You didn’t think we were going to let Friday slip by without sharing an actual wedding did you? Ooohhhh no. In fact, we’ve been saving something rather a little extra special and different for you today. Diana, who is Marketing Assistant for Marc Jacobs in the Asia Pacific region, married her beau Renaud, a Wealth Risk Manager at HSBC on 10th May this year at the beautiful Manoir D’Aulnay in Saint Sebastien de Morsent, France.
Of course, it was a certain dress (Diana wore two, as you will see) that stole my heart when I received this particular submission. I was so keen to learn more about that incredible purple ombre design with flowers…
“Our wedding was very much inspired by our favorite fashion designers. We wanted a Spring wedding, an English inspired ceremony and a very elegant Gatsby/Ralph Lauren feel throughout the reception. Once this was established, we started researching dresses and flowers.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Thao Vu Archey
“I wore a bespoke dress by designer Thai Nguyen – the inspiration for which came from Dior’s Fall 2012 campaign, in which actress Natalie Portman wore a similar gown. I was also inspired by my very favorite designer Alexander McQueen’s Spring 2007 floral dress.”
“We tried to add gentle Art Déco touches throughout the day, such as our seating plan, produced by Red Line Studio on Etsy. Our menu cards were produced by FiraPrintables on Etsy.”
“We were unsure about having wedding favors until we found the right idea! Sticky supply bright coloured candies that you can personalise with small designs, words or letters. We ordered 4kg, and got personalised stickers via OrangeUmbrellaCo. on Etsy. The tricky part was transporting them from Hong Kong – 120 jars are rather heavy!”
“Our photographer Thao Vu Archey is the definition of a professional. She is so patient and knew exactly how to capture the love and atmosphere during our wedding day. Thanks to her magic, we are now able to re-live all those special moments throughout our wedding every time we view our picture. It really was a dream to be working with a photographer that knew exactly what she wanted before she even spoke about it!”
“Picking a florist online was much more difficult than we thought. We did search for a while until we found Mélanie Miguel, a young and super professional florist that was extremely responsive and flexible with our ideas. We felt we got lucky finding such a gem of a person, and the flowers were exactly as we wanted.
We opted for hydrangeas as we wanted something both simple but elegant. You get to see very impressive centrepieces in some high-end weddings, but we wanted something gentle that didn’t make it impossible for people to talk to one another from their seats at the table. If you struggle choosing your flowers, I’d say, always choose to keep it simple.”
“As I felt my wedding dress will be very unique, I wanted Renaud to experience the same and sense of uniqueness and elegance, therefore knew I had to look to Mr. Paul Smith for his ceremony suit. ”
“Renaud and I met at my cousin’s wedding held in Paris in 2009. I was still a student studying in California then, so we stayed in touch through long distance until we decided to stop playing ‘pretend’ and admit our feelings for each other. We thus made ‘us’ official in 2010.”
“During our long distance relationship, Renaud had an amazing opportunity to move to Hong Kong in 2011. In 2012, he surprised me with a ticket to Paris – as neither of us had been for a while. During our trip, Renaud proposed at the Chatelet bridge (which is also where he happens to have asked me on our first date). Not long after this, I went to join him to live in Hong Kong and we got legally married on May 16, 2013 at the French Consulate in Hong Kong with a few of our friends as witness. We then had our ‘dream’ wedding in France with our closest friends and family on May 10, 2014.”
“My parents both gave me away. I felt they were very proud to walk their youngest daughter down the aisle. We agonised on writing down our vows ahead of the big day until it was our actual wedding day! At the last minute, Renaud’s mother decided to read during our ceremony. It was a last minute inspiration and a nice gesture from her too.”
Renaud says “When it came to our vows, I wrote down the key things I wanted to say, and worked from there. If you’re stuck for inspiration, simply think of your story, and how meeting that person you’re about to marry in front of everyone has changed your life. Tell a short story if you will, that’s something that people love to hear.”
“It was quite an adventure convincing our (very French) groomsmen to all find a suit that will match during the wedding as it is not a very popular tradition in France. Thankfully, they were the most supportive bunch and played along in the fun and might I add they all look dashing!”
“To tone tone our looks for the evening celebrations, I chose to wear a Japanese inspired wedding gown by a designer name Junko Yoshioka. I loved love the fact that it was so different from my day-time dress. It had the simplicity and elegance that I really wanted to carry off in the evening. It’s something completely unexpected from my friends and family as they know me as being more ‘out there’.
In the evening, Renaud went for his favorite designer’s black label Tuxedo, Ralph Lauren.”
“We added paper pompoms all over the place – simple, ridiculously inexpensive, yet it made the place look and feel wonderful. To help set the mood, we also ordered luminary table numbers via Emalias Fancy on Etsy.
Our personalised guestbook came from Minty Basil Design on Etsy.”
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Words of Wedded Wisdom…
“You can’t and you won’t be able to get all the contractors and accessories and details that you dream of – things may get canceled or may have to be changed at the last minute, but it’s ok! People will only get to see what you ended up picking, and will never know about that ring box that never made it on time or those invitations that are not letter-pressed as you wanted – and they’ll still totally love it. So don’t stress if something falls through – it’s not worth losing sleep on something that no one will ever know about.
Renaud says that something he would do differently is make sure everyone involved with the wedding day knows exactly what they’re supposed to do during that day. A few things we had planned never happened on the day simply because we didn’t make sure the food caterer’s staff was briefed in detail about our plans for instance – so make sure everybody has been told everything twice.
I can’t help but tear up every time I think about all the love we felt that day. The only thing I wish I could have done was sit down more often to really enjoy those feelings throughout the day.”
Not sure I’ve ever quite seen a dress like that and knew I just had to share it with you.
Are any of your choosing to wear a coloured wedding dress on your wedding day? I’d so love to hear your reasons why in the comments below if so!
Immense thanks to Diana and Renaud for sharing their wedding with us today – I hope you have a colourful weekend my lovelies – we’re back with more features tomorrow so do pop by in the morning if you have a moment.
Love Annabel xx
Photographer – Thao Vu Archey
Event Planner – Kelly Duprat
Venue – Manoir D’Aulnay in Saint Sebastien de Morsent, France
Bride’s purple ombre dress – Thai Nguyen Collection, White Label
Bride’s Dress white dress – Junko Yoshioka, Trinity Bridal Hong Kong
Veil/Headpiece – Thai Nguyen
Brides Shoes – Jimmy Choos (ceremony) + Christian Dior (reception)
Accessories – vintage Cartier watch via the bride’s mother
Grooms day-time look – suit + floral shirt via Paul Smith
Groom’s evening look – Tuxedo via Ralph Lauren + cufflinks/evening shoes via Givenchy
Bridesmaids – supplier not named
Flower girl Dresses – Color Angles Boutique on Etsy
Page boy – Tailored made via Etsy by Gnuhloves on Etsy
Flowers – Mélanie Miguel
Cake Pops – Cup & Cake
Favours – Sticky + personalised stickers via OrangeUmbrellaCo on Etsy
Hair + Make-up – Sheryl Chua
Personalised Guestbook – Minty Basil Design on Etsy
Personalised produce – LinenWorkshop on Etsy – Gracious Bridal
Entertainment – DJ Khoizilla
Table plan – Red Line Studio on Etsy + menu cards created by FiraPrintables
Rings – Chanel
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Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
Both such exquisite dresses! Completely in love with the purple ombre dress!! Definitely a wedding with a “wish you were here?” factor!
Definitely Emma! I’d love to see that dress for real! x
I totally agree with Emma! that purple dress is blowing my mind! It has that look of vintage Hollywood but with a very chic and modern class to it.