An American in Provence

The reception was held at the Château de Richebois, a château that has been turned into a Restaurant/nightclub. It has an interesting history in that it's original owner was an admiral who helped save the Americans in the Revolutionary War.
We had booked the Château back in August. Normally weddings are on Saturdays, as in the US, but the curé already had two weddings for the next day, the 27th, so we decided on Friday. There are several different party rooms in the château, holding anywhere from 25-200 people. We were hoping that enough people would come so that we could have the big room on the top floor with the dance floor, instead of the smaller restaurant room. Luckily, we were able to have the big room with the nice murals.
Originally, the cocktail hour was planned to be outside on the terrace which they had just finished repaving. However, the wind was too strong apparently, so it was moved indoors. We had a punch and some appetizers served.
Alain's friends had planned a surprise for him- a slideshow of pictures from his Bachelor Party. Which was a two day hike in the Alps with his friends Guillaume and Thibaut. In French the Bachelor Party is known as the "Enterrement de vie de garcon" (Funeral of the Boy's Life) or fille- for woman.
At a little after 8 it was decided that people could go up to the third level, where the reception was. Everyone else went up ahead of us, and two of Alain's second cousins carried candleabras ahead of us into the reception room. The DJ was playing "It's a Beautiful Life". I didn't really expect it to happen this way, I was expecting that we would go up first, leading everyone else into the reception hall.