Friday, November 23, 2012

British Meets French - The Wedding of Chantal and Pascal

This summer we had the pleasure of planning Chantal and Pascal's wedding. They were such a fun couple and with Chantal being British and Pascal being French they really wanted to incorporate the two nationalities into their day.

We met Chantal and Pascal at Helen and Thomas's wedding which we planned in Studland earlier this year. After attending Helen and Thomas's wedding as guests, Chantal and Pascal realised how much they still had left to do in a relatively short space of time so decided to hire Bellissimo for our "Final Three Months" including On The Day Co-ordination to motivate them and help them finalise plans and bring everything together for their big day. 

A special thank you must go to Amanda Clay Photography who was the photographer and has very kindly given us some of the beautiful images which she captured during the day for our blog and thank you to Chantal and Pascal for allowing us to share their day.

The ceremony was conducted in a beautiful church in Western Avenue in Poole which was filled with amazing purple and cream flowers by Simply Flowers.

Stunning pew ends

The guys looking really smart and getting ready for the arrival of the Bride

The first British treat of the day was awaiting guests outside the church to take them to the wedding reception- a Big London Red Bus! It was gorgeous and during the ceremony, Melanie and Nicolle were busy putting up Union Jack and French flag bunting. The bus made a great background for a confetti shot outside the church.


All of the guests loved going on the Big Red London bus- its such a novelty and a real treat for the French guests who see the Big Red bus as being a British icon. The bus driver was given French music to play for the guests to sing along to on the journey making the journey a truly British and French union.




The reception was held at Parkstone Golf Club where guests were greeted with Kir Royale on the sunny terrace over looking the beautiful Golf course. Chantal and Pascal were blessed with a wonderfully sunny and warm day and their guests were entertained on the Terrace by the wonderful voice of Katie Francesca who sang throughout the drinks reception.





For some more personal photos, Chantal and Pascal took a golf buggy across the golf course with a 'Just married' sign tied to the back!


Chantal and Pascal chose a lilac and purple colour scheme and Busy Bee Events provided the chair covers and sashes and Balloons which we helped set up before the guests arrived together with draping to create sections within the open plan style of the venue. 




There was a traditional British fruit wedding cake decorated with more beautiful flowers from Simply flower and a Croquembouche, a traditonal French dessert served at weddings so guests could decide which they wanted to have - or both!


The Croquembouche by Patisserie Angelique was spectacular! It had a real 'wow' factor when guests walked into the room and looked delicious.


The guests were treated to Smoked Salmon for starters, Chicken served with a mustard and cream sauce, potatoes and seasonal vegetables for main and then a selection of English and French desserts and French cheeses. Delicious macaroons and chocolates were served with the coffee after the meal.

Then it was time for the speeches which were just brilliant. The speech by the Father of the Bride was very emotional but also very funny and he even handed out lyrics for everyone to have a sing-a-long! He also did amazingly well to not only hand around translations of his speech in French for the French guests but also translated the speech into French himself. Pascal also made a very touching speech. Chantal also said a few words and had everyone in tears by the end of it!


Beautiful cream lanterns were lit after dark to light the terrace. It looked very romantic and magical!

When the evening guests arrived, it was time to cut the cakes and the first dance! Chantal and Pascal's first dance which they had choreographed beautifully. 

Chantal also had a first dance with her Dad to a medley of songs which they had also choreographed together.


In the evening, the guests were treated to the amazing Photo Lounge  which was themed with British and French props. We love this Photo Lounge because its not a booth but a big back screen so loads of guests can fit in each photo. You can also personalise it for your event and you get four photos printed on each postcard on the night.


It was lovely to see Helen and Thomas, one of our Bellissimo couples from earlier this year. They loved the photo lounge and they even won the award for 'Photo of the night'!

Melanie got in on the fun with Helen and Thomas too!

We had an amazing time helping Chantal and Pascal plan their wedding and we loved being part of their wedding on the day- they were so much fun! We loved worked with Amanda Clay again and with Katie Francesca and Simon from Final Cut Film who was great fun to have on the team.  Thanks so much to everyone who worked hard to make the wedding a truly wonderful day for everyone.  We wish Chantal and Pascal lots of love and happiness for their future together.

For more information on our wedding planning packages please visit our wedding page
x

Suppliers for Chantal and Pascal's Wedding:
Wedding planning- Bellissimo Wedding Planning
Videographer- Final Cut Film
Church- All Saint's Church, Branksome
Flowers- Simply Flower
Venue Dressing- Busy Bees Events
Drinks reception Entertainment- Katie Francesca
Photo Lounge- The Photo Lounge
Crouquembouche- Patisserie Angelique

Monday, November 12, 2012

How will you name your wedding tables

 If you look across wedding forums on the internet, it would seem that one of the most difficult decisions to make when planning your wedding is choosing the names for your tables. But picking your table names can be fun and allow you to be creative as a couple. Pick something personal and meaningful to you or something that fits into the theme of your day. We thought we would give you a helping hand and have come up with some ideas for you below.

Special places to the couple- places with special memories together or places of meaning to the couple e.g. names of street they grew up, where they went to uni etc
Image courtesy of Erin Hearts Court

Image courtesy of Hinkley Photo
The word 'love' in different languages- It might sound a little cheesy but can look really elegant and after all, it is a very romantic day!

Image courtesy of www.cutiecards-weddingwishes.com
Hollywood actors and actresses or Titles of Movies- This can work well if you're having a really glamorous theme or if you're both movie buffs. 
Image courtesy of www.inthetreehouse.co.uk


Names of beaches- This has been popular among our couples at our venue, Beach Weddings Bournemouth. Many of our couples have chosen beaches around the world as their table numbers and then displayed them on a map of the World for a table plan.
Image courtesy of www.inthetreehouse.co.uk
Flower names- Perfect for an English country wedding

Image courtesy of Tanja Lippert Photography
Cities or countries- choose cities you have traveled to together and therefore have a special meaning or if you haven't had the chance to travel together very much then the names of the Cities you want to travel to together, looking forward to your future married lives together.

Image courtesy of S6 Photography
 Song titles- choose songs that have meaning to you as a couple or your favourite songs. Or why not name each table after a different word in your first dance and keep your guests guessing as to what it will be!

Famous Landmarks of a favourite city or special place

Image courtesy of www.bunnydelicious.com
Traditional table numbers- these aren't so popular now but are perfect if you want the detail to be in the colour scheme and not the theme as such. You don't have to opt for the normal consecutive numbers 1-8. One of our couples had very bizarre table numbers- we were trying to work out what they were for ages but couldn't! There wasn't any correlation at all. It was a real talking point as none of the guests knew what they represented either, not even the Brides Father, who had made the table numbers knew what they meant! All was revealed in the Groom's speech. One was the number of their house, one the number of seconds they had been engaged, one the number of hours they had known each other, etc- each number had a special link to the couple.
Image courtesy of www.etsy.com
Take inspiration from your venue- e.g. if your venue is a castle, use names of Kings and Queens

Words associated with the season of your wedding- e.g. winter- snow, icicle, blizzard, for a Christmas wedding the 12 days of Christmas would make great festive table names

Cocktails- if you are a party couple then there are some great cocktail names

Titles of books- You would actually put books on the table as the table name rather than having a card with the table name on
Image courtesy of www.weddingfavours.wordpress.com
 
Famous partnerships- This could be a really fun one to create- it could be people or food, for example Ginger and Rogers or Fish and Chips!

What names did you choose for your tables? We would love to hear your thoughts or see some pictures!

x