This vrai mariage du mercredi takes us to the Beaujolais region of France. Known for its lush, rolling vineyards as well as the famous Beaujolais Nouveau, the area also includes Lyon, the lively, vibrant city that’s the second largest in France, after Paris. Valerie and Samuel celebrated the best of both of these worlds in their Beaujolais wedding last year, starting with an urban-chic “downtown” civil ceremony and photo session around Lyon, then followed it up with a garden tea-party reception on a wine estate in nearby Beaujeau. Their trip through wedding wonderland was captured by the lovely Amélie of Callibella Photography, who has graciously shared some of her images with us today:
Weddings in France have had a complete design revolution since I first started planning weddings here in Paris “way back when”. At the time, French weddings were pretty traditional, and DIY weddings- at least in the “Martha Stewart Omnimedia” sense- had yet to catch on. But catch on they have. For more than a year or two, French brides have been bringing their own Frenchie flavor to the DIY wedding table. It’s whimsical, romantic, unique and above all else- stylish.
I’ve decided to highlight some of these weddings in a new feature- Vrai Mariage du Mercredi - Real (French) Wedding Wednesday. Sometimes these will be my own clients’ Paris-based weddings, but more often it will be weddings from other parts of France. I thought it would be a great way for parisian party readers to find inspiration for adding that petite touche française to their home-grown celebrations.
The first Vrai Mariage du Mercredi is Benjamin and Mariette’s, which took place in a little village in the South-West of France in the Poitou-Charentes region. Their country wedding, shot by American destination wedding photographer David Blair, is so sweet and charming- I actually felt jealous that I hadn’t been invited (never mind that I don’t even know Benjamin and Mariette - #thatsbesidesthepoint). Take a look at all of these great ideas for a French country wedding:
Even if French Country isn’t your thing- you know you love this French Country, right? For more images from this beautiful villa wedding, be sure to take a look at the davidblairphotography blog.
photo © myfrenchcountryhome.com
While in the U.S. the holiday season has been over and forgotten about for nearly a week now, things are still going strong here in France. This week, on January 6th, France will celebrate the Epiphany, the day the 3 Kings arrived to see the baby Jesus. Here in France, the Epiphany is celebrated with a Galette des Rois- a special “kings cake” made of layers of puff pastry and filled with chocolate and pear, apple, or the more traditional frangipane (an almond-flavored paste). Although pretty yummy by itself, the highlight of the Galette des Rois is finding the fève. The fève is a small, ceramic figurine which is baked inside the cake. Typically, the cake is sliced, and the youngest child in the household gets to determine who gets which slice. Whoever finds the fève in their slice of cake gets to wear a paper crown and be King (or Queen) for the day. I can imagine that in the U.S. 
a hard, pointy figurine baked into a cake would be considered a safety risk, but that’s not at all the case in France, where you’ll see lines of galette-hungry customers snaking out of bakeries across the country.
If you want to take part in the festivities, why not try this simple Galette des Rois recipe at home? A quick search on ebay pulls up a small (and pricey) selection of French fèves, but you can also do like they do in New Orleans and bake a small plastic baby in your “King Cake” instead. You can find the mini babies at any store that sells baby shower decorations. Vive le roi et vive la reine!
- © parisian party, january 2010
