Coming back

After an eventful time in France, I am heading back to the States tomorrow. I am leaving Rennes at 6:30am France time, then Paris at 10:30am... arriving in Detroit... where hopefully I will have no problems with my travel document... then leaving Detroit back to Denver. 

I will arrive in Denver at 8:50pm US Mountain time after a long exhausting trip of 23 hours!

Anyway, when I arrive, depending on how I feel, Rich got me a credential to go to the Pepsi Center. I know Obama will be at the Bronco's Stadium, but I don't care, I am happy I get a chance to see the "new" Pepsi Center after the DNC. We will see at what time we make it home from the airport with all the craziness in Denver...

I will update more about the wedding once back to the States, where I will have time to pack the apartment for a future move, find a job, and of course post millions of pictures. 

Getting ready

The morning started... the groom and wedding party left for the market. He didn't need to stay and get ready as early as we girls, and we thought that the wedding party would enjoy the Rennes' market. It is really nice, huge, and we love it so we wanted to share that with them.

In the meanwhile, I went to get my hair done at 11:30am till about 12:45. I ate something while watching the olympics, I think it was fencing. Everyone came back, and the girls went to get ready while I was relaxing. I decided to put my own makeup on as I was confident I could do a good job... and I was really happy with the end result!

My maid of honor helping me put on my dress, trying not to smudge makeup all over it, and not to destroy my hairdo (no worries, there were thousands of pins and tons of hair spray).

Voila!

Then my mom went to fetch my bouquet and Rich's boutonniere.. we decided not to get flowers for anyone else. I wanted peonies, the florist said it was possible. The tuesday before the wedding she called me and told me it wasn't anymore. I had to pick another flower. I didn't want roses, but ended up going with it... I just needed a bouquet and to this point who cared about the flower as long as it was nice. But it was beautiful!!! Notice the cameo, and the "ribbon" was the fabric of my dress. It all came great together!

My mom putting my veil on. I wanted a birdcage, but went with a Chapel length. I didn't have a train and though it would be nice to walk down the aisle with something flowing behind me. 

Maid of honor helping the groom get ready.

We are all ready now, and I went to see my groom waiting for me in the back yard (actually I waited for him, I was ready way before he was!)

Next: Couple photos before the ceremony...

Morning of the Big Day

On Saturday 9th, 2008, we woke up to that:Brittany is known to be rainy and horrible (see previous pictures in Around the Town... see the sweaters, rain, grey sky a week before!)... and we got: 

AMAZING SUNSHINE, BLUE SKY, NOT A CLOUD!

Reception Site getting dressed

We went to the reception site on friday afternoon to drop off some last minute things: the cake, the M&MS, the guestbook...

And this is what we saw:

The head table (seating 12)

The room with all the tables

Another round table (seating 8)

Our purple runners look amazing and classy against the white tablecloths and napkins... just a nice touch of color. The rest was going to be set that evening. It was nicely coming together, the room looked amazing. 

Setting up the church

We were allowed to go to church on friday at 6pm to set up the flowers if there weren't any funerals on saturday morning. Fortunately there were no funerals planned, and we had time to set up the church, take pictures, and do a mini rehearsal. Our priest was coming from far, so we couldn't ask him to come a day early just to rehearse. So I tried to tell people what to do when, and how... hopefully they all understood, because some stuff wasn't clear to me either. Anyway, we got an opportunity to take plenty of pictures. 

My mom setting our 2 hydrangea plants (ordered from 1 place in white, order got canceled a week before the wedding, went to another plant shop, no white... went to a 3rd, nothing... went back to the 2nd and got the nicest blue pinkish ones).

Most amazing hydrangeas from my grand ma's garden. We were not going to have any at first, but my dad drove to my grand parents 2 days before to get my grand parent's car... it worked out so nice! They were the most amazing flowers ever... as all that got decided 2 days before the wedding, one of the options was stealing the neighbors flowers at night!

Garden's ivy as Pew Decoration, home made those friday.

Mini rehearsal

Procession order... I was so confused... it was so hard to mix both traditions!

Cake Part 2

And finally on friday I finished it. I frosted it in the morning, and stacked it in the afternoon. After my 12" disaster, I decided not to include it. After all, the bigger cake is the "foundation" and I couldn't have a broken foundation to support my 2 other cakes. I hoped the cake would still look good, and I hoped I would still have enough for our 60 guests... and if I didn't... we would just cut it and display it... period... The stacking went really well, and it was my first time. Putting the dowels in was easy... and stacking was a piece of cake :-). 

Trial cake to get an idea of how to decorate it

Final Result! Only 2 layers, but it looked and tasted awesome!

Around the town

I wasn't fond of our photographer, so I tried my best to lower our contract to the minimum: church and group pictures during the cocktail hour. So for our couple pictures, we asked a friend to take them for us. She is not a professional photographer, but has a really good camera and we trusted her. We figured we would feel more comfortable with her than the photographer. So before she arrived, we decided to go around town and look at places we liked to take pictures. 

Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal dinner is not a french tradition, but to please our american side, we decided to do one. We wanted it low key, good food, casual, familial. We did an evening moules frites and plateau de fruit de mer (mussels, fries and seafood platter). 

1st, cleaning the mussels

2nd, setting up the table for 15

3rd, enjoying everyone's company

4th, eating well!

Church

Finally some nice pictures of the church.

Cake making Part 1

Making your wedding cake you have to be organized. 

I baked the 12" on tuesday, the 8 and 6" on wednesday. I cut them and made the ganache on thursday, then made the buttercream and frosted them on friday. I stacked them friday afternoon and brought it over to the reception site!

Of course there were a couple glitches: my 12" cake wasn't 3" thick so I could only cut it in 2 layers.... so I had to make the decision to only do 1 filling: the ganache. Then I didn't cut the 12" cake right... it was crooked (my first time with such a big cake). Then my ganache wasn't hard enough so I managed as best as I could. My 12" top layer broke in 7 pieces when I tried to put it on top of the ganache. The next day I tried to frost my 12" cake to cover the broken pieces. A disaster. I had to convince myself that a 8" and 6" would be enough. 

Hair Trial

What I was aiming for:

This is what I got for my trial, and I am happy with it. During the wedding, I wasn't 

the happiest at first, but with the outfit it was more than perfect, and held until 3am.