French touch

Our wedding will and should be the blend of two different cultures: American and French.
I'll have to develop this in an other posts, but my husband has among other things Scottish-Irish heritage (way way back) from his Dad and a Mom who lives in Hawaii. He has some plans to incorporate both.
On my side I've been thinking and hard on how to incorporate some French things. Not only do I want both our cultures to be visible, but I also want to honor my family. Well those who can make it anyway.

One of the first things that came to my mind is the vows. We want to write our own vows, and if I was originally thinking to each have our own version, I cam to think otherwise.
The biggest issue is: my mother and my grandmother barely understand a thing in English. So if there is no way to avoid that most of the ceremony will be in English, I would like them to understand a few things without having to hire a translator.
I plan to have their version of the program with a translation of the ceremony, but that is not enough. So what I'm thinking is: he reads his vows in English and I read the same thing but in French.
So that's the first step.

Now besides that it's hard to think of very specific things. French and American weddings are extremely similar, and I haven't been to enough weddings to think of things that would be specifically French.
I don't see my bridesmaids wear a beret not a baguette under their arm no matter how cliche that is. If my dad and great-grand-father used to own one and even wear(worn) it at times, it just doesn't fit with the vision I have of our wedding.

The question is pretty much: what makes France: France? What will be seen as a special touch by my French guests?
Well, I had one surprise last night, my husband's uncle announced that he was going to do two big dishes of Cassoulet. I could have cried when he announced that.
You may not know what cassoulet is, but I do. It's the regional dish of where I grew up, it's definitely not a light, nor sexy nor summery dish. It's a rich dish, slow cooked full of beans and several types of beans. And I have not had any in years.
I am so excited at this wonderful and generous offer andd I simply cannot wait to see my parent's face when they will see a Cassoulet made by a local.

The there will be a touch of French with the food. Great.
Now what else?

Well, while singing in the shower, I realized that one very easy way to add more Frenchness was simply music.
I am now thinking to have either our first dance or the father-daughter song be a French song, and more.
I am also thinking of involving somehow during the event the song Se Canto. It's a song in Occitan, the old language of my region that means a lot to some of my guests. It's like a local national anthem.

I will need to think of more ways to incorporate and celebrate the French side of our marriage, but I think this is a good start.

What did you do to incorporate an other culture in your wedding? If you were French, what would you do to celebrate it?

[image source: http://www.souvenirsofparis.com/]

Finding the officiant

Our civil wedding was well... what you should expect of a civil wedding in a Courthouse with a magistrate who doesn't really care. Because we have it on tape I know that it took him exactly 40 seconds. Yes only 40 seconds to marry us. It took longer for our witnesses to sign the papers.
Obviously since we are having a family wedding we want to have a special ceremony, with an officiant who takes the time to articulate. I'm still not 100% sure what I said "I do" to last year.

Neither one of us are part of a Church. I was raised Catholic, he was raised Baptist, but we don't feel like we belong to any specific branch of the Christian Church.
We believe in God non the less and if we do not want a religious ceremony we would love to have a spiritual one.
That's why our eyes turned toward the Unity Church.

I was introduce to the Unity Church by his mother. In Hawaii that's where his mom and step-father go to. They have subscribed us to the Daily Word, a Unity Church monthly magazine with some good words and things to think about and to thank God for. I don't necessarily put into practice everything but I find it a good read every morning.
Because we are also mingling two different cultures/nations, we want to have something that would please everyone and mostly us.

So I have to say I was pretty excited when Hubby's aunt told us she new Unity Church Ministers and that they are good friends with them.
It took a while to call. She gave us the number months ago and well we kept on putting it off and waiting for a good time to call and whatnot.
Then two weeks or so ago I called and found myself with the husband on the phone. He told me they are retired ministers but that he still does funerals and her weddings. She wasn't there so he took or phone number to have her call us back.
They lost our phone number and had to ask the aunt for it, called us back and left us a message about 10 days ago.
I talked with Hubby and he wanted to be with me when I called, so again I put it off But with our hectic schedules, it quickly become obvious that I was better off calling on my own, which is what I did tonight.

Well the first contact was full of promises. Fran seems like an open and fun person, she let me know what when we meet she'll have a copy of what she usually does for the ceremony and that we can add or take what we want and we can even write our own ceremony, so that's very promising since we were thinking of having our own vows.
She asked if our family knew we are already married, cute and important question, but yes they do know so nothing to worry about with that part.
She asked if we would exchange rings, which we will as we decided to keep that for the family wedding.
She mentioned a candle ceremony, but said that it could be an issue outside.
She is a liberal person and I am happy about that because for a wedding it means openness.

Now all we have to do is schedule an evening to meet her and see if it does work out or not and what ideas we can both bring into it. I plan to ask her about how much she asks then.

I am very excited about this.
Now on to the next tasks: printing the invitations and contacting photographers.