The Good Life France bumped into Monique Marriage recently – she’s the lady who puts the va va voom into a French wedding style blog that is followed avidly by those planning or dreaming of weddings. We thought it would be great fun to ask her what her own dream wedding would be like. The only criteria we set was – it would have to be in France, other than that we urged her to go wild, if money was no object and she could have what she wanted – what would the wedding expert design?!
MM: I have been married for a number of years and as I don’t want to get divorced any time soon, I am going to be planning my dream scenario for renewing my marriage vows in France.
I have been on an interesting journey writing this post, what started off as a fun exercise, really got me to thinking as to which parts of my wedding day I remember and the elements I was looking to invest time and money in. When it came to the theme of the day I didn’t choose one as such, but looked towards our own style to act as a guide. With my black hair, signature red lipstick and my husband’s understated classic style, the all-encompassing theme is old school vintage glamour. The colour palette for this style would be kept simple and clean with white, black and red.
My advice when looking for a theme or style for your wedding day would be to stick with your own style. Do not rely on trends to dictate your wedding theme, be true to yourself and your photos will never date.
Given a vintage glamour style and celebrating our love, the location just had to be Paris! There are so many venues in Paris to suit all types of wedding from ultra-modern celebrations, to rooms with an intimate traditional atmosphere, and of course not forgetting buildings steeped in history with an opulent feeling of vintage glamour.
Hotel Crillon on the world famous Place de la Concorde and in walking distance of the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens, is the chosen venue. Originally commissioned in 1758 by Louis XV, the Count de Crillon acquired the palace in 1788, where it remained in the Crillon family until 1907 when it was transformed into a palace hotel.
The exquisite interior of the Hotel with its eight banqueting rooms, sets the glamorous tone for the celebrations, including the Salon Marie-Antoinette which is where Queen Marie-Antoinette is said to have taken music lessons.
The decor in the rooms of Hotel Crillon mean that you can let them speak for themselves, you do not need to over decorate them but let their beauty become your wedding backdrop. Keeping in line with the colour and style, the flowers decorating the room would be classic deep red roses and tulips in the style of this by Panacea:
Bridal style should always be dictated in a large part by your own style and body shape. At 5.4” with an hour glass figure I have chosen one of my favourite English designers Stephanie Allin and her Bardot dress. The sweetheart neckline, nipped in waist and full skirt is just delightful, but on a twist I would be replacing the white belt for a jet black belt with matching sparkles as per the Jo Barnes Vintage Gracie headpiece.
The bridal wardrobe would be finished with bright red Louboutin slingbacks and a classic red rose bouquet.
In this type of bridal style the hair and makeup is all important and for ultimate vintage glamour, there is only one person who I would turn to create the look – Lexi DeRock.
For my husband who has a very understated style, I have gone for a classic tuxedo but instead of the traditional bow tie a skinny black tie such as Chase Crawford wore at the Golden Globes with his Dolce & Gabbana tux.
I couldn’t have a celebration in France without including a croquembouche as the wedding cake. However I would opt for a slightly alternative version than the ones often created by Parisian Hotels. As shown in the Cervia croquembouche designed and created by Zucchero Pâtisserie in the UK, the Cervia is the usually profiterole tower but finished with Valrhona Ivoire 35% white chocolate fans and then dressed with Red Passion roses.
For the smaller details and in particular the wedding invite, I would find vintage romance books at thrift sales, find a blank page at the beginning of the book and actually write the invite into the book. A single red rose would then be placed into the book at the correct page and then closed with a ribbon securely tied around the book. As this would be an intimate renewal, I could afford the time to create and hand deliver each invite to the special people in our life.
For the female wedding favour a collection of vintage brooches would be collected and placed on each female guest table setting in a black and red silk bag.
