Philippe + Dries by Céline Collomb

The table styling was where our vision felt the most personal and the most “us” from day one.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We’re a couple based in Belgium who share a love for travel, discovering new things, art, reading, and our dog. Whether it’s exploring a new city, wandering through a museum, or simply enjoying a quiet weekend together, we’re always looking for little adventures: big or small.

Dries, an independent business consultant, is the more rational half of the couple. He’s happiest tending to the garden, savouring the simple pleasures of life, and, much to our amusement, building the occasional Excel spreadsheet just for fun.

Philippe, an event planner by trade, is the creative one. He has a deep passion for fashion, interior design, and collecting the most delightfully useless bits of trivia, which he’ll happily share at any given moment.

Together, we balance each other out beautifully: one keeps us grounded, the other keeps things beautiful and a little unexpected. It’s this mix of structure and spontaneity that makes our relationship and our life together feel so right.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We met through a dating app around Easter 2019. Dries had just moved into the neighbourhood and suggested grabbing a drink just to get to know each other and maybe become friends.

We ended up meeting at Dries’s apartment, and almost instantly, there was a connection between us that neither of us could quite explain.

That first glass of rosé turned into another, and before we knew it, what was meant to be a casual, friendly drink had quietly become the start of something much bigger. Seven years later, we had our wedding.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee, etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one element that worked best for us; everything came together quite naturally. But if we had to trace it back, it all really started with the venue. We fell completely in love with this former convent, and that instant connection became the spark for everything else. From there, ideas just kept unfolding, one after the other, almost effortlessly.

That said, the one thing we felt truly confident about from the very beginning was the tablescaping; we knew exactly how we wanted it to look and feel. It became a kind of creative anchor throughout the whole planning process, something we could always come back to whenever other decisions felt less clear.

So while the venue gave us our starting point and our inspiration, the table styling was where our vision felt the most personal and the most “us” from day one.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

We genuinely loved the entire planning process from selecting vendors to sketching out ideas, building an early timeline, and going to all the meetings. But two moments stood out the most for us.

The first was imagining a wedding that truly felt like us: taking the traditional wedding format and gently breaking it, adding unexpected touches so that our personalities could really shine through, rather than following a script. The second was the back-and-forth with our vendors those conversations where our ideas met their expertise, and something even better than what we’d imagined started to take shape.

Our advice for couples starting their wedding planning journey: before reaching out to anyone, sit down together and ask yourselves how you want your wedding to feel like you. Avoid chasing a wedding that could be mistaken for someone else’s Pinterest, and inspiration boards are great starting points, but don’t let them dictate everything.

And above all, listen to your vendors. Wedding planning is a genuine exchange between your vision and the expertise of the small team that’s been brought together to bring your day to life. Trust that collaboration is where the real magic happens.

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

All of our vendors were absolutely incredibly attentive beyond what we could have asked for, clearly experts in what they do, and thanks to them, we had a day that will forever be etched in our memories.

That said, if we had to highlight a few standouts: Moment Kohi truly went the extra mile, taking precise measurements of the venue and redrawing the floor plans themselves; they were there for us through every single request, no matter how demanding. Juliette and Kevin were the duo we communicated with the most throughout the whole process, and they delivered absolutely fantastic work. La Brassée, Chloé in particular, brought the venue to life with floral installations straight out of a fairytale, exceeding every expectation we had. La Diva Live and Pamela, with their drag performance and sparkle, made the moment truly unforgettable, elevating both the atmosphere and the emotion of the day to another level entirely. And finally, Céline Collomb captured it all so beautifully that we can still relive our wedding with the exact same emotions, months later.

It’s also worth mentioning: we’re a couple who knows exactly what we want. We’re picky; we care deeply about quality, so this wasn’t necessarily the easiest couple to work with. And yet, every single one of them rose to the occasion.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?

For Dries’s outfit, things were a little tricky at first; he wasn’t quite sure what direction to take, especially since he couldn’t see what I’d be wearing and coordinate around it. For once, I couldn’t guide him the way I usually would. So he turned to both his parents and mine, and together they helped him find the perfect look for the day. We also chose to work with linen, as a nod to Provence and its natural, sun-soaked elegance.

As for me, I really wanted to play with a mix of masculine and feminine elements. It always felt like such a shame that only brides were “allowed” to wear lace, trains, or sparkling jewellery, so I decided to blend the two, proudly wearing a white bridal-inspired look of my own.

The cape was created by Frédéric Luca Landi, who was John Galliano’s right-hand at Dior. He had previously designed my sister’s wedding dress, as well as several of my mother’s outfits, so it only felt right that his hand would also shape a part of mine. Having that thread of family history woven into my own wedding look made it feel even more meaningful.

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Let’s start with the engagement ring. Dries had a custom engagement ring made by jeweller Valentin in Waterloo, Belgium. He knew that two of my favourite brands were Repossi, for its lightness, stacking style, and modernity, and Bulgari, for its craftsmanship and touch of bling. Drawing on both, he created a truly unique piece: a stack of gold rings finishing with a floating diamond at the end.

He proposed on Miyajima Island in Japan, a breathtaking, almost otherworldly setting that made the moment feel even more magical.

For the wedding bands, we each chose ours at the same jeweller. Dries wanted something simple and understated, with a solid, grounded presence. I, on the other hand, wanted a band that could complement the engagement ring and complete the set something that would sit alongside it and feel like one cohesive piece, rather than two separate rings.

What were one or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

Honestly, we loved spending on every single element of this wedding: the food, the florals, the photography, our outfits. This day wasn’t about cutting corners anywhere. It was entirely, unapologetically us.

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

Walking through our ceremony in front of all our closest friends, seeing their joy, their emotion, the love radiating from them, and discovering each other in that moment was simply magical. It all took place in a bamboo grove surrounded by floral installations, giving us the feeling of stepping into a secret garden.

Then, during dinner, La Diva Live performed several songs, and at one point, she invited us to slow dance together to “L’Hymne à l’Amour” just the two of us, in our own little bubble. It was a truly magical moment, full of love between us, made even more special by the fact that La Diva wasn’t just performing for us; she had become a real friend throughout this journey. That song has become our favourite ever since, and every time we hear it, we’re instantly filled with emotion.

One more small but happy mention: we genuinely enjoyed every single bite of food, every glass of wine, and every sip of champagne, savouring the day fully, in every sense of the word.

What does being married mean to you, and are there any special rituals you have that you would like to share?

For us, marriage is the first real step toward building our family. We’ve always wanted children, and it felt unimaginable to take that path without first making this commitment to one another. Marriage was, in many ways, the foundation we needed to lay first.

Since the wedding, we’ve created a little ritual of our own: every once in a while, we set aside a quiet moment just for the two of us, where we go through our wedding album, read through the guestbook, and put on the music from that day. It’s a simple gesture, but it never fails to bring us right back to how we felt in that moment the emotion, the love, the joy of that day, all over again.