We emerged as you might expect - hair, make up, heels and dresses. We know how to clean up.
Benoit picked us up in a new vehicle perfect for racing through back roads in the rain.
We picked up Roni from the salon (and managed to avoid a catastrophic blowout incident) and raced to the church. Literally raced. On the way to the church Roni told us to expect the rehearsal to be 1 1/2 hours. I was convinced this was a translation problem. How many weddings have I been in? Well enough to know that rehearsals don't usually last longer than the ceremony.
Prepare yourself for my next statement.
I was wrong.
Yes I was wrong and the bride was absolutely correct! The rehearsal was longer than 1 1/2 hours. It all started with a little something called choir practice. There were roughly - okay exactly - 4 songs that the congregation was participating in. By participating I mean singing the chorus. Our French friends were not convinced we could handle the chorus so we practiced and practiced and practiced. Then the priest arrived and declared that God couldn't hear our voices. It was like a holy call out. Like what God can't hear me? I'll make God hear me!
While all this is going on I want you to picture Courtney and I in our pretty dresses, Roni in a beautiful dress, Benoit in a jacket and slacks and every single other person at the rehearsal in jeans and sweaters. Jeans and sweaters. Jeans and sweaters. Jeans and sweaters. Yeah. Not only were C & I cold but uncomfortable! 4 inch heels on stone floors is not the most comfortable thing in the world.
So after the singing we started rehearsing the ceremony. Benoit's family was organizing the entire ceremony so the wedding coordinator for the church didn't have to participate. Are you wondering how they'd know what Roni would want? or if they'd done this before? Not to worry... they'd watched numerous American movies to find out what Roni would want. Should I repeat that or did you get it?
We all ligned up... mothers walking together... then me (tallest)... then C... then flower boys/ring bearers... then Becky... then bride. Sounds normal right? Well the French said non non non! We looked like the seven dwarfs all tallest to shortest. So we rearranged... C and I walked together instead of one after another. After 2 run throughs "we" decided it was acceptable. With everyone down the aisle we started rehearsing the ceremony except it felt more like we were making it up as we went. Don't get me wrong it was highly entertaining. The priest kept saying how he falls in love with Roni every time he walks in the room. The priest explained to Courtney how to read - like literally how to read out loud to a group - hysterical. It was awesome. At the end we went to walk out with the groomsmen but non non non we had to escort the guests outside to wait for R&B to exit the church.
Once done with our rehearsing we were to walk to dinner which was a few minutes walk. Generally a few minutes walk in my experience equates to 1/4 mile. I did not want to walk in the cold in my heels to dinner. No thank you. B's grandma brought C & I sweaters and jackets. I LOVE B's grandma! Then B offer to drive us in our yellow chariot. Oh kind Benoit. Chivalrous Benoit.
Are any of you surprised to hear that we accepted the ride? Didn't think so.
So we park. We start walking to the restaurant on the corner. Oh it's not the one on the corner. It's just down a bit. Okay next one? Oh a little farther? Okay how far is this place? Wait a minute why is it raining in addition to the wind? Wait why is the rain horizontal? We're still not there yet? My hair! (again pretend to be surprised) Hey look there's so much rain on my face it's dripping off? Is that it ahead? Over there? Phew! Found it.
The rest of the guests walked there. None of them were wet. It hadn't rained on "that side of the beach". They all asked - why are you all wet? So that's fancy dresses and covered in water. It was damn funny though.
Dinner was lovely chatting with everyone (in a warm dry location that served wine). The only photos I took that night were at dinner and mainly of R's nephew Jaxon.
Jax with his awesome drink (that he wouldn't touch)
Jax with R's bro and sis
R, C and the priest - oh how he loved C!
New Wedding Photographer
Church that Night
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh loooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrd!
ReplyDeleteyes, the congregation also got choir practice. luckily we had people attending mass during the ceremony who could sing boisterously for us since we Americans were super unloud in our singing. yes, i said people attending mass. in france, weddings are not for just the couple... apparently townspeople or others who just want to get in a mass can and do join the ceremony!
oh. and i put miss lyman in charge of the camera that evening... those are the photos she came home with!! in fairness, i can see how pics would have been awkward, but still!! :)
ReplyDeletedid they say which american movies they watched to learn about american weddings? so curious!
ReplyDeleteand confused how everyone else was dry, but you were wet. i suppose the french are born with natural rain repellant.
and sarah forgot to mention the part where they test drove the whole: step, together, step, together walking approach to going down the aisle. classic. and oh so american.
ReplyDeleteoh no we didn't do the step together thing. we squashed that before we started walking.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck?? So much confusions! Wetness, movies, priest in love with bride that ended up being younger than i thought...therefore creepier that he was in love with bride? Can't believe you were there for 1.5 hours, but after hearing everything that went into it, makes some sense!
ReplyDeleteGood thing it turned out to be such a great event!