Tue 11th Oct, 2011

Clementine and Olivier's silhouette and pastel wedding

This morning I'm delighted to share Clementine and Olivier's wedding with you. Planned to perfection by one of our featured wedding vendors - Stacey-Marie from Cherry Topped Bespoke Weddings.

Clementine and Olivier exchanged vows at Nonsuch Mansion in August this year.

They used to leave in Norway in Oslo and work in the same engineering company. "I realised one day by spending some time on Facebook that 2 of my friends both knew Olivier: one was my colleague at work, a Spanish girl and the other one was my best friend from high school in France.

I found it was a funny coincidence as, at first, they had nothing in common except me! I decided to go and meet Olivier in order to find out how he knew my best friend from high school. He actually was also a very good friend of hers as they went skiing at the same place during every holiday!

Following our first discussion, we happened to meet more and more on the bus, in the city or at work but without planning anything. And then came the Christmas party of our office, and Olivier took the first step!

Unfortunately, at that time, I had already decided to move to London 2 months later. We had a really lovely 2 months together and decided not to plan anything at first. When I moved to London, we continued to stay in touch, meet during the weekends and for holidays. After 6 months, Olivier started to look for a job in London and asked for a transfer within the company. And so we were reunited in London!

I am not a fan of public proposals, and Olivier knew that. He had already bought the ring when I was away one weekend and was waiting for the perfect moment. One Sunday morning when we woke up, he popped the question!

I was so happy! We started to call our family and friends and everyone was very excited!"

Thank you to Olivier and Clementine for sharing your wedding say with us and of course, and to Kerry Morgan also for her beautiful photography.

The Ebury Collection wedding blog. Wedding photography copyright 2011 Kerry Morgan

"I chose to have my bouquet made from fabric and brooches which had meaning to me and would be something to keep. My bouquet was made with fabric from my Mother’s wedding dress, fabric from my best friend’s wedding dress, some handmade flowers by my mother and some vintage glitzy brooches. It was made by Brooches Buttons and Bows."

"We did not want something too extravagant, but for the day to represent us and for our guests to enjoy every moment.

Stacey-Marie from Cherry Topped Bespoke Weddings who helped us organise the wedding from the start, was there to suggest options for each element of our wedding day after we talked through our likes and dislikes. Overall in terms of design, we wanted something using summery pastel colours and to incorporate a subtle Mary Poppins theme (a film we both enjoyed as children) together with hints of French and English and to incorporate the places we have travelled to together.

We chose sky blue and mint green as our colours, this ran through the ribbons, confetti, outfits, stationery and even into the personalised cocktails we had in the evening (“The Clementine” blue lagoon & “The Olivier” mojito cocktails!).

We commissioned a silhouette artist to do silhouettes of us both (with Olivier holding a fencing sword as he enjoys fencing) which we used throughout our wedding day stationery. The silhouettes had slight Mary Poppins connotations and the stationery style and design was called “Ooh La La”, giving a nod to the French style.

As other ways to introduce Mary Poppins in a subtle way, we had parasols hanging from the chandelier and door handles as well as one for our photos, and we had silhouettes of the penguin waiter on the menu place cards for guests (I also love animals!)."

"During the ceremony and part of the drinks reception we had an acoustic guitarist playing a mix of classical and modern classics. As we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife Mike played “Bare Necessities from the “Jungle Book” which was great fun!"

"We made our favours for the wedding breakfast from little mini tins and filled half of them with English Breakfast teapigs and the other half with Berlingots, which are a candy from the town where Olivier grew up. We had little labels on the front of them to match the stationery with our silhouettes and the wedding date."

"We did not want to have a classic wedding cake and we knew from the beginning that we wanted a cheesecake!  So we had a tower of individual slices of cheesecake which was served for dessert. We also had a bespoke cake topper made of us in our wedding outfits, which I had to keep a secret from Olivier so that he didn’t see a mini version of my dress!"

"As table names we used silhouettes of landmarks from countries we have travelled to and called the table plan our “Jolly Holidays”. Other Mary Poppins quotes were used throughout the stationery on the wedding day such as ”Practically perfect in every way” on the Order of Day, “Come along children, spit spot!” on the children’s play room sign and “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down” next to the miniature bottles of Vodka and Rum which were provided as favours at the start of the evening reception. We also had a Polaroid camera together with some ‘props’ such as a Mary Poppins hat, a straw boater hat, some bow ties, penguins and lips for guests to use for fun. We had little notecards next to the camera for guests to write messages on and clip to their photos which were then posted into a white English post box which we hired."

"Choosing the DJ was very important to us as the majority of our guests were French, so we had to make sure that the music would keep most guests on the dance floor throughout the night! We chose Boogie Nights as he was very flexible with the music and accommodated our request for a mix of French music too. Our guests were able to request any songs during the wedding and he would try to accommodate everyone. In the end everyone was happy and the dance floor was always full!"

"My favourite part of the wedding day was when we discovered all the surprise speeches and presentations that our family did for us. For Olivier it was also a very emotive moment to see me in the wedding dress after 9 months of waiting!"

A lovely note here from Stacey-Marie, Chery Topped Bespoke Wedding Planning

"Clementine and Olivier were an absolute delight to work with! I am very privileged to have been involved in the planning and coordination of their wedding day. Working with a couple for 9 months to plan one of the most intimate days of their lives, you get to have some really wonderful experiences and get to know the couple. So by the time their wedding day comes around it can be quite emotional!

Right from the offset I established Clementine and Olivier’s likes, dislikes, any firm ideas they had and any areas they required some direction. We also established their budget. Once this is sorted then everything else follows, they were excellent at making decisions, remembering what was important to them and what their priorities were, resulting in a well thought through wedding day which was romantic, creative, lots of fun and very personal! Without breaking their budget too!

I wish Clementine and Olivier a wonderful future as husband and wife filled with much love and happiness! x"

Supplier info (UK)

Dress: San Patrick’s “Capricho” from Mariposa, Sawbridgeworth

Accessories: Chez Bec

Bride’s bouquet: made with fabric from Clementine’s Mother’s wedding dress, fabric from her best friend’s wedding dress, some handmade flowers by Clementine’s mother and some vintage glitzy brooches by Brooches Buttons and Bows

Groom’s Suit: Mariposa

Bridesmaids dresses: Light in the Box Asymmetric halter neck design, in light blue

Venue: Nonsuch Mansion

Catering: Bovingdons

Photographer: Kerry Morgan

Coordinator: Cherry Topped

Flowers/Decor: Wild About

Stationery: Apple Of My Eye Design

Silhouette Artist: Alison Russell

Table plan Easel and table name holders: Wedding Day Hire

Hair & Makeup: Claire Portman

Cake: My Sweet Tooth Factory

DJ: Your Boogie Nights

Guitarist: Mike Georgiades

Transport - London Red Route bus

Lighting - Effect Event