Getting off the train at Veneux-les-Sablons, I started to feel the emotion of the day that I was suppressing in order to keep my liquid eyeliner in tact, coming up again. Waiting for us at the station was relatives, friends, and in-laws of Aurélien's ready with their engines running to transport us rowdy pack to my father-in-law's house. It was something so simple but for some reason, really moved me. Seeing my mom get in the car with Aurélien's bother in-law Thomas, and my highschool best friend loading her suitcase in the trunk of Aurélien's best friend's fiancée Julie, once again reminded me that it was another moment that I will most likely never see again. These group of people with very little in common had come together to speak broken Franglais for us. There was something very homemade about the way we planned the day's events, in our effort to get everyone together, to feel part of the family, and this life we have created over the past two years.
With the vin d'honneur and the reception being held in the garden of my new in-laws Gilles and Françoise where they have a guest house, we offered to host all of the American girls to sleep over since many of them shelled out for hotels in Paris. The Friday before the wedding was spent fluffing pillows with Aurélien's sister and my mom, and conducting a makeshift lottery by pulling names out of a hat to assign beds. As their fate would have it, some of the girl's were set up to sleep in the "costume room". More on that later...
Just as they were settled in and more veil fussing provided by Belle, my groom walked in. We tried to keep elements of our attire a secret from each other, but him living with a nosy yenta posed a problem as I wanted to know everything. While I had already seen his tux and helped pick out the bow-tie, a secret he did keep from me was wearing a sparkling new pair of white Repetto jazz shoes, the same that my father used to wear. Those emotions that I was trying to control started bubbling up again like a pot of water on the brink of boiling. Geez, why was everything provoking me to cry?
As a wedding surprise, Gilles rented us a vintage Rolls Royce to bring us down to town hall, with our guests trailing behind by foot. The driver greatly entertained himself by honking the hour in different musical arrangements the entire three minute drive. Surely irritating all of our neighbors and terrifying our guests he was rolling past, he kept looking through the rear-view mirror at the guests cackling with an open mouth over their reactions.
So you know how I said that our wedding wasn't a typical French wedding, our ceremony was conducted by Gilles, complete with a 9 page speech that he had translated in English and read by Aurélien's sister. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, guests enjoyed extremely dramatic orchestral versions of "November Rain" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Here are some of my favorite quotes from his heartwarming speech that made the wedding so uniquely us. "I'd like to specify that a good part of this ceremony will get a translation in English...Having questioned some members of the crowd who are in their 80s, they confirmed that they are fit as fiddles and a good ear, so they don't need sign language support!" "Dear Friends, let's take advantage of this moment, us French citizens, to pay tribute to the thousands of your grandparents who came across from the United States to free us from the nazis. Without them, our country's motto "liberté, egalité, fraternité" would no longer exist." "On a beautiful summer Sunday, a young New York writer with italo-mexicano-irish origins, in love with Paris to the point she had chosen to live in the city met a young urban-planner, mad about Paris, street art and riding his bike." "The word together suggests a real equality, which means being complementary and not being clones. Yes, I know there are scientists in the room. To maintain this equality, specialists advice to communicate time after time, and not only say "Babe, can you pass the salt?" Yes, I know communications specialists are also in this room."
"Finally and before the great solemn moment of your commitment, I wanted to quote the writer Jacques de Bourbon Busset, who said: "I have known the grace of living a great shared love."
Once all of the documents were signed, and I let out my shy "oui" (I even consider this public speaking in French), we were married!
But not so fast....
As our guests were waiting outside in the now pouring rain for us to come out as a newly married couple, the mayor of the town who was verifying all of the documents, found a problem. Apparently, we had signed on the wrong side of one of the forms and conversations about the wedding not being officiated and annulled were being had. We had already heard the word nazi on our wedding day, but I had to draw the line at annulled. I quickly became an unhappy bride, mostly because I saw through the window all of our friends and family standing outside in the cold rain for us to come out. "Can't we just print out another one, sign it and get our guests out of the rain?", I offered. But we're in France...so no.
Once everyone stopped saying annulled and surrendered the idea that the American witnesses were going to fly back to France a week later to re-sign the documents, it was announced that we were married...again. I don't know exactly how it was resolved because we all know how particular this country is with paperwork, and am a bit skeptical in the belief that all it took was me and my mother's New York comments to officiate the wedding. Wanting to get the show on the road, I stopped questioning and figured I'd find out when I apply for my new visa. That should be fun.
Sending Kitty out with a boombox to hit play for our "exit music" (so homemade!) Le Temps de l'Amour by Françoise Hardy, we were greeted by bubbles and heart tissue confetti that was immediately melted by the rain and headed towards our cackling Rolls Royce driver back to Gilles' house to begin the celebration....
"C'est le temps de l'amour, le temps de copains, le temps d'aventure..."
