The wedding ceremony will take place at 3:30 pm in the Saint-Maurice Church in Lille. We recommend our guests come by metro or taxi to the church. It is perfectly accessible by metro, Gare Lille Flandres station. You only need to walk 5 minutes from the station to the church. For our out of town guests, we recommend that you buy a metro pass instead of buying unitary tickets. Transpole, the public transport operator for the Lille Métropole, proposes passes for 1 day, 2 days, 3 days and much more (see the list of proposed passes here). All tickets and passes can be bought from the vending machines in the metro stations. There is no parking dedicated for the church visitors, so we kindly ask our guests that plan to come by car to allow extra time to park in Lille, which might be complicated. Nevertheless, the Euralille shopping center does provide underground paid parking and is not far.

Following the Lebanese ritual, I will arrive at the church with my father who will give me away to Benjamin, the man who will care for me as much as my father did. Then, Benjamin and I will walk down the aisle after all the guests have been seated. In Christian ceremonies, the bride's family sits on the left in the first rows, the groom's on the right in the first rows. Likewise, the bride stands at the left at the altar while the groom stands to her right.

We chose to bless our union within a bi-ritual Christian ceremony: Latin and Maronite. The Maronite church is in full communion with the Pope and the Catholic Church. The Maronite community is mainly concentrated in Lebanon, but also shows presence in Syria, Cyprus and Palestine. The Latin part of our ceremony will be celebrated by father Xavier and the Maronite part will be celebrated by father Jad. Maronite rituals, like the wedding crowning, and some Arabic prayers as well will be added to the Latin ceremony in order to reflect our multicultural - Lebanese and French - fusion. The duration of the ceremony will be around 1 hour and 15 minutes.

After the ceremony, guests might shower Benjamin and me with flower petals when we leave the church. This tradition symbolizes fertility and fruitfulness of the newlyweds.

Our wedding reception will start around 5:30 pm with a celebratory cocktail at Domaine des Cigognes. Domaine des Cigognes is accessible by car and has free parking, with private security. In case you are not coming in your own car, we recommend that you use one of these mobile applications, Uber or Heetch, for ordering inexpensive taxis. We will also provide two minibuses with drivers for our out of town guests. They will be waiting for you outside the church at 4:55 pm.

The cocktail is followed by a banquet starting 7:45 pm. Clever, creative and passionate, our chef, Charles-Henri Lebrun^*, will concoct for you a delicious menu!

Besides the magical set up of our wedding reception prepared by Mélanie from Régie57, maaany animations and surprises will take place. Arnaud , the DJ of our multicultural wedding, will be animating most of them. We will let you discover everything on the big day!

Welcome to our unplugged wedding!

As we tie the knot in the church, please be our guest and allow our awesome and renowned photographer, Julien Laurent-Georges^* to handle the rest! These moments go fast as I’m sure you well know so put your phones and cameras down and celebrate with us. We hired a pro and we prefer to see your beautiful faces, not your devices, on the photos he takes.

Our photographer will accompany us the whole night for our wedding. However, in case you feel like taking some photos at the reception, we ask you to respect our privacy and not to post any photos of us on social media. At least not without our consent. You can of course post photos of yourselves as long as the newlyweds are not in the photos.

To sum up, we invite you to enjoy this special day with us. Do not take photos in the church, we don't want you to appear with your device in the official photos, and you don’t complicate the accessibility of the photographer to his desired shots. Also, please do not post any photos of us on social media.

Finally, please be assured we will share the gallery of official photos with you, just a few weeks after the wedding.

Don’t be like these guys!

Know that your presence at our wedding is the most precious present ever! But if you plan to bring us a gift, we appreciate that you avoid any home supplies or decoration. Our current nest is well equipped and we plan to move to other cities for the next few years.

Therefore, we would greatly appreciate you prefer cash to help us fund our projects. To do so, guests from France can contribute to the wedding list that is available on this link, and guests from Lebanon to the bank account number available on the wedding card. An urn will also be at your disposal at the wedding reception.

After the feast and all the exciting activities of our wedding, it is quite normal that you feel a little tired or sleepy. Therefore, we propose to our guests the option to spend the night in Domaine des Cigognes. If you are interested, we invite you to check the proposed rooms, lofts, duplex and suites here.

We ask that guests take care of paying their night but we invite these guests to a post-wedding Brunch in honor of the newlyweds, on Sunday, March 24, in Domaine des Cigognes.

If you prefer to return home after the wedding, please DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE. If you did drink or you feel sleepy, order a cab.

This section is mainly dedicated to our beloved out of town guests to help them organize their trip. First, make sure to start your visa request from the French embassy 3 months before the wedding date. These procedures may take a lot of time.

For information on the needed documents, check here. If needed, we can write an invitation letter to endorse your visa application.

The best way our guests from Lebanon, Canada, Dubai, Greece, Germany, and Saudi Arabia can get to Lille is by plane to the regions of Paris or Brussels, then by train (TGV) or bus to Lille. Due to frequent heavy traffic in Paris and Brussels and the expensiveness of the ride, we do not recommend that you take a taxi from the airport to Lille.

Lille is accessible from Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Orly and Brussels (BRU) airports. Lille is also accessible by train or bus from Berlin, but we do not recommend it since it is a long and exhausting journey. We recommend that you come by plane.

1. If you arrive at CDG airport, you should then take the TGV directly from CDG airport to Lille train station. This train journey takes approximately 1 hour. Lille has two train stations, Lille Flandres and Lille Europe. You can arrive at any of these two stations. Situated just 400 meters from one another, Lille's two train stations are located in the city center and are served by the metro. To buy train tickets from CDG to Lille, we recommend you do it in advance, before your arrival in France, by using this website (allow some time to get through customs): https://www.oui.sncf/billet-train.
2. If you arrive at Orly airport, you should then go to Gare du Nord station in Paris. For information on how to get to Gare du Nord from Orly airport check here. Then, you should take the TGV from Gare du Nord station to one of Lille's train stations, Lille Flandres or Lille Europe. For buying train tickets from Gare du Nord to Lille, do it before your arrival in France by using this website: https://www.oui.sncf/billet-train.
3. If you arrive at Brussels airport (also named “Brussels Zaventem Airport”), you may take a bus from the airport to Lille. This bus journey takes approximately 2 hours. For buying bus tickets from BRU airport to Lille, do it before your arrival in Belgium by using this website: https://www.ouibus.com or this website: https://www.flixbus.com/bus-schedule-bus-stop/brussels.

We personally recommend you travel to and from CDG airport, i.e., the 1st option. It is the most practical and comfortable solution. We saw that Middle East Airlines have tickets at 450$ for a round trip Beirut-CDG. We think it is a good opportunity that our guests from Lebanon may want to take advantage of.

Once at one of the train stations (Lille Flandres or Lille Europe), or in the bus (ouibus/flixbus) station in Lille, you should buy metro tickets to go to your hotel. Both train stations in Lille have metro stations, and the ouibus/flixbus station is also next to the metro station. See here for the location of the ouibus/flixbus station. You can buy the metro tickets on-site from the vending machines in the station. The machine accepts cash and Visa/Mastercard euro cards. Otherwise, you can, of course, hail a taxi outside the station for a ride to your hotel. (look for the taxi line and taxi stand).

We aim to make our out of town guests feel at home. Therefore, we thought about sharing every little important detail with you to make your trip great. We offer suggestions for your accommodation in Lille.

We recommend you to stay in one of the following hotels:

• Holiday Inn (3-star hotel), 75 Bis Rue Léon Gambetta, 59000 Lille (République Beaux-Arts metro station),
• Hotel Ibis Lille Centre Gares (3-star hotel), 29 Av Charles St-Venant, Le Forum, 59000 Lille (Gare Lille Flandres metro station),
• Best Hotel (2-star hotel), 66 Rue Littré, 59000 Lille (Gambetta metro station).

All of these hotels are affordable and very well-located, in the center of Lille and next to public transportation.

Here is a price comparison table:

PS: These prices may vary.

You may contact the hotel you choose by email to verify the availability of the rooms and make a reservation. They will explain to you how to proceed with payment. Here’s a small tip, if you call them and reserve over the phone, ask for a discount (usually 10%). You can also book your room online through their websites.

Lille is a beautiful city in Northern France, well known for its cold weather and warm citizens. People in Lille mainly speak French, English, and Ch’ti^*! During my last 3 years spent in Lille I fell in love with the roads and gastronomy of this city, and with Benjamin too who is born and raised in the region of Lille. We hope you will appreciate your stay in Lille and we recommend some activities for you to do:

• Get lost in the old historic part of Lille (Le vieux-Lille).
• Visit La Citadelle and Palais des Beaux-Arts.
• Try the Belgian beers, which are stronger than your average beer: Tripel Karmeliet, La Chouffe, Kwak, Chimay bleu, Chimay rouge, Rince Cochon, etc. They can be found in any bar in Lille or even in supermarkets.
• Try the cheesy plates of Lille, especially the ones made from the “Maroilles” cheese, such as welsh au maroilles (see the plate in the thumbnail that you clicked on to read this section). Be careful, maroilles cheese has a strong smell.
• For those who are not fans of cheese, try carbonade flamande, which is a sweet and sour beef and onion stew made with beer.

Here are some restaurants we recommend: Estaminet Au Vieux de la Vieille , Estaminet la Vieille France , and Le Broc . All these restaurants are available upon reservation. We also recommend waffles at Méert . And finally, do not leave without trying the famous Merveilleux from Merveilleux de Fred.

Besides being a very cool city for chilling, Lille is near the border with Belgium, very close to Paris, and only a few hours from Holland, Luxembourg and Germany. So think about staying a few more days to take advantage of the strategic position of Lille and visit the neighboring cities.

PS: All the durations are approximate.

For booking trains, visit this website: oui.sncf

For booking buses, visit these websites:

• flixbus
• ouibus
• cicevoyages