1. No. Nor did I say anything to my parents or friends.
2. Engagement - about 1/17th.
3. On the couch
. Without a ring. After all the calls to her family and friends we then settled on a ring style (Blue Nile) and then in the kitchen on one knee when the ring was delivered 
We decided early on our prioritisation for the wedding - it's a celebration. I'm not religious (although her family are RC) and the French state doesn't recognise religion so you have a council office wedding (they have a stunning location and 'office' for this) and those getting wed turn up an queue, we were followed by a Moroccan wedding and I've seen so many others there. Then you can have whatever religion or don't bother.
We decided that as I'm not religious that we'd simply go for the state wedding then have a banquet celebration focused on the meal rather than pomp and location - it's about bringing people together and celebrating.
French wedding are fun.
1) they don't stop for kids. Kids have their own table, they have someone to baby sit and keep them entertained.. when they're tired they sleep on the side with the other kids in sleeping bags etc that the parents bring. They film reenacting how we met etc etc then we sit down to watch in one of the between-course segments.
2) they have a afternoon reception.. then they have a evening reception - you can be invited to one/other or both.
3) they have courses .. every 30-45 minutes. from 6/7pm till the wedding cakes are cut at midnight.. then the partying continues until the early hours.
4) the courses I remember (lol) are the seafood buffet and the inch thick beef steak.. stunning food - a mate thought that the first course was the entire thing.
5) between each course - there are games, including His and Hers etc
6) you don't get a single wedding cake - you have a number of cakes that are presented along with a Champagne fountain at midnight...
7) Then the disco starts in earnest, and about 2am they start carnival (this is a Dunkerque thing) with all the rude French songs that are part of carnival..
with the knowledge that they only had to stagger a couple of steps to bed!8) you then have a meal together in the morning/noon the following day. This is often a simple DIY with beer, wine, home made food, pates etc.
Cost of wedding venue - lake side in the north of France and with superb multi-course meal, French wines (St Emillion), afternoon and evening reception till 3am in France was probably about €5000. Also had bedrooms on site, ours was free with the booking. We hired an old chateau for the meal the next day, and I remember eating masses of pate
The meal went down in legend I think as people still keep commenting on it and I have to say I'm happy it nailed what was envisioned.
Later on we arranged honeymoon - Hawaii Big Island and Kawaii (the small island at the top) for two weeks.
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