Ceremony in a Park

This photo is from a park in the 19th arr. that we're thinking about for the wedding ceremony. Buttes Chaumont has several cliffs, a waterfall complete with grotto, and Chinese and English gardens. This photo shows the Belvedere of Sybil, which was modeled after the ancient Roman Temple of Sybil in Italy.

Progress!

I have been in contact with Emilie and Lucie at Wed in France and they have been very helpful. I finally feel like I am making progress on planning the ceremony that we are going to have in Paris. They have been willing to listen to our preferences, offer great advice, and help us fulfill our needs within a reasonable budget. Check out their site!

http://www.wedinfrance.fr/

They are planning to arrange the officiant/priest, photographer, bridal bouquet, dinner at our apartment, transportation, and also hair and makeup if I decide to get nuts and get pampered. Everyone in Paris seems to gasp when I suggest doing my own hair and make-up. ..and that's without them knowing me and my lack of beauty ability. Just think if they knew who they were dealing with! Maybe they have a point!

E-mail from Rail Europe

"You supplied us with your email address, while visiting our website, to alert you when the train from paris to nice, on 10/14/08 was available for purchase. Well, the day has come."

In other news, I successfully got a dress on Monday night!
I have the French photographer lined up!
I've heard back from a couple of people about finding everything from a celebrant to a French count to perform our ceremony...still not sure what is going on there.

Shopping and shopping

I spent 4 hours in a fitting room this afternoon trying on wedding dresses. It was at one time both fun and traumatic. There is something pretty certain, adult, and weird about wearing a wedding gown. There were a couple of standouts. I'm hoping to wrap up this portion of planning after one more shopping outing tomorrow evening. The nice ladies at Alfred Angelo in Boardman were somewhat shocked that this was my first trip to a boutique and my wedding is in October. "THIS October?!"

I finally booked something!

I finally booked something for the first three nights that we are in Paris...the 8th-11th. It's up in the 17th district, which is mostly residential. It's a great price so I don't mind being in an outer arrondisement. We'll be taking the metro all over the place anyways!
The 11th is the day we are planning to have our small ceremony. I'm beginning to think that I'll throw the consultant/planners to the wind and figure it out myself. Now how do I find a celebrant/officiant?

I spoke with a wedding consultant in Paris this morning and it freaked me out a little. Everything is going to be more expensive than I was initially thinking. I'm going to have to get tough and tell these people to cut out the extras. They all assume I will want a make-up artist and hair stylist and harpist and tons of flowers and the most expensive photographer in France. Either I am going to have to really work to cut corners with these coordinators that envision some elaborate and fancy ceremony or else I'm going to sell my left kidney on the black market sometime in September.

oooh la la

This very well may be the view we have on our wedding night!

I am a planner

I am a dork...well, I blame things like this on being in school for so long. What you (are kind of) able to see here is my excel spreadsheet (actually just part of it) where I am comparing different apartment possibilities. And yes, I have other worksheets for apartments/hotels in other areas of France as well as for wedding related plans, links, and contacts. What can I say? I like to be organized about things like this...

Still making plans...

Hunting for places to stay and figuring out all of the things we want to do on our trip!

The plan right now seems to be:
First few nights in a centrally located apartment
Wedding on Sat the 11th - stay in fancy shmancy apartment 1 night
Drive up to Mont St Michel & Normandy
????
Last few nights in a Monmartre apartment

I don't know...people seem to think that is too much scurrying around...and I have no clue...and the idea of jetting down to Provence or Avignon or Nice seems pretty awesome...Who knows!