Meet Mr. and Mrs. Noonan

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Noonan and their absolutely breathtaking wedding in France. Lindsay is the picturesque bride and their photos offer us nothing short of a fairy tale. This wedding was intimate and stylish and captured the bond that these two shared. Enjoy!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story:

Noonan and Lindsay had lived in a few cities at the same time without even knowing it, including Paris, San Diego, and then several blocks away from each other in Santa Monica before ever having met. In 2006, Noonan had been living in Santa Monica with a roommate until an abrupt predicament forced Noonan and his roommate to find a new place to live within 10 days. Frantically trying to find a new apartment, one of Noonan's friends offered him a spare bedroom until he found something more permanent. Seredipitously, this friend lived not only in the same apartment building as Lindsay but directly next door. Quite literally, Lindsay's future husband came knocking at her door one day to borrow the laundry room key. A quick friendship soon developed and they laughed over the fact that Lindsay's laundry room key was labeled in mispelled french. As a french citizen, Noonan was able to kindly clarify that the proper spelling of the laundry is le linge rather than her more phonetic attempt: le lange (which means a very different word altogether: diaper.) One day, after many visits to borrow her laundry key, Noonan said he was going to hang onto the key a little longer to make a copy. Lindsay, thinking that this man was tired of having to see her and sad to lose his much-anticipated visits, reluctantly agreed. But rather than make a copy, Noonan later returned the key with a genuinely thoughtful gift attached. Looking down at the key in her hand Lindsay saw aattached to her key a silver keychain engraved with the correct french spelling for her. Noonan never made a copy, and the visits continued...

What was the theme | design inspiration for your wedding?

Provence. Being that the groom is french (has dual citizenship in both the US and France); his whole mother's side still lives in France; and, most importantly, the couple got engaged in France, it just made sense. The bride and groom got engaged in Provence at the most perfect spot one could imagine for a wedding (nice foresight on Noonan's part when he proposed there;) A tiny cobblestoned village called Crillon le Brave which is perched on a foothill of Mont Ventoux overlooking rolling vineyards and lavender fields. The place is so immaculately beautiful and relatively untouched by the modern world that the place has a timeless feel to it. www.crillonlebrave.com

The location for the ceremony was at an 18th century olive mill converted into a villa complete with pool and enough rooms for 16 guests to stay with the couple on site. This rustic stone villa is set against a backdrop of vineyards, lavendar fields and olive groves.www.lesmoulindesolives.com (can be seen behind couple in picture 999 and toasting picture attached)

Tell us about the attire for both bride and groom:

The groom wore a cream linen suit with a diagnolly striped tie of blues and gold. The groom's ring had a surprise engraving that he didn't see until moments after the ceremony concluded. The bride had a unique french inscription put on that was very appropriate for their playful relationship: "Remets la a ton doigt" which translates to "Put it back on your finger". When the bride's mother asked if the bride wanted to inscribe something serious and romantic, the bride said "The ring is the serious part, the inscription is more personal and completely us, besides, the french makes it sound romantic anyway." The bride wore the "Coco" gown by Amsala: strappy silk taffeta ball gown with french Aleçon lace bust, ruched waist, and pockets.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding?

The cake. The french don't do traditional wedding cakes with the cake cutting and all like the US does. We just wanted something simple and rustic to go with the Provence theme: square white cake, two or three tiers, and trimmed along the edges with small lemons and greenry. We weren't even particular about what flavor or anything and, as someone whose taken cake decorating courses, the bride figured it'd be a ridiculously easy request. Maybe so if the wedding wasn't in Provence. In France, the tradition is profiterole pastry towers for weddings or the specialty fruit tarts when in Provence. The couple could not find a single bakery in the area who was comfortable performing the foreign task of baking a simple american cake. There are no boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix on the shelves of the grocery stores in Provence. But with a full kitchen at the villa where the couple was staying, the bride took on the task of baking her own wedding cake. Finding a lemon cake recipe online was no trouble but when taking into account that she had never made this recipe before and had to convert all baking measurements to metric and cooking temperatures to celcius, the bride was understandably nervous. Nonetheless, several girlfriends and female members of the bride's family converged on the kitchen island and set to zesting and squeezing lemons and lending hands where hands were needed. Every oven takes a little getting used to whether it runs a little hotter than most, or cooks unevenly and this oven was no different. After a couple of botched attempts burning the top layer, eventually the bride got the hang of it. The decorating part was easy and the bride's dear friend, Sierra, gathered greenry and young grapes from a vineyard which was coincidetally and fortuitously across the street (all the wine for the week and for the wedding was purchased there at Val d'Estable and the winery even loaned several wine barrels for the decor). In the end, the cake looked beautiful: 3 tiers with cascading grapes, flowers and greenery but the hilarious predicament didn't end there. During the reception Sierra alerted the couple that the french waistaff had already begun cutting the top tier of the cake but Sierra did not speak french to be able to tell them to stop. They clearly had none of the american cake customs. The bride just laughed and took the greenry and flowers from the now-removed top tier and rearranged them to cover the now-two-tier cake. No one could tell!

What advice would you give to a couple planning their wedding?

A destination wedding was the perfect choice for us and we wouldn't have it any other way. But for couples who are considering it, they need to understand that control of every detail and anticipation of any glich is not possible with a destination wedding. It takes a very laid back couple who can accept that many decisions will need to be made on site once they've arrived and that contacting all vendors ahead of time, particularly in remote areas small vilages or very different time zones can be tricky.

Any specific reasons behind certain choices you made for your wedding? Maybe flowers that were your mom's favorite, or your first dance song was the first song you ever heard together..that kind of thing? Who were your vendors?

We were our vendors- a very homespun Provence wedding. The bride arranged her own bouquet and decorated her own cake. Instead of floral centerpieces we purchased potted olive tree topiaries from L'Olivier & Co. Witht he natural garden setting of both the ceremony site and reception site no other flowers were needed. The table cloths for the rehearsal were purchased at a Provence famer's market. Most of the tables, plateware, etc for the rehearsal were at hand at the villa Le Moulin des Olives. Hostellerie Crillon le Brave provided everything needed for the reception. The groom's mother officiated the ceremony.