Steph & Guy Get Hitched

Steph & Guy's wedding - Chamonix June 2009

June 13th 2009

Following a thoroughly romantic (who know the Willett had it in him!) proposal in Thailand in December, and a few fairly stressful months getting everything sorted for the Chamonix Adventure Base & Dream Guides ‘Wedding of the Year’, the 13th June finally arrived with everything more or less sorted.

Weddings are pretty full on events to go through, and in spite of trying to keep everything low key and personal; it took over our lives (mainly my life!). What is it they say? – moving house, getting married, births and deaths are the most stressful things you can live through. Not ones to do anything by halves, we decided to do it in style embracing 2 out of 4 in one hit. That is the wedding and moving house btw.

Arriving at the church - Mont Blanc in the background - pretty special!

Slight technical hitches were narrowly avoided 48 hours prior to kick off, when the pre wedding jitters got the better of Guy-le-Guide. Five pints (actually probably more like 2) and several shots lead to him declare we were CANCELLING THE WHOLE THING and running away to elope, well away from the glare of so much attention. Fortunately he took it all back the following morning, when the dawning thump of his hangover kicked in.

Crisis averted … and everything under the control of the Adventure Base team and Cat and Chris – our amazing chef and Maitre d, it was time to chill out and enjoy this once in a lifetime day.

Relaxing with Dee and Abi - a last chance to top up our tans!

Wide awake at 6am and no chance of getting back to sleep, in spite of having a massive hotel bed all to myself, I decided to wake my body up with a wedding day yoga session. Downward dog on the deck of the honeymoon suite at the Morgane hotel is a pretty special way to start the day, closely followed by an early morning run to Les Houches with Jane and Phil. I guess that’s not really what most brides do on the morning of their wedding, but if you’ve ever been running on Chamonix’s trails, you’ll understand why I love it so much.

In France a marriage has to take place in the Mairie before you can have a church or civil ceremony. We chose not to invite anyone to this apart from our witnesses, and it all happened quickly – and a little strangely with our obligatory translator turning out to speak worse English than either of our French. Tant pis!

A lovely photo with my tolerant bridesmaids, Dee & Abi, who put up with my tantrums and made me write lists!

Time to prepare for the main event … Getting ready at the Morgane with dutiful bridesmaids, Dee & Abi, plus the JAGS girls coming to wish me luck, was fun and relaxed – even time for a bit of bikini action on the deck. The planning stages were all done, and stresses over, I was determined to enjoy the day. A few sips of champagne and time to get into the dress. In spite of already being ‘married’ having done the Mairie bit already, this was the moment the nerves kicked in.

The moment the nerves kicked in!

Most of my friends didn’t have me down as a white wedding kind of girl, and until we started planning it, neither did I. Other than thinking I’d like to get married one day, I can honestly say I’d never thought about what my wedding day (MY wedding day – it IS all about the bride after all!!!!) would involve. Our main aim was to have a relaxed and fun day with our friends and families.

Harry the showman, taking centre stage!

The church ceremony was a laid back mix of contemporary and traditional, starting with one of my Dad’s favourite Mozart pieces. Highlights included nephew, Harry (1), taking centre stage throughout the whole thing, dancing around us while we exchanged rings and vows, and Sarah’s Winnie the Pooh reading … sorry again for making you stand up in church and start with ‘Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh’. Plus the music – it started as a joke, but I loved walking out of church as man and wife to Diana Ross’s ‘Aint no Mountain High Enough’ blaring out and the congregation all on the verge of dancing. Great tune and pretty apt in the crazy high mountain world we live in.

The perfect setting for a Chamonix wedding!

The reception was in a marquee in the gardens of Adventure Base’s Iceman, Slider and Viper. I’m biased, obviously, but I really don’t think we could have had a more perfect place for a mountain guide and girl to celebrate their marriage. And celebrate we did! It was awesome – a perfect blue sky day, hot hot hot, and surrounded by all our friends and family. Cat did an amazing job with the food, Chris and the team of girls were everywhere with pimms, champagne, beers, canapés, and the marquee looked fab. Chamonix is a mind blowing place, and what a beautiful day to show off where we live.

It was the usual wedding stuff – mingle, dinner, speeches (Kenton – good effort on 48 minute best man’s speech!!!), and dancing. The band – Doctor Bruce – were fantastic and the dance floor was packed from the moment they started. Many thanks to Sam, Alan and Andy for the entertainment – I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard for years. As predicted, there was a sudden turn of events post Willett Fernet Menta shot (it’s gross but it’s a Willett tradition), and the party descended into wild air guitaring, knee sliding (Andy – sorry about your suit), and middle aged (yes, admit it, Alan, we are no longer teenagers) break dancing moves. Even Guy’s mum was getting down and dirty with the boys on the dance floor, undisputedly taking the air guitar veterans crown.

We are officially too old to look cool!

I remember Rob swaying over to me and planting a sweaty kiss on my cheek quite late on, ‘Thanks for the great party, Steph, this is amazing. The band are awesome, I NEVER dance, so they must be good. I’m even drinking white wine out of a beer bottle’. We never wanted it to be a classy do!!!

Our party finished in traditional Willett style in Le Pub. Big thanks to Tiff and Hodge for the decorations – including some seriously embarrassing photos of past lives (was I a boy or a girl aged 12???). It ended with us dancing on the bar to MJ’s Billy Jean, in true messy style, before my husband (when will I ever get used to that?) carried me out of the pub to bed … Not the first time I’ve been carried out of the pub, but the first time as a WIFE!

Guy & Steph = man & wife. Can't believe I just wrote that. Let's stick with Willet & Lightweight.

Big thanks to our families and everyone who helped us organise a perfect Chamonix wedding and to everyone who travelled to share it with us. It was an absolutely amazing day, my only regret was that my Dad and brother weren’t there to share it. Although, actually, they’d have hated the loud music!

And now it’s all over I have to admit I’m looking forward to getting on with normal wifely life. Maybe even baking …

Shameless plug time: If you like the look of our wedding in Chamonix, we can help! Drop us a line to info@adventurebase.com and let us know what you’re looking for.