Hello everyone,
It’s been a long time since my last update. We almost have to say goodbye to 2016, one of the most important years of my life, I graduated Master of Laws in French and I become WIFE of the guy I love.
My wedding was on July 9, 2016, in France. I feel like it was just yesterday, everything is still so clear in my memory. That’s why I decided to talk about my wedding to share some ideas and to remind myself in case that someday my children ask me to tell them about our wedding.
Wedding Theme
To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare my wedding, as I had to get my dissertation and all the works done, plus the preparation for the exams was so intense. My thesis defense took place only a month before the wedding, however searching ideas for the wedding was something I loved to do during break time.
I had Google and Pinterest as my wedding planner, there’re always answers for every question. Beautiful photos on internet and in magazines make it so hard to choose a theme, when you don’t really know what you want exactly.
At first, all I knew was that I wanted a small wedding with family and close friends/ outdoor in the garden/ with a touch of thai style… This was too large to help us pick a theme.
Therefore, I tried to find another thing that finally became the key for my theme. As I spent a year in Provence, Southeastern France, known as the most famous place for lavender, where we were so happy to be. Moreover lavender can represent perfectly France, so we decided to have lavender as the main flower, and of course the main color was purple.
Max and I are simple and down-to-earth, we knew since the beginning that our wedding wouldn’t be something luxurious, that’s why rustic wedding was a perfect decision.
Finally, theme does make everything easier, when you have to decide about wedding venue, bridal dress, style of make-up, photograph, etc.
Meaningful Wedding Venue
When Max proposed me, his parents’s home was at Paris with a little cute garden, where I loved to spend my time in. So, we thought that this could be perfect for our wedding.
For me, I think that at-home wedding can, not only save a lot of money, but also make your big day even more meaningful. (Our engagement also took place at my mom’s home in Thailand).
However, a few months after, his parents moved down to Dordogne, a wonderful region in the south west of France where the landscape of vineyard will take your breath away.
The house is situated just next to the beautiful vineyard of “Grand Jaure” where they make a good wine, its garden is so beautiful with tons of flowers, sometimes we can spot wild rabbits, squirrels and rare birds. Besides, there’re a horse, a donkey in the field, many hens walking around, a cat and a kind bernese mountain dog.
This house is so charming as it started to be built in 1770, 247 years ago! Most of all, this place is very rustic by itself, we didn’t have to do many decorations as it could hide its perfect charm.
Max’s parents reserve a part of this house as a “Gite du Grand Jaure”, traditional guesthouse for holidays with your own private space.
I fall in love with this place where I can take some fresh air, rest my eyes by enjoying the stunning view, sip some wine that comes from the vineyard where I’m looking at, read favorite books next to swimming pool or under the trees, go shopping local products at Bergerac, a town where the river “La Dordogne”, the cleanest river in France, flows through. (This is my another awesome hidden place in France.)
Photographer
What we did is to search photographers in the area near our wedding venue on internet, then we made a list of our favorites and contacted them by email. At that time we were at Aix-en-Provence, south east of France, but our wedding place was in south west of France, not so far from Bordeaux (less than 2 hours by car).
Our photographer was Charles Magrin. His works impressed us a lot since the beginning with his own unique style. We didn’t know how to pose, then he guided us what to do, but mostly it went so naturally. He made us very comfortable so that we could really be ourselves, the photos were just naturally beautiful. He is talented, but humble. We really love all the photos!
My make-up: I just want to look like “me”
I did my make-up and hair by myself because, first of all, I am Thai, some make-up artists in France may not get used to do make-up for Asian face. I am the one who know my face the most, I know where I want to highlight or where I want to tone down. Most importantly, I want to look like me, not someone else in my wedding.
Secondly, I can save a lot of money as it’s very expensive to have a make-up artist for the wedding.
My make-up style was something classic, not too trend-led, as I have to live with these photos for the rest of my life. I don’t want my children to laugh at me when they will see the photos in the next 10,20 or 30 years.
For my hair, Youtube was my personal tutor, but I wasn’t a good student, I didn’t practice enough, so in the wedding day it was very complicated to do especially in the back, I had a hard time. Luckily, the theme was rustic, it means that my hair doesn’t need to be so perfect. You see? this is a good thing of rustic wedding!
One of the most important thing for my hair was that I wanted to have 2 silver stars of my dad on my head to remind me of him as he passed away in the line of duty (He was policeman.)since I was 7 months old. Therefore, I put these stars on my rustic headband.
Even if I didn’t see him around when I looked outside, but I did see him in me as my strength. He would be so proud of me to know that I got married to a guy who loves me so much for who I am and always brings out the best in me. I know he’s always watching over us.
My useful wedding dress
I bought my bridal dress in Bangkok just a few weeks before I flew to France for my study. My idea was that I didn’t want to wear it only one time in my life, then put it in the closet, and forget it. I wanted it to be useful that I can wear it in daily life, so bridal dress separate was such a perfect choice.
Every girl knows what they like and don’t like about their body. Me, I think that I am too thin, and my collarbone is something I don’t prefer to show, it makes me look even thinner.
The high neck top of my wedding gown could hide my collarbone, the small A-line skirt could make me look not too thin, and the short cape made my shoulder a bit larger.
Actually, choosing your bridal dress is not too complicated, you just have to know your body, wedding gowns always look so perfect on models, but on you, it could be different. However, the most important thing is that you wear it with confidence and you love it, no matter what people say, it’s your wedding!
I bought my dress at the first shop I visited, and it wasn’t even a wedding shop. After the wedding ceremony, i took off the long skirt and wore a short instead.
Until now, I already wore the high neck top 2 times to go to the mall, and friends who couldn’t go to my wedding got a chance to see me with a part of my bridal dress.
Handmade Invitation Cards
As we had only 30-35 guest, I prefered to write invitation cards by myself, it wasn’t only words, but also love that was sent to our family and friends.
To make it more special, we attached lavenders to the cards to give good smell once the guests open it. Also, There was the planning of our wedding to guide our guests as there would be a few thai ceremonies involved. This is only one of many things that are handmade.
My bridal bouquet: love at first sight
I always had in my mind that my bridal bouquet would be just a single stem of white hydrangea from the garden of Max’s parents as I wanted it to be simple, but different. I thought that it would be more memorable when it came from the garden of the family, than from a florist.
3 days before the wedding, I went to Bergerac. I walked by a florist in the morning local market(open every Wednesday and Saturday), I saw a bouquet, with little purple flowers all around and white & purple dahlias that got me hypnotized, I couldn’t stop starring at it. It made me think of me running in the fields of lavender in Provence.
Even if i already walked pass, I had to go back to this bouquet, I felt like it was calling my name…You might think that I’m crazy, but… Finally, it became my love at first sight bridal bouquet. Don’t you think that this bouquet has an inspiration from lavender fields? 🙂
Stay tuned for part II about the day we said “I do“!
