Clementine & Olivier’s Practically Perfect Wedding Day

Clementine and Olivier, as you may guess from their names are a French couple (who live in London). With their main focus being on the enjoyment of their guests they wanted to treat their French guests to some English traditions and wanted to treat their English guests to some French traditions! With them both being engineers, they freely admitted they required some help in the creativity department, which I loved helping them with. They wanted to introduce a subtle Mary Poppins aspect as they both loved this film when they were children as well as a travelling aspect as they have lived and travelled through various countries. They also love pastel colours rather than bold colours, so a mint green and sky blue were selected to run throughout.

Planning Clementine and Olivier’s wedding was an absolute joy! They contacted me literally just after they got engaged and we were straight onto the venue search. There was no messing around and this is how they were throughout the process; quick solid decisions!

So onto their wedding details…

Venue

One of the key criteria of the venue search was to find a venue which could have an extended licence. In England this is more tricky than you would think, with most venues only allowing weddings to continue up to midnight or thereabouts. French wedding traditionally carry on until the early hours of the following morning, so Clementine and Olivier knew their guests would be disappointed if the party wasn’t extended past midnight! And so Nonsuch Mansion ticked this box as well as being such a beautiful and intimate venue in stunning surroundings and so close to London and the main airports for travelling guests. It also provided the perfect space for the bridal party preparations, with Claire Portman doing the hair and makeup for the ladies beautifully. At night time it was lit up by EffectEvent, bringing in the blue and green to the exterior and also the bar area to create a funky night time atmosphere.

French Frolics

The ceremony incorporated French readings and Clementine and Olivier also said some words to each other in French. The wedding stationery was designed by Apple of My Eye Design and was called “Ooh La La”. The design complemented the French feel. Some of the favours given to guests were some little French candies from Olivier’s childhood holidays.  A typical French feel to the day with the laid back approach, French champagne literally flowing and a truly vivacious atmosphere well and truly into the early hours!

English Experiences

Guests were collected from nearby hotels in a red routemaster double decker bus giving them a taste of good old London Transport! A white traditional post box was hired for guests to post their gift cards into. The other half of the favours for guests were tea leaves in mini tins with a little note explaining how best to take your English Breakfast tea! The food by the wonderful Bovingdon’s caterers was all English produce, even the classic French cheese course consisted of English cheeses! Their wedding cake was a tower of individual slices of different English cheesecake flavours, baked beautifully by My Sweet Tooth Factory, topped with a personalised figurine of Clementine and Olivier.

Mary Poppins Inspired

The Ooh La La stationery provided the basis for introducing a subtle Mary Poppins theme, with the stripes and silhouette feel.  Personalised silhouettes (full and head only) were created by Alison Russell and used throughout the stationery items. We used quotes from the film such as “Practically perfect in every way”, “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down” and “Come along children, spit spot!”. Parasols were hung from the chandelier in the Rose Room and from door handles, as well as a “Love” parasol for Clementine and Olivier’s photos. Guests were provided with a Mary Poppins hat, straw boater, penguins on sticks, bow ties and moustaches to have fun with a Polaroid camera and send messages for Clementine and Olivier. Little waiter penguin silhouettes were printed on the menus.

Jolly Holidays

“Jolly Holidays!” was the theme of the table names, with landmarks of places Clementine and Olivier have visited. Linking in with the Mary Poppins silhouettes, the landmarks were printed as silhouettes on the table name cards.

Entertainment!

Entertaining their guests was so important to Clementine and Olivier. They wanted to make sure everyone was catered for and that there would be no excuses to not have lots of fun! Serenaded by Mike Georgiades, a guitarist, during the ceremony and drinks reception (they walked down the aisle as husband and wife to the Jungle Book’s Bare Necessities!). They provided bottles of vodka for some of their guests who don’t traditionally drink wine with their meals. As a little evening pick me up they provided miniature bottles of vodka and rum for guests to kick off the evening with. There were also Clementine and Olivier cocktails for guests to enjoy! The DJ, Boogie Nights, was one of the most important aspects to them, keeping the majority of guests on the dance floor for the whole night was paramount, and this is exactly what happened! They also had a few surprises from guests; a couple of Olivier’s friends played some trumpet tunes as a surprise! The Best Men, Bridesmaids and cousins also did some surprise presentations for Clementine and Olivier during the wedding breakfast. Clementine and Olivier also wanted children to be welcome, with a table especially for them with goodie bags and a “Salle de jeux!” for them to play video games.

Flowers

Clementine chose to have a personalised fabric and brooch bouquet beautifully designed by Brooches Buttons and Bows, which brought in the colours of their wedding and enabled her to have pieces of her Mother’s and best friend’s wedding dresses, together with cuts of the bridesmaid dress fabric and some vintage brooches. Clementine and Olivier wanted something very simple and understated. They also wanted to introduce water in their table arrangements. Wild About supplied the perfect arrangements of baby’s breath used in urns, on aisle chairs and as the bridesmaids bouquets. Then floating white rose petals in large fishbowls with floating tea lights created the centre pieces.

Gorgeous Couple!

To finish off, some beautiful shots of Clementine and Olivier, Kerry Morgan’s photos are just stunning!

This was such a fun wedding and a real pleasure to be a part of!

Thank you so much being such gorgeous clients and Congratulations Clementine and Olivier! x

Image Credits:
All images courtesy of Kerry Morgan Photography