Ai and Guillaume, a Franco-Japanese couple, live in Japan. After having a civil service at home, they decided to organise a charming symbolic ceremony and beautiful reception in Guillaume’s native country – France.
The couple entrusted us with the entire planning of their wedding, as it was difficult for them to organise themselves because of the distance and 10-hour time difference. Both Ai and Guillaume work long hours, so they didn’t want to spend what little free time they had left making wedding arrangements.
Though the ceremony and reception were initially to be held in Ile-de-France, we decided to take them a little further afield to Eure-et-Loire and the magnificent Esclimont castle, which fitted the couple’s specifications perfectly – beautiful surroundings with lots of greenery.
After several months of preparations, Ai and Guillaume finally arrived in France accompanied by a small number of guests, just a few days before the wedding.
Final preparations took place that morning, to allow the couple to spend a few hours on their couple photo shoot before the service.
The ceremony was incredibly intimate with only 8 guests, and took place in the park facing the castle. The wedding officiant worked alongside a Japanese interpreter, so that all the guests, whether French or Japanese, could understand the service.
At the end of the service, the emotion was tangible. Guests hugged and congratulated the newlyweds amidst a flurry of bubbles.
The guests were asked to leave a nice memento for the bride and groom with a special fingerprint tree, which was created by the couple to look like a bird holding balloons.
Then everyone made their way to the cocktail reception, which took place outside under the summer sun (the wedding was held on June 23rd 2016). Here, a few group photos were snapped to capture the moment. Then, at the bride and groom’s request, the wedding cake was brought out, cut, and some more photos were taken. Then the cake was put back inside to be served up later.
At this point in the day, the bride and groom slipped off to change their outfits.
An hour later, the bride and groom returned looking refreshed. The bride was sporting a gorgeous lavender dress and a new hairdo, and the groom looked dapper in a cream suit.
Then, they were ready to welcome their guests to the incredible reception room (which was the same room as where the service had been held).
The decoration scheme was fairly simple – the welcome basket that greeted guests to the ceremony had been moved to mark the dining room entrance.
The beautiful red Napoleon chairs used in the service were perfect for the reception as well.
The dinner table was decked out with beautiful floral arrangements and tiny succulents, all in a vibrant colour scheme of reds and greens with a few touches of white and lavender.
For wedding favours, the couple had chosen small vials of thyme-infused salt and little shortbread biscuits.
The menus were printed on recycled paper in both French and Japanese.
The placeholders were beautifully set off by sprigs of flowers
The guests left with many wonderful memories of a fantastic trip to Paris!
We would like to wish the couple every happiness in their life together.
Photo credit : Fred Porez
Planning by Ceremonize
Decoration : My Day and Co
Wedding venue : Chateau d’Esclimont
Make-up artist : Charles Gillman
Hairdresser : Pia Paysant
Celebrant : Aude Abadie
