Mayenne France destination wedding | Julie + Tom

Regular readers of my blog will probably remember I had the pleasure of photographing Julie & Tom’s wedding in islington last September. So what are they doing getting married again in France? It’s not that they decided to try and beat Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s record for divorce and remarriage! The idea was to have a very relaxed summertime celebration with warmer weather, and so that people who weren’t able to come to their London wedding could attend.

We didn’t quite manage to get the warmer weather (“cloudy, bright and breezy” is probably the best way to describe it) – but they did achieve the rest of the plan very successfully. The wedding was hosted by Tom’s mum’s partner Philip at his longère in the small village of Saint-Mars-du-Désert, between Mayenne, Alençon and Le Mans.

Trivia fact: the “Dèsert” bit in the name of the village relates to it being deserted for some years when the Black Death depopulated that part of France in the 14th century, it doesn’t mean the place is surrounded by sand dunes and camels…

Some guests stayed in local gites, others in some very posh “glamping” tents which arrived from England and were set up in the field by the house. There was a very fine hog roast on the Friday evening, followed by the ceremony on Saturday afternoon and a brunch on Sunday before guests and family started to make their way home.

Ceremony “Le Deuxième”

Once everybody had assembled on Saturday afternoon, Julie and Tom had a simple but heartfelt ceremony, ably MC’d by Tom’s mother’s partner Philip – the piratical-looking character with the eyepatch (It’s OK he’s not a pirate, he’s a barrister). Julie’s Mom Joan and Tom’s sister Sophie gave readings, as did a close friend whose name I forgot to note down – sorry! Then the couple repeated their vows.

Finally, Julie surprised us all with a brave and impromptu song, accompanying herself on the ukelele – good work Julie!

After champagne and cucumber sandwiches, it was soon time to sit down for the wedding breakfast, under a canopy constructed by Tom and his helpers from timber and a recycled parachute! Although we didn’t quite have the scorching sun that it was supposed to protect us from, it was very effective all the same.

Later on, there was dancing in the “grenier”, accompanined by well-timed fireworks from the local village, whose annual summer Fȇte happened to coincide with the festivities.

All too soon it was time to take the hire car back to Le Mans and board the TGV and Eurostar back to the UK…

Here’s my highlights slideshow, and some of my favourite images from the “deuxième mariage”!