Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Our Parisian Wedding -- Part I: le Pont des Arts

It has been nearly two months since our wonderful wedding in Paris, and I am finally ready to share some of the photos we recently received from our fantastic photographer, Juliane Berry. She was a dream to work with and took such beautiful photos that perfectly captured our day.

We had decided to do our ceremony in the morning as we noticed the Paris streets were nice and quiet in the early morning hours, and that would give us a lot of freedom and privacy to have our ceremony and take photos wherever we liked. Our only snafu was that the Paris Marathon (think 50,000 runners--eek!) was happening that day, much to our surprise, but between Juliane and our driver Didier, we didn't even see a single runner while we drove around Paris, and there was almost no traffic.

Didier picked us up in his 1953 Citroen in front of our apartment (more on our gorgeous apartment here if you're interested) at about 7:10 am, as sunrise was at 7:20. I had initially wanted "getting ready" photos, but I'm glad we jettisoned those and went right to our ceremony spot, the Pont des Arts across the Seine.

Paris Wedding

I did do a little bit of getting ready while waiting on the bridge, just to make sure my lipstick looked right. I decided to do my own hair and makeup as I wasn't sure if I could find someone to do it the way I wanted without meeting them well in advance. I love makeup and I know what looks best on me, so I preferred to mess with it myself. It turned out looking very "me," which Sean and I both agreed was the way to go.

Getting Wedding Ready, Hello Framboise, Paris


Although I was lettering for quite a few other weddings this spring, I managed to make some time to letter a few of our pieces of wedding paper, which included this pretty card I gave to Sean during our ceremony. I'm pretty sure my note inside made very little sense because I was in tears--happy, emotional, madly-in-love tears--while I was trying to write it late in the evening the night before.

Hello Framboise's Calligraphy Wedding Note

The next few photos show our sweet little ceremony on the Pont des Arts. The sun was just rising over the Seine, and there wasn't a soul in sight. It was the perfectly intimate exchange of vows we had hoped we'd be able to have.

Hello Framboise's Paris Wedding

Hello Framboise Paris Wedding

Hello Framboise's Calligraphy Wedding Vows

After we exchanged vows, read one another's notes, and signed the wedding contract I had hand-calligraphed with our vows, we took the lock we had written our names on and locked it firmly to the bridge. The legend says that if you place a love lock on this bridge, you will have a happy, long married life.

Hello Framboise's Paris Wedding

Hello Framboise's Paris Wedding

I had been advised by many websites and previous Parisian brides that I should find a florist to create my bouquet when I arrive and not fuss with ordering it ahead of time. I'm guessing those brides must have spoken much, much better French than Sean and I were able to manage while ordering flowers. I had brought along my iPhone with Pinterest open on it to try to show them what I wanted, but I was told I'd have something "even better" in 24 hours. When I returned, there was more French confusion, but in the end, I got a gorgeous, unique bouquet that I absolutely loved. It had blush roses, white anemones, eucalyptus leaves, juniper berries, and darker greenery, which gave it a vintage-insired feel. Oh, and Sean's rose boutonniere looked sweet and stylish on him, too.

Hello Framboise Paris Wedding

Hello Framboise Paris Wedding

At the moment pictured below, I think I felt like the luckiest, happiest girl in the world.

Hello Framboise Paris
Photo Credit: Juliane Berry
On Tam: Dress: Sue Wong (carried at BHLDN) | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Earrings: J. Crew (similar here)
On Sean: Suit: Calvin Klein (similar) | Shirt: Brooks Brothers | Tie: Yves St. Laurent | Shoes: Ecco
Flowers: L'île aux fleurs, 20 Rue Monge, 75005 Paris

More wedding posts from Paris coming later this week! [Update: read Part II and Part III.]

x, Tam

P.S. If you're interested in reading my past travel posts about Paris, they can be found here: one | two | three | four

40 comments:

  1. WOW absolutely romantic and beautiful. An amazing wedding...simple, romantic, intimate...congrats and wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words and well-wishes!

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  2. So, so gorgeous, Tam! You look absolutely breathtaking and husband kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds (in the 5th photo). I also love all the details and personal touches that you added. Happy sigh... I'm so happy for you!

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  3. your wedding pictures are gorgeous! You look so beautiful and I love your dress. The color is just so beautiful.

    I also love your lettering! I've been wanting to learn. Did you take classes? or did you just practice??

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    1. Thank you for the kind words!

      I haven't taken any lettering classes, but I really want to. I've just been learning from the Internet, books, and trial-and-error. If you want to get started on your own, Besotted Blog has some great posts about beginner supplies, and IAMPETH has guidelines, samples, lessons, and videos you can download/watch for free.

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  4. A million congrats! I'm very cynical when it comes to weddings because I feel like so many people these days worry more about putting on a big show to impress people than they do about their actual marriage (which - surprise! - ends a few years later). But I have high hopes for you because it's clear that you guys just cared about what your wedding meant to you and not what it meant to other people. :)

    ~Sarah

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    1. Thank you, Sarah! I am so happy with the way we did it--it was very meaningful for us and (mostly) stress-free.

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  5. YAY! YAY! YAY! I have been waiting for these gorgeous photos! Gah, I can't get over how beautiful you look, Tam! And we finally get to see photos of your husband! I can't wait for Part II! (That was a lot of exclamation points, clearly I am excited hehe)

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  6. Oh my WORD! You look positively gorgeous! What an amazing wedding and beautiful pictures.

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    1. Thank you so much, Meags! It's nice to hear from you. Hope your family is doing well!

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  7. I love it, lady! Absolutely love it!! This is so perfect!

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  8. Wow, I can't get over these photos! They look so classic and romantic, like they could be from any time period. I just love the way you guys decided to marry. I loved my beach wedding, but this looks amazing and I want to do it all over again now ;)

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    1. Your beach wedding was amazingly beautiful! Thanks for the kind words about the photos. We love how they turned out. Juliane does such a good job capturing the magic of Paris!

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  9. Oh wow! Congratulations! The photos are gorgeous and your calligraphy is amazing. I would love for you to do some for my wedding tis fall. Are you free?

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    1. Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like my calligraphy! What is it that you're looking to have done for your wedding? Envelope addressing, making signs, place cards, invitation design? If you click "contact" at the top right of the page, you can send me an email about your project, and the I can calculate logistics.

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  10. So, so, so, beautiful! You two did it RIGHT!

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    1. Thank you, Kelly! We thought it was a great decision. A few family members had differing opinions at first, but they came around eventually :).

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  11. Oh Tam, what a beautiful story and journey to get married in the most romantic city in the world! You and Sean both look smashingly beautiful! I wish you both all the happiness in the world :)

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    1. Thanks, lady! You are so sweet. We very much appreciate the well-wishes!

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  12. Lorraine Peralta ThomsonJune 5, 2014 at 3:36 AM

    Beautiful!

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  13. So Gorgeous!!!

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  14. Such a cute dress!! Polka dots are always a fun choice, I love how you always play with different patterns and colors. The pop of red in the handbag and lipstick is just perfect!!!

    I had so much fun going through your profile at http://www.leguidenoir.com/tam-n and seeing some of your Top Posts. =) Top Post # 1 is such a great example of your impeccable style!!
    Xx

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  15. I love this and your blog. Congrats!!

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  16. Magical! Heavenly! Gosh, I can't find the words Tam! It just all looks so lovely and perfect!

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  17. So magical! I want to get married in Paris now! Can you maybe talk about how you altered your dress? Did it need alterations? Thx!

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    1. The dress did need some alterations. I ordered the size 0 and had it taken up about an inch at the shoulders, and it was hemmed about five inches (what was cut off the bottom ended up wrapping my bouquet). I considered having the whole dress slimmed, but when the tailor pinned it for me, it seemed to interrupt the lines of the dress, so I left it a little looser to keep the Deco look.

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  18. Congratulations (way late!)!! These are amazing pictures, you two both look just stunning!

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  19. I stumbled upon your post after googling the dress - I just purchased the same one online and wanted to find pictures of real brides wearing it. After seeing your beautiful wedding pictures, I have no doubt that I made the right choice. You look stunning in it; your hairstyle and lipstick color complement the dress perfectly. Congrats.

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  20. Wow! Everything about this wedding is perfect. Well done! And you both look amazing. Congratulations......Wishing you many, many years of happiness together.

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  21. Did you guys elope? its a beautiful ceremony. so intimate. I am trying to get my bf to elope, but he seems to want a party. Just thinking of having a big party stresses me out!

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  22. Beautiful!!! congratulations, you must be so happy!

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