parisian party

I remember this one time back when I was planning my own wedding in France (before I moved here) and I had a big Bridezilla melt-down (just a teeny one…) in the middle of a florists shop because I couldn’t get the florist to understand what I meant by “bridesmaid bouquets”. I didn’t speak any French at all, I was in a tiny town in the North of France, my metabolism was all out of whack because I had been doing some crazy “Lose 10 pounds in the 10 Days Before the Big Day” leek and cabbage soup diet and I was getting married in 2 days, fer crissakes! I remember growling at the poor guy through clenched teeth and trying to mime out exactly what I wanted: MY bouquet (Thumping my chest while jabbing at the photo in the FTD catalog) Only SMALLER (Fingers outstretched and bent in claw-like fashion, palms facing inward and hands drawing slowly together to illustrate diminishing size…) and I need THREE OF THEM (Counting: One.Two.Three. on fingers, then more crazy jabbing at picture in flower catalog). The man kept rolling his eyes and shaking his head and showing me these tiny little Barbie bouquets- bigger than a boutonnière, but more elaborate than a corsage. I had no idea WHY he was showing me those- all I could hope was that he was trying to illustrate what he was planning on making later once his big shipment of grown-up flowers came in… If I had only known then that bridesmaids don’t really exist in France, I would have thought ahead and brought a photo with me. Who knew?

In France, a traditional wedding “cortège” is often made up of the bridal couple and their parents, their witnesses (the French equivalent of a maid of honor or best man, but with more paperwork involved), and anywhere from 2 to 6 (or more) small children. There are usually 2 demoiselles (girls) or garçons (boys) d’honneur who, during the processional, enter just before the bride and her father and act as flower girls or ring bearers. The rest of the children enter after the bride, and will either assist with her train and/or veil, or simply march behind her, often carrying tiny baskets of petals or nosegay bouquets (Ah -HA!!). After the ceremony, the children exit before the couple, normally sprinkling rose petals or tiny paper hearts along the path as they go.

Now if you want to see cute, you’ve got to see a bunch of little French kids all decked out in their cortège ensembles. The outfits will typically match, with variations made for boys or girls. The girls dresses will have a full skirt, with a sash around the waste and a big bow at the back. They also will often have a ring of flowers around their hair. The boys normally will wear sort of a “Little Lord Fauntleroy” look- short pants or bloomers, page-boy collar and either no hat, or a little floppy beret-type hat.

If you’d like to incorporate this French tradition into your wedding, there are tons of French labels and designers specializing in tenues de cortège. Séverine Corneille in the 6th has the most beautiful ensembles starting at 85€ for a custom-made outfit (take a look at the fur-lined capelette and muff designs she created for a winter wedding- gorgeous!) Cortèges et Cie also has sweet, hand-made wedding designs for children. Their show-room in the 16th and is available for visits (by appointment only). In Paris, most department stores will carry tenues de cortège in their bridal department. For more moderately-priced outfits, take a look at online resources like Verbaudet.com or Cyrillus. They usually have a small collection of ceremony outfits for children.

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