Our Friend’s French Wedding

Our family went to our first French wedding.

Stephanie and Peter wed on July 7, 2012 in Capestang.

Their daughter is in Angelina’s class and coincidentally shares the same name. They were our first friends in Capestang, also moving here shortly before us and helped us out a great deal during our first few months here.

The day before their nuptials I offered to help with decorating the reception restaurant. ‘Jardin de la Pasquiere’ in Beziers is a stunning place to have a reception. In Fanny’s favourite colours and items she picked out, the group of us enjoyed our time placing the last few details making her special day as perfect as possible.

The next day we met up with forty other guests at the ‘Marie’ or city hall here in Capestang at 14:00. We wandered up behind the beautiful bride and handsome groom to an air-conditioned room where the major did his speech and married our friends while we witnessed their civil vow exchange that took under 30 minutes. Here they officially signed the paperwork.

With time to spare, we walked around Capestang’s square waiting to be seated in the church of Capestang for the religious ceremony. Their photographer took many photos of the happy couple with their children.

Alfonz and I were in Narbonne in the am purchasing Daniel’s new bike and ran out of time for lunch. We asked the Cafe Grille to prepare a couple of baguettes for our family outside their normal lunch hours, which they did happily and we enjoyed a bite and a cafe au lait while we watched the wedding guests explore until the traditional Catholic ceremony began in the beautiful church.

As Fanny’s favourite song played, she danced down the aisle a little on her brother’s arm. The mood was light and loving where whispers and giggles were heard during the one-hour service.

It reminded me of when Alfonz and I had our church wedding in Hungary, in a similar setting although a much smaller church along Balaton Lake. Same stain glass windows, same order of sermons just in a different language. It amazes me the consistency of Catholic faith, where in any church, in any country you can truly find comfort in the ritual. It is a common thread between the Catholics and during our friend’s religious vow exchange, I held on to my own husband remembering the importance of our vows.

The love between my friends is apparent, strong and encompassing. It is a remarkable thing to witness true love and the power of it.

We lined the church stairs and threw paper hearts instead of confetti and after jumped in our cars to make our way to the restaurant.

Fourteen decorated cars made up the procession towards Bezier, detouring through Capestang, through Beziers town centre and eventually to the restaurant, honking and throwing paper hearts the whole way. It was fun for us to show the kids how the French celebrate marriage.

The family was staying after the formalities for a sit down dinner at this location, while friends toasted the happy couple in the park outside the dinner hall in a beautiful garden setting with trees and grass.  It was a warm day with clear skies and we enjoyed watching all the children play in the park and the photographer do his magic.

Thank-you Fanny and Peter for inviting our family to help you celebrate your special day!

Congratulations from our family to yours,

That’s Hamori