Natacha & Marc-Antoine

I love an intimate wedding. For me, it takes all the pressure that a bigger guest list involves and turns a wedding into something really simple and special. For Natacha & Marc-Antoine, who chose Girl in the White Dress to capture the magic of their day, their French origin meant that their wedding, was a destination celebration for many of their guests, and an intimate guest list, was always going to be their dream way to marry and celebrate their love of Sydney and France at the very same time (which they did with plenty of glamour and sparkle, if you can’t tell by Natacha’s incredible beaded gown!)

Marc-Antoine and Natacha first laid eyes on each other at a Paris housewarming party, the bride to be catching Marc Antoine’s eyes the moment he saw her. It was then, many years later in Sydney that he decided to pop the question, he shares “It was Natacha’s birthday. I booked a restaurant in The Rocks and we had a bit of time before dinner to go for a walk around the Opera House.
We went to the top platform to take pictures and I told her that I wanted to give her one of her birthday presents. She opened it, it was a small bluetooth speaker.
She didn’t really understand why I bought this for her but then she realised a song was playing on it.
She opened the box and it was “I want to marry you” from Bruno Mars, a song she used to listen to and which we made fun of thinking about the day we would get married. By this time, I had my knee on the ground, crying, offering her a ring. She didn’t really realise what I was doing and thought it was a joke but it wasn’t.
A few minutes later, a guy came over to say that he saw us from the level below and took pictures of us during that moment. He kindly sent us those pictures, awesome moment!).”

The bride to be found her beautifully beaded gown at Sottero and Midgley,  Marc-Antoine telling “Natacha asked me at the very beginning to come with her to see some wedding dresses just to have an idea of what I would like or dislike.

In one store, a gorgeous dress was on a mannequin on a little podium and it was, to be honest, the most beautiful dress in the store.
We both loved it but it wasn’t in our budget so we had a look at some others. Unfortunately, Natacha was by herself for the dress fitting. She took two days off and went into 15 different stores and tried at least 15 dresses. She managed to skype her parents from France for all fittings to have their opinion! It was the middle of the night for them but even at 3am, they were ready to hang up and help her to choose!

She decided to try on the dress we fell in love with a few months ago just to see how it will fit on her. She told herself, ”I won’t buy it” ”I am sure it’s not a dress for me” Of course both her parents and her realised it was THE dress!”

 

Natacha and Marc-Antoine chose Gunners’ Barracks for their wedding, the groom remarking “At this time of planning, we didn’t really know how many people would attend the wedding as we invited guests from France. We knew few things already: we wanted an intimate place to feel like home, something with a beautiful bay view.
The first venue we visited was Gunners Barracks in Mosman. From the entrance to the stunning bay view, we knew it was the place we were looking for! Natacha literally cried at the end of the visit as Gunners Barracks looks exactly like houses in South of France! It felt like home! We finally cancelled the other visits booked the first and only venue we’ve ever seen was Gunners Barracks.”

“Natacha ask her brother to go down the aisle just before her with a sign saying ”last chance to run!” I was so surprised and it made all our guests laugh!”

The bride walked down the aisle on the arm of her father.

Katie McGuren performed the ceremony, the emotion of which took the groom by surprise. He shares “We wanted an intimate ceremony in the beautiful outdoor courtyard of the venue. Our celebrant, Katie McGuren, wrote an amazing personalised and unforgettable bilingual ceremony.
We had an emotional ceremony, we all laughed and cried a lot. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read my vows as I was crying too much!”

The couple gave a nod to their French background, sharing “We had both French and Australian guests so we did everything in both languages from the invitations to the ceremony and speech! Natacha’s grandfather was not able to travel from France for our wedding so we escaped for a few minutes to skype him after the ceremony.”

The couple chose to continue their intimate vibe with just a small bridal party, the groom explaining “Natacha decided to only have one bridesmaid. Her oldest friend that she met at 8 months old! They grew up together and their parents are still neighbours!
I ask my brother to be my one and only groomsman. He was really proud and organised a great bachelor dinner for me with all my friends in Paris.”

Guests enjoy the most stunning sunset. “In a French wedding the cocktail hours lasts at least 3 hours. We managed to organise a 2 hours cocktail on the harbour terrace. Our guests really enjoyed the sunset view during the cocktail!” shares the groom.

 

Of their photographer, the groom tells “Marie, from Girl in The White Dress, was recommended to us from a French friend. We had a look on her website and Instagram and we fell in love with her work! Her style was matching the atmosphere of the wedding we planned.
She and her partner were fantastic with our guests. they captured a lot of beautiful natural moments and we couldn’t be happier with our wedding photographs!”

Dahlias are the couple’s favourite flower, and so it made sense that they asked Lavande Designs to include as many dahlias as possible in their floral arrangements. Marc-Antonie explaining “The florist really impressed us! We only met her two times and she instantly understands what we loved! When we arrived at the venue we couldn’t believe how amazing it was, how perfect the work she did was matching our expectations. It was just perfect for us! Our florist managed to find stunning ”cafe au lait” Dahlias that were the centre of our floral arrangements! I will definitely buy a bouquet of  the dahlias to Natacha for our wedding anniversary.”

Natacha and Marc-Antoine created the stationery themselves, right down to the copper detailed favour boxes for their guests.

The newlyweds took to the courtyard dance floor to the sounds of Paper Hearts, the groom remembering “We are not great dancers! We were both stressed about it, to be honest! We decided to improvise our first dance! It was simple but romantic. We forgot our guests and just enjoyed it! Our first song was ‘’I wanna love you’’ from Bob Marley remixed by the duo Paper Hearts. We were hesitating of hiring a band as it was a small wedding but when we discovered them; we fell in love with their music.”

A big congratulations to the newlyweds! Thank you for allowing us to share your beautiful day! Thank you also to Girl in the White Dress for sharing today’s stunning celebration!