After 8 years, 2 kids and 19 countries visited together, Elise + Simon celebrated their life + love by tying the knot on top of their favorite mountain in the French Pyrenees. Because of their already untraditional circumstances, they focused on aspects of the day that were most important to them, and gave little thought to what 'a wedding should be or should look like'. A detail that was very important to them was spending time with each + every guest. Since Elise is french + Simon is Australian, they knew their wedding would probably be the only time that all of their friends + family would be together in one place at one time. So, to make the most of things, they invited everyone up to the small French mountain village where the wedding was held the week prior to the big day. Elise + Simon say, This involved finding houses for people to stay in in a village without a hotel. We needed 14 in the end.

They go on to tell us, We always knew where we wanted the ceremony to happen if ever we were to get married, in a field, outside, surrounded by mountains and friends in one of our very favourite places ever. As an architect/illustrator couple we had a lot of ideas about how we wanted things to look like or to happen and everybody was very supportive in helping make it work. We got everybody involved! And as many things as possible were handmade. And for all the things that weren't handmade, we tried and work with local makers and workers as much as possible.

Thanks so much to You Made My Day Photography for the beautiful images and congrats to Elise, Simon + their entire family on the sweetest day!

Elise's brother entirely designed and built the beautiful, organic ceremony arch.

We love all the sweet ways the entire family was able to be involved in the wedding!

There was a 10 minute walk back to the village for the reception and when asked what their recessional song was, Elise said, Does the traditional village shotgun wedding salute count?!

Elise + Simon made elderflower cordial from a elderberry tree down the road, their caterer was from a small village not very far away, the wines were all from nearby vineyards, the flowers were wild flowers from the fields nearby, the band + the beer were from the next big town, and everyone filled up our glasses with water directly at the fountain.

photography: You Made My Day Photography // venue: Village that the bride's grandfather was from in the Pyrenees, France // event design: Bride + Groom (Elise and Simon) // florals: wild flowers picked in the fields around the village // wedding dress: local dress tailored // shoes: bride wore traditional menorquinas shoes, groom wore hippie shoes from Denmark by Duck Feet //hair + makeup: DIY // groom suit: Pants by Knowledge Cotton Apparel, Shirt by Calibre Australia, Waistcoat and Tie by Jules (french brand) // paper goods: Elise designed all of these herself, carving stamps to print on brown paper bags, or handwriting all the guests names // catering: Le Confetti Gourmand, in Limoux // cake: Patisserie Perez, in Axat // officiant: Simon's father // music: We had a great local band called Les Pneumatic Serenaders, playing swing