Céline & Oz
Photography by Anna Clarke Photography
Oz The Groom: We’ve always wanted a DIY wedding to mix French and English traditions and thought that a village hall would offer the flexibility to do so; and more importantly to party past midnight! When we went to see Worfield Village Hall, we just fell in love with it! It had a lot of character – a historical building with wooden floors and beams, and our bunting and fairy lights gave it a really magical look!
The Beauty
Céline The Bride: I had my hair and make-up done by the lovely Sarah - and it was perfect! For my make-up, I wanted something natural and simple, but yet enough make-up to cover any flaw and hold all day, and she did wonders! I’d definitely recommend the Gemey Maybelline Superstay 24-Hour Lipstick. For my hair, I knew I wanted it up, with a few flowers, but did not want anything too sophisticated or too neat as my hair doesn’t obey easily. Also, I knew I’d have a few rebellious locks before the end of the photo shoot. I told Sarah, and from there she created the perfect hair-do!
The Photography & Videography
Oz The Groom: I knew Simon from when he did the music video for my band, Conquistadors, a few years ago and we discovered Anna independently when doing wedding photographer homework. When we realised that they were married and saw the amazing quality of their work, we just knew they were the ones! Both Simon and Anna were immensely professional, but perhaps even more important than that, they were very down to earth, which was a great help in settling the nerves on the big day! We’re so happy with our wedding photos and videos; we can’t thank them enough for their great work.
The Bride
Céline The Bride: I just loved my dress, Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner. I love it so much that I still have it at home to this day and can’t part with it yet! I did not know which style of dress I wanted until I went to California Brides and tried all possible styles. When I tried mine on, I fell in love with it. The dress was covered in lace, which was an added bonus to me, as I am from Calais, a city renowned for its lace. I bought it there and then, with the longest veil I had ever seen. I loved this combination – the dress was elegant yet simple enough for me to feel comfortable in my own skin, but the veil completed the outfit. As I got the dress for a bargain, I chose to indulge in a beautiful pair of ballerina shoes for the day – the Repetto Théâtre! These were so comfy that I didn’t need to change halfway through the day. And as I am always in ballerina flat shoes I felt they were perfect for me. On the day, I also wore a beautiful navy blue bracelet from Swarovski, which complemented the colour of Oz’s suit.
The Wedding Party
Oz The Groom: Our colour scheme was white and navy blue. I had four groomsmen and a best man. We all wore matching navy blue silk ties from Hawes & Curtis, white pocket squares from Moss Bros and Argyle socks. Céline The Bride: I had my three little sisters as my bridesmaids and they all wore long navy blue dresses from Coast, and flat ballerina shoes covered in white lace to match my dress. They just looked gorgeous!
The Decor
Céline The Bride: For a really long time we had no theme or scheme at all! Every time we were asked, we used to joke and said that our theme was ‘wedding’. When Oz chose his navy blue suit, we decided to pick his colour and the colour of my dress as our colour scheme: navy blue and white. The theme for the venue was shabby chic and travel, as it’s a passion of both of ours. We hired various antiques from Something Borrowed; a typewriter, a bicycle, a postbox, suitcases, and bunting and this made up the bulk of the décor in the room...We named each table after a city which we visited together and put a vintage postcard of that city on the table.
The Flowers
Oz The Groom: We used Posies Florist in West Bromwich for our flowers, and they were fantastic – we can’t recommend them enough! They performed miracles like sourcing flowers for the bridesmaids’ bouquets that were out of season (blue anemones). There was a beautiful floral arrangement to greet the guests as they entered the church, another in the basket of our antique bicycle, beautiful table displays and of course our wonderful button holes and bouquets. All our flowers were white, except for the buttonholes and the girl's bouquets, which were white and blue. On the tables, we had a selection of white flowers such as roses and tulips in three vases. Céline The Bride: I didn’t want anything too traditional for my bouquet and asked to have peonies. They were just gorgeous! I couldn’t let go of the bouquet for hours!
The Ceremony
We selected three traditional upbeat hymns and had readings in both French and English. The organist played our first dance song whilst we were signing the register as a sneak peek of what was to come!
The Reception
Rob Simpson was our DJ (sadly now retired) and did a great job! People were dancing before the meal, between courses and throughout the night, which is a good reflection of his DJ-ing skills. Our first dance was Can’t Help Falling in Love with You by Elvis Presley. A firm favourite within Céline’s family is Claude François’ Alexandrie Alexandra which has a music video with a rather comical and complicated dance routine (definitely check that out). On our wedding website, we encouraged our guests to learn the routine in time for the wedding and were thrilled to see that so many people had accepted the challenge with enthusiasm. Even those who weren’t familiar with the routine joined in on the night and we have amazing memories of these moments. There were also two other dances that involved a broom and then some napkins, but that’s another story.
The Food
We used local caterers Fresh & Lush, who are a family business, use locally sourced seasonal produce and were very familiar with our venue. We had an amazing selection of canapés (Filo Cup of Caesar Salad with Quail Egg & Anchovy, Glazed Butternut, Feta & Walnut Tartlets and Open Filo of Marinated Baby Prawns with Lime & Ginger) with a wonderful dinner of the following:
Butternut Squash, Spinach, Feta & Roasted Red Pepper Frittata with Mixed Leaf Salad & Balsamic Vinegar Chicken Breast wrapped in Bacon with Dauphinoise Potatoes, Sautéed Vegetables & a Madeira Sauce Vanilla Crème Brûlée with Strawberry Granita
For favours, we hand-folded a load of nifty boxes and they were filled with traditional French wedding favours ‘dragées’ (candied almonds).
The Paper Goods
It was all DIY. We love the airmail style and our wedding invitations, table plan and place names were all made to match that style, which nicely matched our travel theme. We arranged the table plan on a beautiful shabby chic chalkboard.
Advice
Céline The Bride: It’s a cliché but it’s one for a good reason - try and remember every moment because the day just flies by! Invest wisely in your photos, videos and rings as they will be reminders of your big day. For us, one of the keys to our day was that we hadn’t planned too much during the day, which meant that we were able to embrace it and enjoy it fully, without being worried about time-keeping and too many details.
