Troels and I are so excited to celebrate our wedding with all our friends and family next year, so let's get this going! We want to have a wedding that is as beautiful and memorable as possible, while EXTREMELY fun and relaxed for everybody -that is, including the people preparing it:)

Our date: July 11, 2009....or as my new friend kblovelee would say, 07/11, happy slurpee day hehehe:D

Location: My hometown in France, a small village called Gorron. We will have the ceremony in my parents backyard (officiated by a family friends), and the reception is to take place....under a circus tent. If we can't make it a fun event with that! :)

So, lucky one I think, I got two proposals :) Twice as much partying, yes! The first time, Troels asked me extremely spontaneously while we were in Denmark - it litteraly just came out of his mouth when he didn't expect it hehe. Of course I said yes :) What lovely late hours of the night we spent looking at the stars, sitting by the water of Esrum Soe, the lake by which his parents live.

The second "proper" proposal was in New York City. Troels and I went to have diner at "our" restaurant, this little upper-east-side Italian restaurant called "Maruzella". Then we went on a walk in "our" park, the Karl Shutz park. A black and white movie was playing on a big screem in the park, with small lights everwhere it was so romantic. Troels sad me down so I was looking at the East River with the skyline in the background, he went on his knee. Got a ring out of his pocket and proposed. I thought for a minute.....then decided to accept, yet again :D I was crying so much.

So here is the story - see if you can follow: Troels is from Denmark, I am from France, we met in Ireland where I was living while Troels was living in the UK, and we now live in New York city....and among other things, I did my BA in Arizona, and Troels lived in Spain and Thailand for a while. hehe :) So as you can guess, we want our wedding to truly reflect and embrace the cultures and traditions that we grew up with and have gotten to know since our childhood. Throughout this page, you should hopefully recognize our attemps to include the various cultures :)...3 languages on our save the date, sayings and basis sentences in 3 languages printing on the reception napkins, etc....

Also, to help everybody cope with the various traditions, we including a "Get ready to party" section on our wedding website where we are sharing traditions from France and Denmark. http://audreyandtroels.smit.dk .The site is in English, Danish and French so it should be easy enough for people to find what they need :)

Love them so much I just wanted to habe them up on this page. All the wonderful wonderful people in our lives :)

From left to right: FI's brothers, my broth and one of his best friends, my sister, two of my best friends back home and my sister in law

Fun fun fun, with warm colors and soft lights all throughout. The ceremony will be held in my parents' backyard, and we are having the reception in a big circus tent -yes I know :). So a lot of colorful, fun, countryside-ish decoration that will create the atmoshpere we are looking for.

And more ideas! 1) A ring pillow I LOVE from 5eizen on Etsy (but my sister is making me one herseland I am can't wait to see it!!!!), 2) More centerpieces ideas, 3) to make sure the ladies stay warms later in the night (we will get these in various shades of pink, orange, re, yellow & purple

I still have not found my perfect dress, yay! I loved the Pronovias and La Sposa dresses such as the ones above (the laces, and the feminin yet classy details), but I ended up going with a non-designer dress - and my bank account is thanking me for that!

I found the dress during my break in France, and it was extra special because I went with my mum....and found the dress in the store where she herself bought her wedding dress 30 years ago! :) Here it is:

My faces tends to have some "sharp" angles, so I am thinking looking into hairstyles that bring a much softer side.

And also thinking about adding a hairpiece, depending on what I end up choosing:

My girls should be wearing this dress. It is very simple yet elegant, I love the bows on the side. I also like the second model, but turns out the girls don't quite like it as much.

Some ideas I like for my bouquet/that of the bridesmaids. Hopefully we will manage having lots of flowers at the wedding. But since they tend to be fairly can really drive the budget of a wedding way up, my mum and dad had a brilliant idea: we are going to plant an entire field that my parents own. We'll just have to do the work ourselfs, but I am so excited to have a flower field for my wedding! So special :)

 With so many guest coming from out of town, making this a weekend affair was a definite must :) The good news about getting married in a small village is that everything is always close! Our hotel options are limited there, so instead we are renting a cheap hostel-like place that is nicely located by the little lake of my village, right by all the shops etc, where we can put about 60 people.

I am trying to figure out some cute and fun ways to wish them "welcome!" upon their arrival at the place so they feel at home almost. Baskets with homemade food and fresh fruit, cute cards, mini French-English dictionnaries etc. DO IT YOURSELF is going to be the motto here :) Any ideas, please send my way!

Food for a wedding is a big deal in France. FI and I wanted to keep it "simple" (to French standards), so we will "only" be doing the following:

• Toast after the ceremony: champagn, a nice punch and for snacks we will prepare a selection of small cookies from France (madeleine,chouqettes?), Denmark and the US (eg mini-bags of popcorn) so people can get a taste of the cultures that shape our lives.
• Reception: Apertizer (my mum and I plan on making skewers with the help of the family), first dish, main dish and dessert (something along a cake plus a buffet of various tarts/cakes so everybody find something they like)

Our carterer will be L'Auberge de la Source, located in Saint Cyr du Bailleul. The advantage of getting married in the countryside is that we can get great quality food for less money. FI and I went there during our holidays so that he could try their food too, here are some pics:

Still need to decide on the dishes themselves, so I will post an update when we do that!