May 11, 2015

Christina's wedding #1: Paris version!

When I was about 15 and a sophmore in highschool, I met my friend Christina.


(We are not 15 here. I think this is her 30th bday?)

10 years ago she went to Paris for an internship, met a guy during her last week there, fell in love, and moved to Paris for him. At the time I thought she was a crazy person.


(This is not 10 years ago. This is 2.5 years ago, when we stopped in for lunch at their apartment in Paris on our layover to Mauritius.)

She proved me and everyone else completely wrong though - I adore Matthieu and she absolutely made the right choice. And two weeks ago they made if official, getting married in NYC. But two weeks before that, they had a civil ceremony at their local courthouse in the 7th arrondissement. And because I am a wonderful friend who will sacrifice myself my happiness for others will pretty much take any excuse to go to Paris, I eagerly jumped at the chance to be there for wedding: part the first :)


You can't tell in this picture, but great friend that I am, I nearly ruined the day entirely by basically poisoning myself the night before. Voluntarily. The problem is that I am a total sucker and a half for foie gras. That shit is delicious. However, when you have no self control and a giant wedge of it is placed in front of you at dinner, along with a freshly-baked baguette? It's possible you might overindulge. Liiiike, say, to the point where you wake up the next day with stabbing stomach cramps and the inability to be more than 10 minutes away from a bathroom at any time.

The best was when, to really cement the stereotype of Americans as super graceful and classy, I gracefully and classily puked into a gutter just after finishing up photos at the courthouse.

I'm a super charming friend to have around during important occasions, is what I'm saying.

As a result of this special development, I have very few pictures of the day since I was mostly trying to hold it together and not let everyone know I was dying of foie gras poisoning. Christina, who had enough sense not to eat 45 lbs of foie gras, looked absolutely lovely:



The courthouse where Chris and I got hitched did not look like this. There was, for example, very little (no) gold leaf in the random office room where our civil ceremony was held. Also no 12 inch sculpted crown molding or beautiful frescoes behind the podium either (sadly not pictured due to imminent death / witness duties).



The woman on the left there is actually somewhat of a Big Deal - she's a celebrity politician named Rachida Dati, currently the mayor of the 7th arrondissement. Christina & Matthieu wrote her a letter asking her to personally perform their ceremony, and she did!

It was a hard day to top, but the NYC wedding involved (I shit you not) Evander Holyfield, so you might say these two know how to throw a party.

2 comments:

  1. How unfortunate about your illness, but it looks lovely! And it is the sort of story that will get funnier the farther you get from it. At least you managed not to be sick IN the photos!

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  2. The French even know how to be super classy when it comes to a courthouse wedding. Beautiful!

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