The Romantic first date:
“Elias and I met two years ago while we were on holiday. We instantly clicked! We chose to go out for coffee on our first date because… we didn’t know where else to go. It was still a very fun first date.” When their respective holidays came to an end, they said goodbye and promised to keep in touch. And this is where it all started! Despite the distance and time difference that separated the UAE and France, we still managed to make time for each other and see one another regularly.”
Their wedding story:
A year later, while they were watching yet another scandalous documentary about Rihanna, Elias proposed. She said yes. Simple, fuss free. And just like that, they decided to get married! The wedding would be a year later. A July destination wedding, in the Levant, where they first met. Romantic, right? Cue stress. Wedding planners over there were unheard of! Like most brides-to-be, Melanie did not realize so much planning goes into a destination wedding
The Pret a Papier Story
When Melanie came to me she was visibly anxious about planning this garden theme she envisioned. Her staring point was the tables names, which she had chosen to be different flower types. What I thought was really sweet, was that she had chosen special flowers for family tables, like Forget-Me-Nots for the table at which her parents would be seated.(She and Elias were to move to France soon after the wedding), her mother-in-law’s favourite Edelweiss and Desert rose for her Middle Eastern friends’s table. She also introduced her hastag – #Melias, and wanted to use it on Social Media Sharing cards on each table. She also told me that she was not decided on her guest list and needed a solution to keep it flexible till the last minute. We decided on a romantic mauve and lilac colour scheme for the stationery suite, and carried it through for the table décor. Each table had a vintage botanical water colour illustration, there were 25 different flowers for 25 tables.
For the seating chart, we came up with cards, headed by a flower name for each table which on which a calligrapher would write the names of the guests closer to the wedding. These would be mounted on the main seating chart on the day. The whole chart was surrounded by beautiful floral arrangements and turned out to be one of the focal points of the venue.
“Elias and I had already chosen our invites but we had a vision for our wedding that we could not plan on our own. Enter Reesha! I was very overwhelmed and worried when we first spoke, but she promised me that in the end, everything would come together. And with her help, it did! Reesha came up with a delicate watercolor flower design for our floral themed wedding. She designed our social media cards (politely asking our guests to share photos of our wedding using our wedding hashtag), table names (each table was named after a flower), a guest book sign, a seating chart, and a photo booth sign inviting our guests to strike a pose. When she handed over the stationary to me, everything was wrapped and ready to be put in a suitcase. So convenient!”
