SARAH AND MATHIEU

Location:

We got married at the Château de Merville near Toulouse, and wanted a light, country atmosphere. We wanted a venue with greenery and a beautiful exterior, and for the hall, pink bricks and exposed beams on the ceiling.

As far as the atmosphere was concerned, we just wanted all our friends and family to feel good, and for it to be a happy, enjoyable day for everyone, and I think that was definitely the case!

Their inspiration:

As for inspiration, I'd been thinking about this day for several years now (hoping that Mathieu would decide one day 😉 ), as many of my friends have married and I've had the opportunity to imagine what I'd do "if one day my turn came"!

I knew I wanted something country with lots of flowers, so our florist had hung cages from the beams of the hall with beautiful floral arrangements and ivy falling from some of the cages: it was superb! We didn't have any particular theme, apart from the colors we really liked: yellow and coral, with a few touches of gray and blue. To find ideas and inspiration, I went, as I think many brides-to-be do, on pinterest, but also simply by doing targeted searches in google images. Then I jotted down all my ideas in a binder with photos and annotations and we discussed them together before deciding on all the decorating elements.

For the bride and groom's car, my aunt lent us her beautiful blue 2CV, we found an old pallet in the street which we used as a table plan, for the ballot box we used an old suitcase that belonged to my great-grandmother which we redecorated, my mom spent many hours making tissue paper pompons to decorate our photobooth, and we made paper cocottes as place cards. Basically, we wanted to keep it simple and do as many things as possible ourselves to make the day a little more our own.

For the dress, I wanted something fluid, with lace, buttons on the back and little sleeves on the shoulders. I shopped around Toulouse with my mom, but in the end I found what I was looking for at Cymbeline. For his suit, Mathieu had it made at Chouraki Le Pape. I just chose the fabric with him, but I really discovered it on the big day at church.

Shoe design:

I've been a fan of Dessine-moi un soulier's creations since the very beginning, and I'd already fallen in love twice with the idea of designing my own shoes, so it was obvious that the day I got married, I'd be wearing Dessine-moi un soulier shoes! I took advantage of a weekend in Paris with Mathilde, my childhood best friend and best man, to drop by the boutique to see the different materials and colors. I wanted yellow and glitter, but I needed to see the colors for myself. We were very well received and the advice helped us make our choice. Mathilde also fell for the pretty pumps, which she wore on the big day. I danced all evening in my shoes, and I'm delighted!

Sarah's advice:

Two days before the religious ceremony we got married at the Capitole town hall in Toulouse in a small group and we had organized an aperitif dinner in our garden after the ceremony, we wanted a guinguette style atmosphere and it was a superb moment that allowed us to enjoy our family and friends a little more. We're very happy to have done the civil and religious wedding on two different days, and I'd really recommend it to future brides if it's possible for them.

It took us a year to plan our wedding, and that was more than enough time. Towards the end, we couldn't wait for the big day to arrive, so that we wouldn't have to keep thinking about how it would be: we'd imagined the day and wanted to experience it for real! Right from the start, we drew up a back-plan for the year, listing all the tasks we had to do up to the big day. This enabled us to spread out everything we wanted to do over time, and not get stressed out by the organization.

The last piece of advice I can give is to make the most of this day because, as everyone says, it goes by really fast! Don't stress because 3 candles are missing or because you haven't had time to realize all the ideas you had in mind: the most important thing on this day is the love you have for each other and for your loved ones. Love yourself and let your joy be communicated to your loved ones, and this day will be a success!