The French Wedding Ceremony

The livret de famille is the record of marriages, births, deaths, divorces...

 

Puisque nous présumons que les francophones connaissent la cérémonie française, il n'y a pas de traduction.  Dans la doute, consultez cette page pour un descriptif :

http://www.mariage.fr/article/celebrer/civil.cfm

In France, a civil wedding must precede any religious ceremony. There is no delegation of powers from the state to religious communities.

The wedding is held at the town hall, almost all of which have a dedicated room.

The wedding party waits just outside the town hall if it's nice out, or in the lobby in case of poor weather. At the appointed time, the wedding party is invited to enter the ceremony room, and the bride and groom precede to the front where two chairs are reserved for them in the middle, just in front of the mayor or deputy. The bride is to the groom's left. Their witnesses are at their sides.

Close family sit in the second row and so on.

When the mayor or deputy arrives, everyone rises.

After a few words of welcome, the (deputy) mayor reads an extract from the civil code explaining the responsibilities of the spouses. (Articles 212-215)

The (deputy) mayor will then ask if a prenuptial agreement (contrat de mariage) has been drafted. The default option is the bounded community of goods, which means that everything acquired after marriage is joint proprerty except for family heritages. It is increasingly considered outdated today. Other options are separation of goods, universal community and participation in acquisitions. Each of these contracts can be customized.

The (deputy) mayor will then ask the bride and groom to exchange their consentment. This is the equivalent of exchanging vows, but with a much simpler reply "oui".

There may be an exchange of rings afterwards, but this is usually skipped if a religious ceremony will follow.

The (deputy) mayor may then make a short speech.

Finally, the ceremony ends with the signature of the registry. It is customary for the bride to sign first, then the groom and then the witnesses.

Who will marry us now?

Les Français n'ont pas besoin d'une traduction de l'article (publié dans le journal 20 Minutes) ci-dessous pour comprendre la question.  Si notre maire n'est pas disponible, qui va nous marier ?  (Un adjoint, je suppose...)

In France, it is traditionally the mayor who marries you. This power can also be delegated to a deputy. In our case, we're pretty sure it's going to be a deputy since our mayor is currently under investigation for corruption as outlined in the article above, published this week in the newspaper 20 Minutes.

DATE: 27 SEPT 2011

After a fruitful visit to town hall today, we came away with a wedding date. So we will be married at 15.30 (3.30 pm) on Tuesday, 27 September in the salle des mariages (wedding room) at the L'Haÿ-les-Roses town hall.

Après une visite fructueuse à la mairie ce matin, nous avons une date de mariage !  On nous marie à 15h30 le mardi 27 septembre dans la salle des mariages à l'hôtel de ville de L'Haÿ-les-Roses.

As soon as we had arrived to set the date, we realized that someone must have tipped off the paparazzi: there was a film crew setting up across the street.

Dès notre arrivée, nous nous sommes rendus compte que quelqu'un avait averti les paparazzi car il y avait un équipage qui se mettait en place juste en face.

Gifts / dons

We don't need anything. After all, we've been living together for a decade! So if you feel an irresistible urge to spend money just because we're getting married, we encourage you to make a gift to one of the charities we support:

• UNICEF
• Handicap International
• Cancer research

Nous n'avons pas besoin des cadeaux. N'oubliez pas que cela fait déjà 10 ans que nous cohabitons. Si notre mariage vous inspire un désir irrésistible de dépenser de l'argent, pensez à une des bonnes causes que nous soutenons :

• UNICEF
• Handicap International
• la recherche sur le cancer

Speak now or forever hold your peace!

So since not EVERYONE we know is on Facebook (believe it or not), we're co-opting the now defunct personal blog to become wedding central.

After nearly a year of chasing after papers, getting them officially translated, etc., we submitted our 2-cm thick dossier. And GASP! They didn't ask us for any additional papers. Anyone who has lived in France for any period of time knows that having one of everything on the checklist is not sufficient. They usually invent new requirements on site.

So our banns were published on 19 August. If no one protests within 10 days, then they allow us to sign a projet de mariage and set the time/date of the ceremony.

Etonnément, nous connaissons des gens sans compte Facebook (comment est-il possible) ? Donc nous détournons le blog personnel qui n'était pas actualisé depuis un bon bout de temps afin de vous tenir informer des développements du mariage.

Presqu'un an après avoir commencé à tout rassembler et traduire, nous avons ENFIN complêter notre dossier de mariage. Nous l'avons  déposé le 17 août et grande surprise ! Aucun papier supplémentaire nous était demandé. Ceux qui résident/ont résidé en France comprendront l'importance de ce fait.

La mairie a publié les banns le 19 août et si après 10 jours, il y a aucune opposition, nous serons invités de signer un projet de mariage avant de fixer l'heure et la date exacte.

March Birthdays (2009)

Tradition dictates that Kristen celebrates her birthday with her godson Quentin, whose birthday is just 3 days before hers. (Another occasion of a mother messing up her child’s birthday, although Jocelyne did NOT have Quentin induced unlike SOME people we know…) Quentin and Kristen spent the Friday of the weekend together. One special activity was playing mini-golf on possibly the worst maintained course in the world. Quentin won. Back home, they played Animalopoly. Quentin lost and accused me of cheating, so we had to explain that we no longer consider him young enough to ensure he always wins through altruistic cheating, of which we WERE previously guilty.
The rest of the Collignon family arrived on Saturday. We had a great birthday dinner. Kristen had made an American birthday cake like she likes them best: Devil’s food chocolate with butter cream frosting. It was yummy, even if it was not the prettiest cake ever. The adults played a lot of tarot (a contract card game, nothing to do with telling fortunes).

Anybody seen the movie Caddyshack?

Quentin lines up his shot.

Hole in one!

Quentin calls his broker for advice.

Making wishes...

Family picture L to R: Greg, Kristen, Quentin, Jocelyne, Annaëlle, Hugo, Didier

Sweet Home Chicago (January 2009)

We spent the first week of January in Chicago. For Greg, it was new experience. Kristen had been there when she was six. The great thing about Chicago in January is zero lines.  Kristen remembered a very, ver long line at the Sears Tower…and there was NO ONE when we went to see Chicago by Night from the top of the building.

The museums were great: we visited the aquarium, the observatory, the natural science museum and the ever fabulous Museum of Science and Industry. We saw the trains representing America from Chicago to the West Coast.

We went down into the coal mine, with a fabulous tour guide who kept us laughing.

We were overwhelmed by the visit of the U-boat (in its new home inside, unlike when Kristen saw it as a child).

 

We ate good food too, including the famous Chicago deep-dish pizza. We were also lucky enough to enjoy some fun evenings out on the town: jazz at Buddy Guy’s Legends, the Bulls playing basketball, and the Blue Man Group (not to be missed!).

Our only regret is that it was so cold while we were there that we couldn’t wander around much. The good news is that this gives us an excuse to go back when the weather is warmer!

More pictures online at http://picasaweb.google.com/GregorieKristen/ChicagoJan09?authkey=Gv1sRgCPSuqISGop3qWA#