Delphine & Bruce
The meeting
It all started with a meeting one evening in the town of Pornichet (44). Not a love at first sight per se, but a clear chemistry and complicity. We didn't notice the evening passing by as our conversations were natural and spontaneous. After having a drink or two (non-alcoholic, I specify, as neither of us drinks alcohol), and having dinner at a small restaurant where we closed, Bruce didn't want to go home. He suggested continuing the evening at a bar/nightclub. We didn't dance, even though we both love it. But it allowed us to get closer. Lots of exchanged glances, those meaningful glances. After the club, we talked for a long time in his car like two teenagers. At one point, while I was searching for something in my bag at my feet, when I sat back up, I felt his lips on mine. He had stolen my most beautiful kiss.
We were both swept away in a whirlwind.
An anecdote about our couple
Bruce is a funny, thoughtful, very romantic, and chivalrous man. He spent the early stages of our relationship treating me like a queen. He became attached faster than I did. One Sunday morning, while we were both sitting at the central island of my kitchen, with tears in his eyes he said, "I'm falling in love with you quite a bit," and at that moment, I knew it was him.
Life took its time, we waited quite a bit. There, as he bared himself, I felt immense happiness and tenderness. A feeling of freedom overwhelmed me, I had the assurance of being in the right place.
Living together as a couple only confirmed this obvious fact, not that life as a couple was particularly easy with him. On the contrary, we had to live through and overcome quite a few difficulties quite quickly. It was in those moments that I truly knew he was the man of my life. He was the one I wanted by my side when life would be less beautiful. He was the one I chose (I didn't yet know that I would solidify this choice by saying yes to him a few months later when he asked me to marry him).
The proposal
Bruce had organized a surprise vacation for me. I knew we were leaving on 1/01/2019 but didn't know where. After celebrating the new year with friends and having brunch with them, we headed towards the airport. Once there, I took advantage of his short bathroom break to gather information from the departure board. Based on the schedules, I managed to figure out that we were going to Barcelona. I was thrilled! We took off and landed in Spain. Once at the airport in Barcelona, he lingered to exit, citing another bathroom break and a walk around the terminal. Finally, after wandering through the different corridors in search of the bathrooms and looking at the shop windows, I saw him heading towards the transit sign. That was the reason for his unusually slow pace. We were about to board another plane to... Rome !!! So here was my sweetheart's little sleight of hand: starting the day at our place in Saint-Nazaire with friends, being in Barcelona in the evening, and finally ending up in Rome at nightfall!!! This marked the beginning of a journey that would bring one surprise after another, completely turning our lives upside down !
Two days after our arrival in Rome, we decided to visit the Trevi Fountain. We traveled by Vespa despite the freezing temperatures at the beginning of the year, it was icy cold. That morning, we circled around trying to find the fountain. The fountain is located in a pedestrian area, so every time we approached it, the GPS told us to turn around (of course, we only understood that afterward!). At one point, I got so fed up that I said to my darling, "listen, this is annoying, we're wasting our time going around in circles, too bad for the Trevi Fountain." Little did I know that this was where he had chosen to propose. Through perseverance, we finally arrived at the famous fountain. We sat on the edge of the fountain, and I started pulling out the guide to understand everything about the construction and architecture of the monument. I noticed that Bruce next to me was not at all receptive. Then suddenly, he said to me, "will you marry me?" Thinking it was a joke, I turned to him and said, "not funny at all, you know I don't joke about that!" And I went back to reading the guide. That's when Bruce put it on my lap, held my face in his hands, told me to take off my sunglasses because he wanted to see my eyes.
At that moment, he said to me, "Delphine, my heart, I am serious, will you marry me? Will you become my wife and the mother of my children?" I no longer understand what is happening around me, but the emotion is immediate, I know he is not joking. I give him that yes that overwhelms us. I have a smile from ear to ear, I did not expect this. He is as trembling as I am. Tears of happiness are welling up in our eyes. Not being very comfortable with public displays, we decide to wait until we are back at the hotel in the evening for him to give me the ring. I then discover in a red box the jewelry he has chosen for me: a rose gold ring, a solitaire with accents.
He will later explain to me that he has been planning this proposal for weeks. He had a hard time finding the ring. He absolutely wanted diamonds for the purity of our love, but nothing pleased him. And then, he came across this ring in a jewelry store window on a rainy day, he imagined it on my finger, and he fell in love with it.
The most memorable moment of our beautiful day
How can I choose just one ?
For our entrance and exit from the town hall, we had chosen music, including "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole. At the end of the civil ceremony, while everyone was still in the room, the music played. So full of joy from the commitment we had just made that as soon as the music started, my sweetheart took my arm and we started dancing in the town hall. Deep joy and pure spontaneity. It surprised everyone, including us. The deputy mayor who married us even took a photo of us, saying that we were truly extraordinary and very loving newlyweds (we had read a text by Jacques Salomé just after saying "yes", apparently he liked it too, he found it rare for couples to personalize and invest so much). This moment will forever be unique.
We are believers, religion is important and has a place in our lives and our relationship. Although it was our civil marriage, it was not possible to stick to just the administrative side. It was obvious that we wanted to give another dimension to our union by adding a spiritual and symbolic aspect to it. Thus, we put a lot of ourselves and spirituality into our civil marriage: ribbon ceremony, exchange of vows, presence of a priest friend who could bless our civil marriage, prayers.
We will remember the moment of the ribbon ceremony. We had asked 2 of our friends to lead it (a couple who are also part of our witness team). They did it masterfully with a lot of humor and depth. Through this ceremony, we wanted to involve people who are dear to us but who were not our witnesses. So we carefully chose a person or a couple based on a value associated with the color of a ribbon. No one knew about it, it surprised our loved ones a lot. They were very touched that we associated them with joy, longevity of the couple, strength and courage, serenity, balance, etc. Our friends, our families came one by one to tie our hands with ribbons. They took the opportunity to say a few words, convey their wishes to us. They all came with eyes full of emotions and tears. It was powerful, such an intense moment!
After the ribbon ceremony, we gave the floor to Father Thomas who, before being the priest who would marry us, is above all our friend. We wanted to entrust our couple, our marriage to the higher power.
Not all of our loved ones are believers, let alone practicing. Not all of them share the same faith as us. We offered them a little break for a prayer. Praying doesn't necessarily mean kneeling and clasping hands. It is not necessary to believe in something to pray. Praying is directing your thoughts towards someone or something. In the end, everyone prays much more often than they think and know. We invited them to think strongly of all of us who were there, to convey their wishes to us through prayer during the Lord's Prayer. This moment was full. Everyone appreciated it, even (especially) those who are distant from religion, to our great surprise. This prayer, the fact that our priest entrusted us to the Lord, was essential for us. We are delighted to have experienced it, it was truly a grace from God. It was a moment rich in emotions and spirituality.
The place, the atmosphere
Our wedding was supposed to take place over 3 days in May 2020: our civil wedding on Friday, the religious wedding starting from Saturday. We did not choose the easy path as we had organized it over 3 days and 2 locations: at our home in Saint-Nazaire and at Château du Pordor near Redon.
Like many couples, COVID somewhat disrupted our plans. We decided to tackle the situation by not organizing a wedding weekend but two. Twice the happiness!
So, we completely rethought things to organize our civil wedding in September 2020. The summer was dedicated to preparations. We chose to privatize a restaurant for the entire weekend to fully celebrate our wedding.
We live by the sea. It would have been a shame not to take advantage of it. It was obvious that our couple photos would be taken in this beautiful natural setting: the pier of St Nazaire when we first saw each other before going to the town hall, then the beach and the lighthouse after saying "yes."
From the start, we had the idea of separating our civil wedding from our religious wedding. For our first one, we wanted something simple, family-oriented, and friendly.
We surrounded ourselves only with our parents, sisters, witnesses, and close friends. This way, we were able to spend time with each of them and truly share emotions and happiness.
Decoration and inspirations
The theme of our wedding is romantic chic.
We centered our decor around 3 colors that we both love: blush pink, white, and gold. I wanted something simple, refined, delicate, elegant, and without fuss. I especially did not want a bohemian or rustic wedding because I find it overdone and, above all, it doesn't reflect who we are at all. If we had to align with a style, I would say we belong to the "classic chic" category. Therefore, given that we are both true romantics, our choice of theme was obvious, and we do not regret it for a moment.
The decor was entirely handmade from many recycled objects: glass bottles in the colors of our theme, small glass jars with lace for candles, large glass jars to place LED garlands, ribbon sticks, heart sticks, and pinwheel sticks, curved tin cans with small lace collars, bird cages. I wanted a lot of candles because I find it very warm.
In terms of flowers, we opted for baby's breath and roses. There were 3 different types of roses: avalanche rose, sweet dolomiti rose, and hope rose.
Like many brides-to-be, I searched Pinterest and created many inspiration boards. The further we progressed in the preparations, the more ideas and desires I had. It was important for both of us to do a lot of things ourselves, not necessarily to save money, but because we wanted to be fully involved in our wedding. We both approved all the decor choices. We spent several weekends and evenings creating all this because my imagination and inspirations were vast. In this adventure, we also received valuable help from our friends, witnesses, and also my dad.
We loved this preparation period when we thought about all the organization. For us, it was a true journey to the wedding. I don't know if this is the case for all couples, but we went through it without any arguments.
The dress :
I chose the model of my dress for our civil wedding on the JJ'S HOUSE website. I wanted something that contrasted sharply with the dress I would wear at our religious wedding (postponed from May 2020 to May 2021, fingers crossed without too much belief).
Our theme was romantic chic, and I wanted something light and airy. I also wanted something more original, not extravagant. I wanted a model that reached my ankles so that the shoes would be visible. I really liked this model, especially since I practice ballet. On the wedding day, many of our guests told me that I looked like the little dancer from the music boxes, like a ballerina.
I can't tell you anything about my religious wedding dress, it's still top secret!!!
The Shoe creation :
It's my best friend and maid of honor who introduced me to Dessine-moi un soulier. As a big shoe lover (but getting better!), I fell in love with your website the first time I visited it. The models, materials, colors... everything appealed to me.
For our civil wedding, I wanted a calf-length dress and therefore wanted to give special importance to my shoes. My best friend made me a huge gift since she offered me the creation of my pair of pumps.
The app is super easy to use and really allows you to unleash your imagination. What's great is that you can choose absolutely everything and have a completely unique pair.
I am an optimistic, dynamic person with a lot of whimsy. I wanted to bring out this side.
So I decided to add some colour to my shoes. The round-toed pumps quickly became my choice. I didn't want an open-toe model. I hesitated quite a bit about the choice and location of the bow.
Contact with the Dessine-moi un soulier team is super easy and very friendly. The support is really personalised. Deadlines are met and you're kept up to date at every stage. I was overjoyed when I received my parcel and discovered my little marvels.
They were extremely comfortable despite their 8 cm heels, and I wore them almost all night long. I slipped on a pair of gold ballerina flats from Minelli after our wedding dance, once the dancefloor was really fired up !
Delphine's Bride Tips
The question is not easy because each wedding is unique in terms of decoration, theme, and location.
The first tip I can give is the importance of choosing your providers carefully to make them true partners. This was crucial for me, especially regarding hair and makeup. I couldn't imagine leaving my head to a professional, no matter how competent, without it being someone I fully trust and who knows perfectly the nature of my hair, how they behave, my skin and its hydration, etc.
So, I managed to involve my hairdresser and beautician in the adventure by asking them to come to our reception venues. I absolutely did not regret this choice. I was serene and completely confident. They knew me, knew my personality, our story, the theme, the decorative elements. Together, we were able to decide on a hairstyle and a beauty look that truly represented me and that was in line with our wedding. One or two trial sessions with a professional would not have been enough for me.
The second piece of advice that could be given, not only to engaged couples, but to future married couples in general, is to trust yourselves.
A wedding is above all the commitment of two people. Make decisions together, be united. The important thing is to see ourselves in our wedding, that it reflects us.
When preparing for a wedding, one quickly realizes that everyone has an opinion on the matter. The problem is that most people give their opinion even though you didn't ask for it.
This can open the door to all kinds of advice, little jabs, and sometimes even jealousy. Here are some common remarks that are heard quite regularly: "It would be good if...", "If it were me, I would...", "Are you sure...", "In my time...", "For a wedding, you should..." etc.
A wedding is all beautiful and rosy, but it can also create tensions, especially within families. So, if for you getting married means not inviting Aunt Claudine and Uncle Hubert because you haven't seen them in 20 years, if it's just getting married at the town hall when Mom and Mother-in-law would love it to be in a church... Stand firm and don't be afraid to assert your choices. Your wedding should above all reflect who you are.
My husband and I decided everything together. We were perfectly united in the preparations and the course of our wedding. Sometimes we firmly expressed our point of view and said no when we were advised to do things a certain way.
I think that's why we went through the preparations without hitches and without arguments because the important thing is to agree as a couple because a wedding is above all and especially the commitment of two people to each other.
Their list of providers :
Wedding dress : JJ’s House
Bridal shoes : Dessine-moi un soulier
Bridal hair : Chanes’hair
Bridal hair accessories : Claire’s
Bridal beauty : Instinct beauté by Aurore
Manicure : Jusqu’O bout des ongles
Groom's suit and shoes : Devred
Bow tie : Rives Paris
Groom's hair : Atelier de Nolwenn
Caterer & Reception venue : Restaurant Le Manège
Wines and spirits : Vino Vini - Le Tastevin
Wedding cake : Mr and Mrs cake
Floral decoration : L’atelier de Lili
Photographer : PadaOne- Matthieu JOUBERT
