Belle, the Wedding Wine Bar

A lovely Dutch couple, Anneloes and Sjors, asked if Belle could be used as a wedding wine bar after their ceremony in Provence. Marcel and I offered to serve the yummy La Folie sparkling rosé wine along with little French tarts. We got to the art gallery venue, Jas de la Rimade, at 2:30pm and were ushered into place, got set up, and waited along with everyone else for the bride and groom.

You see, Dutch weddings have different traditions to English weddings. Brides aren’t given away by their fathers. Instead, the groom fetches the bride from her parents’ home and they drive to the ‘Gemeente’ [city/town council] together to get married officially. After the ceremony, champagne and cake is served and then guests meet again later for a celebratory dinner. In this case, the bride and groom were married officially a week before, and waited in one of the rooms upstairs until it was time.

The guests formed an archway with long-stemmed roses to welcome the bridal couple coming down the stairs. The ceremony was held outside the art gallery and began with the bridesmaid’s speech. Sjor’s father shared moments of his son’s life; handing him a family handkerchief, passed on from his father, which gets used at weddings and funerals. Anneloes’ father then shared loving memories of his daughter.

Anneloes and Sjor had written their own vows to each other. Beautiful, warm, honest, and … [snik] as they say in Dutch … not a dry eye. That family handkerchief came in very handy. Then Belle came to the ball. Corks popped and sparkling wine flowed, accompanied by delicious French strawberry and raspberry tarts. It was fun sharing the Mirabeau story and the Dutch guests promised to look for the delicious Mirabeau Classic Rosé wine next time they visited a Gall&Gall store in Holland.

A beautiful venue, stunning weather, delicious wine, yummy French patisserie and a friendly 2CV Citröen Acadiane … what more could you ask for at a Provençal wedding?

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