A bohemian wedding in Orne – Marion + Gaël

Our two lovers of the day met on the internet. From their chatty exchanges, a delicious obviousness was born. The meeting sealed the beautiful story. For these music lovers, their bohemian wedding would be celebrated with music and in the open air. It was on June 17, 2017 in Orne, at the Moulin Pley.

With the beautiful images of Yoann Pallier, Marion tells us more…

The initial meeting

“Gaël and I met through the miracle of the internet, on this famous site “for demanding singles”, a little over four years ago now.

I took the first step by sending him the first email (or rather novel) to get in touch with him. His profile on the dating site had particularly caught my attention, a little voice told me that this boy was special. At that time, he was on vacation in Japan with his best friend. We corresponded for a week, with jet lag and daily endless emails. After a few exchanges, we both felt that we shared a very special connection.

Then he returned to Paris, and we immediately scheduled our meeting for the next day: an evening in a small Italian restaurant next to Place des Ternes in the 17th arrondissement (where I lived at the time).

He arrived on a scooter, I watched him take off his helmet, and I knew it was going to be a great story. But the height difference surprised me at first (he is 1m98 and I am a "small" 1m65)!

The evening was enough for us to fall in love with each other. I think we can call it love at first sight! It was a Thursday. We saw each other again the next day, and didn't leave each other's side for the whole weekend. The following week, he started a six-month mission in London as part of his job. A long-distance relationship that allowed us to get to know each other gently and to test the strength of our feelings from the start. We very quickly decided to take an apartment together, which I mainly occupied alone for the first few months (he went back to Paris every weekend).

The marriage proposal

"Gaël proposed in an unconventional way...

Since he waited only a few days before the town hall visit (so everything was already organized and we knew we were going to get married) to make a formal proposal to me! We had already been in a civil partnership for a year, and we had been talking about marriage for a long time because the desire to spend our lives together appeared very quickly in our relationship. The decision was therefore made naturally and without fuss. Marriage quickly became obvious to both of us, so the project imposed itself and we began to organize everything spontaneously as we went along.

So this topic of "the official request" was mostly a game between us, because he knew that it was an important moment for me (and therefore that I was expecting it at any moment), so he waited until the last moment to tease me until the end!

A few weeks before, I had done a parachute jump (which he and my close friends had given me for my previous birthday). Gaël had insisted that this jump be filmed so as to keep a nice souvenir of the moment. Then he organized a surprise party at our apartment with these same friends. At one point, a friend of mine (who was in on the secret) asked me to watch the video of the jump in question. We started the DVD, which began to show the first minutes of the jump. Then, suddenly, the screen blurred, and a character from Anonymous appeared. He said he had taken control of the device and had a message of the utmost importance to convey. Then the video switched to the music video of a song that Gaël had composed and staged from A to Z. This song retraced our story. At the end of the song, he got down on one knee in our living room and took out a ring…

A touching and intimate moment. A small group proposal, at home with our closest friends by our side.

Preparations

We decided to get married on 17/06/2017. Because the number 17 represented something symbolic for us: we met on October 17 (first physical meeting after email exchanges), in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The preparations went very smoothly, without too much stress, no pre-wedding arguments about it! We decided to have a small wedding, only with our closest friends and relatives. So there were about fifty of us in total, a choice to make the most of our guests.

We both invested equally. For my part, I had been visualizing this day for years, so I had very specific dreams and desires. We were quickly on the same wavelength for almost everything, and for the rest, personalized certain aspects according to salient characteristics of our couple. We made the choices of service providers together (florist, decorator, caterer, photographer, etc.).

I was perhaps more "immersed" in the daily preparations because I am always looking at inspiration photos on Pinterest, Instagram, etc. (especially because of my work... as a wedding photographer) but he really felt just as involved as I was and it was a joy!

Wedding decoration

"As for the atmosphere and ambiance we were looking for for our big day, here again, we very quickly came to an agreement: a wedding in our image, simple and elegant/refined at the same time, no hassle, good-natured, surrounded by the people we love. And above all, a 100% personalized wedding with surprises for the guests!

A bohemian/rustic wedding : straw bales, wooden crates, stepladder, old flowered door for the entrance to the central aisle of the ceremony, iron watering cans, flowered arch, photo corner with old leather trunks and suitcases, etc.

A theme of travel and “good food”. We chose a buffet meal with free seating for more conviviality and sharing, with an "à la carte" catering formula composed of everything we love to eat according to a system of workshops: good charcuterie, good cheeses, good wines, antipasti, smoked salmon, a barbecue with good beef ribs and sausages, ... and an almost entirely outdoor event, from the secular ceremony to the dinner (except the evening dance).

In short, a punchy, romantic wedding, with no downtime, where no one gets bored.

The first service provider we booked was the photographer. As I work in this field myself, immortalizing this day in a professional and artistic way was THE most important thing for me, along with choosing the dress. I had been following Yoann Pallier's work for a while now, and I found myself in his world and style. So we contacted him more than a year and a half before the big day (to make sure he was available on our date)! We decided to trust him, and the result speaks for itself; we are still delighted today with these sublime photos that allow us to remember this beautiful day.

For the other service providers, we were lucky to be able to surround ourselves with passionate, organized, talented and involved people. A special mention to our florist and our decorator who really invested themselves upstream and who reassured us: they took things in hand brilliantly! And the result really lived up to our expectations.

It must also be said that we were lucky to have the support of our close friends for the organization. In particular, we had chosen to leave the organization of our secular ceremony to our witnesses, who more than delivered! I would like to take this opportunity to make a special dedication to two friends who were my greatest support during these months of preparations. The endless indecisions about buying my wedding dress, the countless existential questions about the color of my shoes or the choice of my hairstyle (and the color of my hair), the repeated spams to send them my inspiration photos, they endured it all with a smile. Without them, my wedding (and the pre-wedding) would definitely not have been as magical: MC and Gwen, I love you!

Other than that, as is the case for many brides-to-be, Pinterest and Instagram became my best friends for a few months!

Wedding at Moulin Pley in Orne

"The Moulin Pley in Condé sur Huisne in Orne. Gaël knows this place since the mill belongs to the father of his witness (so he had already been there several times before we met). When we started to talk about what we wanted for our wedding in terms of atmosphere (rustic / bohemian - with a secular ceremony outdoors), he immediately thought of the mill!"

The wedding budget

“Around 20 euros.”

Their best memory

“Without hesitation, the moment of discovery. After all these months of visualizing and imagining my outfit, my makeup and my hair down to the smallest details, I wanted to be the most beautiful possible to see this reaction on my future husband's face. The stars in his eyes and his ear-to-ear smile as he turned around to discover me are priceless and will remain forever etched in my memory.

But there are many lovely memories of this day: a surprise flashmob from our guests during the evening, entertainment prepared by our friends, and above all, the entire secular ceremony during which my husband and I sang a few songs for our guests. The exchange of vows was a particularly strong moment for me, Gaël had composed a song for me that everyone still talks about today. The speeches of my three witnesses also moved me enormously….

Advice from the newlyweds

• Surround yourself with professional and human service providers without trying to save money at all costs. Some expense items are unavoidable and should not be the "adjustment margin" of your overall budget: the caterer, the decoration service providers and the photographer mainly. These three items may seem high on paper at first glance, but let's never lose sight of the fact that the work done is enormous in terms of time invested and contribution of expertise / artistic talent. Of course you can have everything at any price, a photographer for 500 euros per day or a florist for an equivalent price. But conscientious, passionate, square, professional and talented service providers who have a minimum awareness of the value of their work and their investment will never charge such low prices. A wedding for a photographer is about ten hours (at least) of presence at your side on the big day, but also and above all about twenty hours of post-processing, depreciation of the equipment, and expenses. A service provider who is paid at his fair value and considered is a service provider who will give the best of himself!

• Always trust your instincts. I had some big setbacks with the purchase of my wedding dress (notably for having initially had the misfortune of trusting a large Spanish ready-to-wear brand well established in France), and found myself 2 months before the big day without a wearable dress (even though I had decided more than a year in advance)... rather than making a choice out of spite under the stress and urgency, I had the courage to look everywhere until I had THE favorite while the fateful date was getting dangerously close. I finally had the great luck to come across a golden deal: a girl was reselling her Olsen dress by Rime Arodaky second-hand for an unbeatable price. The dress was like new and fit me like a glove without any alterations to be done. I didn't hesitate for a second, and in hindsight, it really was THE dress, the one that was my second skin during this magical day.

• Take some time alone with your loved one to enjoy the day, to step back from the hustle and bustle for a few minutes, to talk to each other, debrief, take a breath, kiss each other, and enjoy what is happening before our eyes. The day goes by at a crazy pace, and it is important to have the feeling of having been able to sit down and appreciate at its true value what it took us more than a year to prepare!

• Establish a retrospective planning fairly quickly from the beginning of the preparations, in order to visualize the scale of the task and to take care of each item in good time without rushing and without stress.

• Keep in mind that not everything will go as planned. In general, do not let yourself be overwhelmed by the little annoyances of the big day linked to the imponderables. Stay flexible, put things into perspective, take a step back, and keep in mind that this day is not to make a display of perfection in the eyes of the whole world but rather to unite with the man of your life and share this with those around you in joy, emotion and good humor.

• Have a wedding that suits YOU. Ignore trends and fads or pseudo traditions and conventions to make this day YOUR day. For our part, no table plan, no sit-down meal, no small "material" gifts for guests, and a minimum of children!

---

The Wedding Address Book

Dress - Rime Arodaky
Photographer – Yoann Pallier
Location – Pley Mill in Condé sur Huisne
Makeup artist – Johanna MUA Pro
Hairdresser - MC Cabrillet
Florist – The Plant Factory
Decorator – Passion Deco
Shoes - Asos
Suit - Blandin & Delloye
Caterer – Gauthier caterer
Jazz band – Kevin Auguste Devos band

---

TO BE CONTINUED…

Our addresses on The Address Book
Our favorites on the Shop
Our inspirations on our Pinterest

Follow our news on instagram et facebook

---

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also like:
Rustic wedding in the Var – Maya and Maxime
Wedding at Château d'Auros – Hortense + Maxence
A small summer wedding – Momoko + Romain
A wedding at the Commanderie de Peyrassol – Géraldine + Benjamin

---