Summer love
Couple danced the night away at their starry wedding
Andrea Hamm Manono, 36, and Jean-Francis Manono, 41, met at that most classic of places: work. Andrea was charmed when she overheard Jean-Francis speaking French (his first language) on business calls, while Jean-Francis loved the perspective Andrea brought to their conversations.
One day, after she had wrapped up her MBA, Andrea asked Jean-Francis if she could share his table in the lunch room so she could read. Jean-Francis, a self-professed introvert, chatted with her throughout the lunch hour.
“I remember thinking, ‘That’s interesting, because normally this person really keeps to themselves,’” says Andrea. “There was not a lot of small talk with him. It was conversations that really made me think.”
When they were both working late one evening, Jean-Francis asked Andrea if she wanted to grab a bite to eat.
“The more time I spent with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him,” Andrea says.
Jean-Francis agrees: “I’m not really a people person, per se,” he laughs. “She was the first person whose company I really enjoyed, and I hadn’t felt that need before.”
Early on in their relationship, Andrea’s father was diagnosed with cancer and she went out to B.C. to be with him. “I didn’t know how long I would be gone,” she recalls. “Jean-Francis was such a rock. There was no question for him that we were going to stay together and that he was going to wait for me to come back.”
In 2018, Jean-Francis’ plans for a New Year’s Eve proposal were foiled when Andrea invited her best friend over to celebrate their birthday. The original plan was to propose at Christmas, but the hand-carved wooden box he had commissioned for the ring had yet to arrive — a significant gesture as Andrea’s father, who had then passed away, was a woodworker. Undeterred, Jean-Francis popped the question at the next available moment — Jan. 1, 2019 — and they began planning their wedding for July 2020.
While Andrea admits she is “not a dress person,” she leaned into the traditional bridal dress shopping experience pre-pandemic, accompanied by her bridesmaids and family. “I was so stressed,” she recalls. “They say there’s a moment when you just know a dress is ‘the one,’ but I didn’t like any of them.” She decided to take matters into her own hands.
With the help of her stepmother Pamela, an amateur seamstress, she designed her own wedding dress, as well as traditional Congolese wedding outfits. By that time, the pandemic had begun, and everything had to be done virtually. Jean-Francis took Andrea’s measurements and helped make adjustments to the prototype, which arrived by mail. When the final dress arrived, just four days before the wedding, it fit perfectly. “I just knew that it would come together,” says Andrea.
Their venue, Kortright Centre for Conservation, was able to reschedule their wedding for August. It was disappointing to see the original vision for their wedding change, but there was a silver lining: on the original date of the wedding, it poured rain. On their new date, it was “the hottest, most beautiful day,” says Andrea.
As she walked down the aisle, her mom had to keep reminding her to slow down. “I saw him standing there and was just so excited,” she says.
“There was a lot of uncertainty (because of the pandemic), but on the day of the wedding, the stress just flew away,” adds Jean-Francis.
During the reception, Andrea’s bridesmaids and maid of honour surprised the couple with a video featuring their friends and family from Canada’s west coast, the U.S., France, Australia and Congo who were unable to attend because of the pandemic.
Two particularly memorable videos included Jean-Francis’ mother, aunt and other women relatives who performed a traditional Congolese dance; and his 90-year-old grandfather, his namesake, who told Jean-Francis he hoped one day he would also be a grandad.
The evening ended with a campfire and lots of music, which they danced to under the stars.
“You hear people say, ‘Oh, you’ll get bored of each other,’ or things like that,” says Jean-Francis. “For me, every day is a new experience with Andrea. It’s like watching the sunset: you see it every day, but it still blows your mind.”
‘‘ There was a lot of uncertainty (because of the pandemic), but on the day of the wedding, the stress just flew away.
JEAN-FRANCIS MANONO