Normally, the wedding in France starts in the city hall for administrative ceremony, followed by wedding reception.
As I wanted my wedding to be unique, meaningful and memorable, I added a touch of Thai wedding with a few ceremonies that weren’t too complicated to do in France.
For the decoration, mostly it was what we found in the cellar of the house, they were so perfectly rustic. Most of the time, we used dried flowers, for fresh flowers, it was all from the house’s garden, we cut it in the morning of the wedding day.
First Look: If you want me, prove it!
Our wedding started at 9 am which was considered to be too early. It was like a “First Look”, but before getting to see me, Max needed to do something to prove it.
Once they arrive at the place, they have to successfully pass through some obstacles called “Pra too” (which means a door) where there’re 2 people holding gold or silver belts or necklaces, before getting a chance to meet the bride.
In our wedding, we asked Max’s dad to play guitar instead of having Thai music band. We cut 3 branches and tied both sides with ribbons to replace gold or silver belts or necklaces.
There were 3 doors, the first and the second obstacles were given by Max’s cousins, the third one was created by his mom and my mom. Max could pass through all the 3 doors (with the help of the whole family at the end!), then he came to knock my door, and finally got to meet me in bridal dress. Voilà! This is how our “First Look” looks like!
Snack time and Wishes corner
Another choice of drink was fresh apple juice from Bergerac local market. All the guest could take their glass mug home as a souvenir of our wedding. For us, we use this mug for hot soy milk drink almost every morning, love it! We also had cashew nuts from Thailand, dried cranberries and popcorn for snack.
What we loved the most in this corner was that we did something like “Family tree” by putting the photos of our parents’s wedding, photos of little Fon and Max, a photo of our engagement, and a photo of our save the date photo.
Wishes through lavender petals
Personally, I think that having your loved ones give wishes or advices for the wedding is one of the most important parts of the event, so I got the idea of bringing a Thai ceremony called “Rod Nam Sang” or water pouring ceremony to my wedding so that the guests can come to the groom and the bride one by one and pour some water in conch shell on their hands while giving them wishes.
For us, we replaced water in conch shell with lavender petals in cones. To create the cones, we used old pages of the book “Une année en provence” or “A year in Provence” of Peter Mayle.
When I’m writing this, it reminds me of so many meaningful details behind the wedding and that makes me smile. Actually, it took a lot of time and patience, but it was such a happiness as we knew the meaning of each thing we prepared. That’s why we think that the preparation of the wedding isn’t something boring or stressful like other people told us.
On the way to be officially WIFE
The city hall is just 5 minute drive from home. At first, we wanted to use the car of Max’s parents, it was the white one.
We heard the sound of the horn so loud, then we turned to find out what happened, we saw a black collection-car, we thought it was so gorgeous and elegant, anyway we continued our work without knowing that it would be our wedding car that the neighbors of Max’s parents borrowed their friend to surprise us as a wedding gift. (How kind they are!) The name of this collection-car is “Pénélope”.
Let’s make it official
The mayor is very opened to adjust the ceremony as we wanted, he was the one that came across with the idea to do something Thai. He talked to us a few times before the wedding and asked us to tell him our story. He even came to see Max’s parents at home a day before the wedding to get more information about us and Max’s childhood so that he could make the speech during the ceremony.
When the ceremony was done, we came out and saw tons of bubbles in the air with smiles of our loved ones, it was absolutely one of most beautiful days in my life.
Special Family Lunch
This place is such a hidden gem, the owner is very nice, the food is delicious with reasonable price. It was Max’s parents who found this restaurant, seriously, we couldn’t ask for more! We did decorations on the table by ourselves with dried lavender and other flowers and candles.
Imperfectly perfect
As I looked back to that day, I still found something that didn’t go as planned, but now that made me laugh!
I admitted that at first, I was stuck with the thought that we could have done better, but finally I realized that nothing’s perfect, maybe we could make this thing better, but we will find another thing else to say that we could have made it better.
Look at the bright side, I missed the “Bouquet Toss”, it means that I could keep my “love at first sight bouquet” with me one more day. Or when Max forgot to wear his belt, it was like casual fashion style and made him more comfortable.
Bringing Thai tradition in this wedding was a big challenge because we were afraid that the guests wouldn’t understand the message that was conveyed to them. But finally, they really got it! So, don’t hesitate to make your wedding more unique, add something you like or skip something you don’t, the guests are there for “your wedding”, not others!
Moreover, this wedding made my mom step out of Thailand for the first time in her life, and also out of fear and comfort zone as she had to go to France alone by herself. This wedding totally made the dream of little girl and her mom come true…Thank you everyone for making 9/7/2016 unforgettable!!!