Its time to start planning

We decided to have our wedding in France as we felt its part of our story and it seemed to be calling us. (our story link to follow soon).

I had a dream of a lovely chateau in Provenance and he wanted something in the French Basque area….who would win out? Neither instead we compromised.

The French Basque area are did not really have venues that suited our needs, and on the weekend we went to the Provencal area (the exact date a year in advance), the weather was atrocious!! Whilst at a friend’s château talking about our weather worries, he suggested a lovely hotel down on the coast and told us that even when it’s bad in his area often they get slightly better weather. So we made the hours drive, and discovered our friend was right, in the last 20mins of the drive as we neared the coast the weather totally changed and the sun was shining bright.

The friend’s recommendation was the Hotel Le Baille de Suffren, which is a beautiful 4star hotel in Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer.

We saw this on our last afternoon of our visit and had to race to the airport to catch our flight back to London, but we loved it and planned our next trip back to research the Cote d'Azur area more.

Alternative Options

If living in France before the wedding is not possible, don’t give up on your dream, just approach it from another direction.

You could instead opt to hold a civil ceremony in your home country and then hold a religious blessing or non-religious ceremony in France, either on the same day or in the days following.

You could even keep it a secret and not let your guests know about the home event, and leave all wedding related items such as the exchange of rings, vows and traditional wedding attire until the French blessing so that it is the main event in everyone’s eyes.

French Red Tape

Why wouldn’t one want to get married in one of the most romantic countries on earth, namely France? Could it be because of all the hoops and red tape they have unlike other countries.

You see, strictly speaking either the bride or groom should be resident in the area (commune) where the marriage is to take place for a period of not less than 40 days immediately before the wedding. However, there are some exceptions; if a parent of either the bride or groom are residents, or the bride and groom are part-time residents then the interpretation of the residency requirement is up to the local mayor.

You might be wondering why the mayor, well this is because in France religious marriage ceremonies are not recognized under French law. So before a priest, rabbi or any other religious official can perform a marriage ceremony, there must have been a civil ceremony first, which is held in the local town hall (marie), in front of the mayor.

Once the civil ceremony is completed, the newly weds will receive a French marriage certificate (livret de famille), and then a religious ceremony can follow in any romantic location one desires. Traditionally in France both ceremonies take place on the same day, one right after the other.

So if you have a way of meeting the 40 days resident requirement you will also need to produce:

• A valid passport or a French residence permit (carte de sejour)
• Declaration of a French home address such as a phone or utility bill
• Certified copy of birth certificates (extrait d'acte de naissance)
• Affidavit of marital status (declaration en vue de marriage
• A certificate by a French solicitor stipulating if the marriage is to include a prenuptial legal contract (contrat de marriage)
• A medical certificate, issued within the prior three months (certificat de l'examen médical prénuptial)
• One or two witnesses per spouse (témoins)

Do remember though that any documents in English must be translated into French by an officially recognized French translator...oh what joy!

Wedache: The headache you get and stress you go through while planning a wedding.

I thought I might share my frustrations and hopefully my solutions by sharing this blog about planning my May 2009 wedding in the South of France. You might wonder why I say it’s a headache, well it’s not really, however, is it just me, or does no one choose Cote d'Azur as a overseas wedding destination anymore?

France is the most beautiful country, great food, great wine, and great joie de vivre, but I have struggled to find information on the web to assist planning this joyous event, so whilst I muddle my way through finding info that is more related to the South of France rather than USA or usual Destination Weddings countries, I hope you come along for the ride.

So… enjoy, take part, leave a comment or don’t… it will all be therapeutic in the end.