Wedding of Agnès and Julian

Preparations

We arrived in France on 4th July and started to help with the preparations. Agnès' parents (Dédé and Thérèse) had clearly already done a lot. Plenty was being done behind our backs: Agnès' sisters and cousins had had several meetings to prepare songs and sketches. Even Lucie tried to help!

The biggest single event in the preparations was the making of the bugnes, the thin pastries which are essential at any major celebration in the family. This year has seen an important advance with the coming of a (suitably adapted) pasta maker for rolling the dough. Bugnes are now thinner and better than ever before! The team in the photo below is Renée rolling, Céline and Françoise cutting the dough and peeling it from the table, Dédé and Agnès frying, and Thérèse sugaring. Patricia (Julian's mother) did the flower arrangements under the supervision of John (Julian's father).

Of course we were worried about how the weather would be for the wedding. The first weekend was pretty hot and humid, the second was overcast and humid on the Saturday (14th July) and from late on the Saturday evening it rained heavily for most of the next 24 hours. We were so glad that we'd not chosen to get married on the Fête Nationale!

When we got up on the 21st July, the weather was going to be just as we'd hoped: sunny but not too hot. Soon, various family and friends were helping to put the finishing touches to the aperitif. Somehow Julian escaped most of the action and oversaw the final preparations at the salle in the Tervelet where the reception would be held.