you’ll know I got married this summer at the same time as planning three other weddings with my destination wedding company ​French Bague-ette​! Firstly, I would just like to say sorry for not blogging about our own wedding day sooner! It’s been a VERY busy time but an amazing first wedding season! I’m thrilled with all 4 weddings and I’m taking bookings for next year. I can’t wait to get stuck in and do it all again! You can see a recap of everything on the ​French Bague-ette instagram​.

OUR LEGAL CEREMONY

Today I’m blogging about our legal wedding ceremony which took place in the ‘Mairie’ of our little Basque village, Bidart. Although the day ended perfectly, it didn’t quite start out that way...

WEDDING DAY DISASTER!

The night before the legal ceremony Olivier and I did separate things with our friends and family. I hosted a ‘Special Ladies Dinner’ of cocktails and barbeque, Oliver went out with the boys to watch The World Cup. Just before bed he complained of stomach pains, I gave his tummy a rub but I didn’t think too much of it... A few hours later I woke up to Olivier getting dressed in the dark. He told me he was in so much pain he wanted to take himself to hospital! I swear I must have gone as white as the bed sheets! We didn’t know what was wrong with him, he was clearly in so much pain and needed a doctor. I had appendicitis, hernias, gallstones and everything else going through my mind. I thought he would be whipped in to surgery and there would be no way were were getting married the next day. It was impossible to imagine. After all the wedding planning, you could pretty much have thrown anything my way and I would have had a solution, but the groom not being able to attend the wedding had got me stumped! He insisted on going to hospital alone so that at least one of us might get some sleep (Yeah right! Of course I was awake all night worrying) By 4am he let me know that they had him on morphine and then I didn’t hear from him for a few hours. Of course I was terrified!

WILL HE MAKE IT TO THE WEDDING?

In the morning he messaged to tell me that the test results were back, he didn't have anything serious but he still wasn’t sure if he could come to the ceremony. He said I was to carry on with my day as if everything was fine and he would do his best to be there to marry me at 4pm (I heard my heart hit the floor!) After a mild panic attack I collected myself together to carry on with the plan and go to have my nails done with my bridesmaids. I didn’t want others to panic at this point until we knew more, so I told just one of my bridesmaids and tried to enjoy the croissants and pampering. By 11am Olivier was back at home. He was green. He told me that he was going to have a bath and go to sleep. I was to go to the house where I was getting ready and he would call me at 2pm to make the decision if he could come to the ceremony or not. At this point I decided it was time to tell the other bridesmaids what was going on. We made a plan of how we would let everyone know if we were going to have to cancel, but at the same time I was having my hair and make-up done as if everything was going to be fine. I can’t say that I was having very much fun at this point. A 2pm the phone call came. Olivier couldn’t do the photoshoot, he couldn’t enjoy the reception with us but HE WOULD BE THERE TO MARRY ME! I cried with relief, smudged my make-up a little and then finally felt the bubbles of excitement! I won't tell the world what had been wrong with poor Olivier but the important thing is that it was nothing serious and his meds were already working to get him back into shape for our ‘real wedding day’ a few days later.

THE REST OF THE DAY

The rest of the day was blissful. My bridesmaids looked stunning, I loved the dip dyed Maje​ dress I wore and the bouquets and flower crown I made with my Mumma. We had a little photoshoot in the grounds of the seaside house we had rented for my friends. It was a shame Oliver couldn’t be there for the photos, but it was nice to soak in the sea air to help me relax before the ceremony. It was grey and drizzly but after everything else I didn’t care about the rain and I had the most wonderful afternoon. I particularly love the photos on the turquoise and apricot pelote courts (a basque sport played throughout the region) But the best bit of all was knowing Olivier would be there!

THE SUPPLIERS

Special thanks goes to​ Marine Marques​ our photographer who I will never be able to thank enough for these photos. My hairdresser, Whitney from ​Le Brushing​. Make-up from ​Biarritz Beauty Time​ and to the doctors at Clinic Aguilera who took special care of my man to make sure he got to the wedding on time! I hope you enjoy these photos and if you want to see pictures of our ‘real wedding day’ with the ceremony in a glasshouse followed by seaside reception, look out for my next blog post! Lou x