On July 2, one of my mission companions who is from France got married. My amazing in-laws offered to come take care of my family so I could be at the wedding . . .
in FRANCE!
My sister, Kim, went with me, and we had a blast participating in a beautiful French wedding for a deserving couple who looked so happy together.
So here I am, in front of the Mairie (Town Hall) where the required civil wedding takes place first.
No, town hall is not the cathedral you see. It's the little house-like building behind me.
And here they stand, with the civil authority to the right, and their required two-witnesses-each on either side of them.
Most of the ceremony went something like "according to law number this, and civil code number that, blah, blah, blah . . ." But towards the end, they spoke about the importance of children, and their duty as a married couple to raise their children with love and with respect to the laws of the land. Not an exact quote, but we thought it was very cool that they included that in a civil ceremony (the same ceremony that is used for all weddings).
Then, of course, everyone has to sign the papers right there.
When it was over, they came out to a bustle of bubbles that attacked any innocent bystanders who may have wanted to congratulate the newly married couple. (It was quite windy, and Kim, who joined the bubble-blowing children, may or may not have run off several guests with her bubble blowing skills).
And here I am, with the happy couple.
Not to let this post get too long, I'll work on adding more in the near future.
