Once Outside the Church

Guests did use our bells! They understood what to do with them even though they asked my sister to make sure.

I don't know if you realized while reading the previous post that the priest never asked us to Kiss! Yep, we didn't even realize either, but ended up doing it anyway. 

Then the family picture with the parents

Just my parents and I

The Groom's parents

Grand parents, parents, and us as well as the priest

The wedding party and my sister's friend. Funny that the colors were purple and green... everyone was wearing pink :-), but is looked really nice.

Brother and sister

My sister and us

The gorgeous ladies with hats: Fleur, Fiona, Aude, Mom, Marie Elizabeth, Dominique

My mom and her best friend

In the car

Once we left the church, we were supposed to go around to the parking lot and wait for my dad to lead us there. But we waited and waited, and he didn't come. We ended up loosing the driver who was looking for my dad, and we arrived late to the reception site! But we took pictures!

Ceremony... The exit

Exiting the church... I wanted the guests to exit first, followed by us, and the wedding party because churches in France don't have an area where you can just wait without being seen. So if you go first, you come out of the church and no one is outside cheering! But when the priest told us we could go, no one went! So Rich and I got stuck there for a bit, and still no one. We ended up going and we had to figure out what to do once outside!

The Bride's dad with the Groom's mom

The bride's mom with the groom's dad

The grand parents

The witnesses (best man and maid of honor)

Everyone else

We solved problem with going outside of the church first: we waited at the back of the church and improvised a receiving line just the both of us. So we had time to say hello to the guests and then they made their way outside.

Ceremony... The Signatures

Rich and I following the priest to sign the register

The maid of honor/witness

The best man/witness

Next the rings

The couple's prayer

Prayer of the faithful: Aude singing, Mike and Anthony reading

One of my mom's english student... she was so cute! She distributed the programs and the bells... her brother was the altar boy

And the ceremony started...

The priest as I mentioned before is a good family friend. He married my parents and baptized me... 

My friend Aude was leading the singing.. here the entrance song

The programs... I had asked my sister to put down programs on the seats of all the people in the wedding party, and on Rich's and mine. Well, seemed like she forgot because when we got down the aisle, we didn't have programs, neither did my parents. I had to borrow one from my grand parents and my parents had to share the other one. Disaster! I spent so much time making them!

Rich's grand pa doing the first reading

Rich's parents

The 3 girls singing the meditation song (after the first reading)... Aude, Fiona, Fleur

The psalm then The gospel

Homily

Exchange of vows

My grand ma and my sister singing after the exchange of vows, but before the rings...

The witnesses a.k.a. best man and maid of honor with us

Ceremony... Getting in the Church

The processional was the hardest part to figure out. 

The traditional french way: the groom goes first with his mom (on his left), then the father of the groom with the mother of the bride, the witnesses, the grand parents, brothers and sisters. Then the Bride with her father followed by the "enfants d'honneur" (bridesmaids?)

The traditional American way: Grandmothers of the groom seated by an usher, followed by their husbands, then same for the grandmothers of the bride. The mother of the groom, then mother of the bride escorted by ushers... Then the officiant and the groom walk in from the side, followed by the attendants down the aisle. The flower girl and ring bearer walk in, and finally the bride and her father. 

This is what we decided on doing:

Me and my father waiting to walk down the aisle

The Groom and his mother first (french tradition)

The officiant greeting the processional 

The grand parents, first the grand parents of the groom then the grand parents of the bride.

Then the father of the groom with the mother of the bride

The brother and sister (groomsmen and bridesmaid)

Best man and maid of honor

The groom waiting at the front of the church

The officiant greets my dad and I and walks in front of us down the aisle

I know I didn't pick the nicest photo of my dad and I, but I chose that one to make a point. While walking down the aisle, I noticed that you couldn't even see people's faces... just cameras. It was really strange to not even be able to identify who was there, because every single one of the guests were taking pictures. Digital cameras are great, everyone wants a picture, but I would have loved seeing people, not only flashes.