Back from the dead

We have finally started to settle in to our new life in Sweden. The adjustment of moving from London to a small town in Sweden has been harder than I expected. David seem to deal with it better than me, but I'm trying to keep my chin up. Most things are great and we don't regret the choice to move here, but there are a lot of things I miss.

I am still determined to get married next year, but I need to be realistic. As we rented flats that were furnished in the UK, we ended up in our new flat with no furniture at all. We have had to buy everything and I mean everything. I have spent more money during the last month than I have spent in years. On the upside I have a job at least until the end of January 2012 and David is looking. If we could both be employed at the same time, we would end up having a better economy than we have ever had. One of us have always been a student/part time employed/out of work .

I have always planned for a budget wedding, so I'm not panicking about anything. Things will work out. All I want to do is get married to my fiance and feel pretty while doing so. I don't care if it's down the registry office or in a castle. I'll happily get married on a shoestring budget. I never dreamt of a wedding as a little girl and I can't say I dream of one now. I dream of a marriage to the man I love. Something that will happen if we spent a grand or a hundred grands.

Quick Post

Things I learned from last weekend's weeding:

1. Mother in law does not want to be asked to do things. Especially not last minute. I thought she loved being involved in absolutely everything wedding related, but maybe she's had enough? This is a relief.
2. Father in law delivered a surprisingly lovely speech (in which me and David was mentioned!)
3. Try to avoid dead space between activities. It shouldn't be non-stop, but not half an hour wait either.
4. If there is a long time between the wedding ceremony and reception party, snacks is a must. At this wedding we had a afternoon tea (an idea which was initially disliked by the bride) with scones, clotted cream, jam, bread and cheeses. Life saver!
5. They had a pot-luck buffet for the reception. Which in the end meant I (as a vegetarian) could eat only potato salad, bread and cheese. Thank god for the afternoon tea! So if we have a buffet, make sure there is something for everyone. Consider allergies and lifestyle choices.
6. Dancing was a blast. They had an old style band which did line/square/group dances. I loved it. I have not been certain I wanted dancing at our wedding, but now I think I do.
7. Mixing your own drinks bar was a good idea. They also had hot water and tea/coffee. I did however miss still water as an option.
8. Decorations can make a big difference! They had loads of buntings which you know from past posts that I love. Buntings in my heart.
9. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! There was panic leading up to the wedding because nothing was properly planned. Planing is key. There were no invites. They even forgot to cut the wedding cake which was a three tier affair and probably cost a small fortune. It just stood in a corner, forgotten. They didn't remember to get the guests to sign the "guestbook" until a bunch had already left. Bride/groom/guests running around lost is not good.
10. I didn't like their registrar. I want to try and get someone who feels friendly, humorous and relaxed, but still understands the greatness of the moment.
11. They had a CD player for their ceremony. Live music would have had more impact. But if we chose to have a CD make sure someone's in charge, because there wasn't one at this wedding and the groom had to handle it.
12. I'm still undecided about children at weddings.

Little Venue List

I'm in the middle of packing our lives into boxes for the big move, but can't help taking a detour through Wedding land. Here are some links to venues in and around Gothenburg that I will investigate further when I get more time:

1. Dragon Gården
2. Överås
3. Skräddarön
4. Villa Odinslund
5. Stora Holms Säteri
6. Skärgårds Bröllop
7. Tjolöhlms Slott

Jessica Alba Updo

This is my current favorite for my wedding day hair style, as seen on the lovely Jessica Alba:

Update

It's been very quiet here during the last month. We are in the middle of arranging our move from the UK to Sweden and there have been far too many things do deal with to keep up the blog. Once everything is sorted I promise to get back into the wedding stuff.

Wedding Bouquet

Found this amazing bouquet on the wedding forum. It costs a mere £45 and is wonderfully wild and beautiful. I love it!

Perditas Wedding Shoes

Here's a brilliant tip for you all! The web shop Perditas Wedding Shoes has a lovely selection of shoes for your big day ranging from wellington boots to ugg style boots to sandals. The shop is arranged according to heel size, so you can easily find the kind of shoe you are after. So there is no need to trawl through shoes you couldn't even walk in.

Not only that, but they offer two additional services to make your shoes the perfect fit for you. The Colour Studio will dye your shoes the perfect colour, may it be green, red, blue or gold. They also offer to colour shoes not bought from their web shop and they can turn normal shoes into white bridal bliss for your feet!

The other service is the Design Studio where they will

enhance your shoe with genuine Swarovski Crystals or diamonds. So if your a bling bling kind of girl looking for sparkly heels, this is one way to do it.

I haven't personally tried this store, neither their online shop nor the show room in Stoke on Trent, but I am very impressed with what they seem to offer. Free UK delivery sweetens the deal further. When I get around to buying shoes I'll be sure to pop back for another look at what they have to offer.

Wedding Favors

We are not having wedding favors as it is an american tradition that doesn't fit our budget. However, I found this sweet favor suggestion here and can't help but loving it. It's practical and super cute!

Napkin Folding Techniques

Me and David have been visiting his parents all weekend so I havent had much time to think about wedding stuff, however, I thought I'd share this cool website with you. It's a website for all the people planning a wedding or any other function where you need to set a table. It's dedicated to napkin folding with instructions on quite a few different folding techniques for special occasions. There is also a section about 'Napkin Ettique'. Have a look:

http://www.napkinfoldingguide.com/

A laugh a day keeps the doctor away

Mori Lee Dream

Here is another beauty from Mori Lee. This dress is, for me, super bridal. How I imagine a bride if I was to picture one in my head. I'm in love with the lace bodice, the waist band and how the lace crawls down over the skirt. I know from experience that A-line dresses suits my figure extremely well. The trail is a bit longer that what I would want for an outdoor wedding, but other than that, this dress is a keeper. I can't help but being very tempted. I can see myself in this dress, with a veil, on my wedding day. That doesn't happen too often, 'cause even though I might like a dress, I can't see myself wearing it. Me want! Gimme, gimme gimme! At the moment I don't have enough money to buy normal clothes, so a wedding dress is of course out of the question for now, but this is definitely put on my favorite list.

Garden Inspiration

After a long day at work, I'm to knackered to write a long entry about why I like this inspiration board so much. Just trust me when I say I do.

Colour Explosion

If I had got married today (right this second), this is how I would have wanted my wedding. Vibrant, colourful and slightly in your face. I don't know why as this is far from my usual style, but today this style really appeals to me. If I wait an hour or two, I'll probably go back to normal, but until then here are some vibrant photos to spark your imagination.

The photos are taken from : Here, here and here

Rainy Wedding Photos

It is raining cats and dogs in London today, accompanied by thunder and lightening. It's enough to bring anyone down on an normal day, never mind on your wedding day. But here are some photos that at least cheer me up and shows that there is nothing that could ruin the happiness of your special day as long as you're prepared.

The untagged photo above is taken from: http://tinyurl.com/6g2vbbk

Beautiful Dress

Had this dress had a bit more delicate lace on the bodice, it would have been perfect. A lovely dress ever the less and definitely deserves a mentioning. It's a China dress, which also puts me off, but I love the style. I think it would suit me very well.

Photo from: http://www.brollopstorget.se/Forum-1-81/m4010752.html

A Baby's Breath Wedding

Baby's Breath... just the name makes me tingle. This is a wonderful flower for a wedding. Simple, feminine, soft, bohemic, full of understated elegance. I love.

Two dresses in One

There is a current trend of having not one, but two wedding dresses. One dress for the wedding day (ceremony and photos) and another for the wedding night (dinner and party). Personally, I feel I would want to wear my wedding dress all day long, because let's face it, you'll never wear it again. However if I was to have two dresses, this would be it.

It's a very clever combi-dress with a detachable ball gown skirt from Mori Lee. I love the dress, and the detachable skirt is just an added bonus. I would get this, not to change during my dinner, but so that even after the wedding day I could use me dress. The dress above changes into this little number:

An absolutely stunning, knee-length, lace dress, that I would have bought if I'd seen it in a store. I love how clever this dress is and how well the ball gown skirt fits on the bodice. You'd never know that it wasn't just one dress. This dress get's the highest score for me. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to retail anywhere in Europe apart from one tiny outlet in Spain. Just my luck.

Glad Midsommar!

Today Sweden celebrate the traditional holiday of Midsummer Eve. It's a holiday that brings families and friends together with dance, food and joy. It's not uncommon to hear of midsummer weddings, so here is an inspiration board for the day.

According to an old Swedish legend, Midsummer's Eve is a night of love. Unmarried girls should, before going to bed on the night of Midsummer's Eve, pick seven kinds of flowers and jump over seven roundpole fences. They should then place the flowers underneath their pillows and go to sleep. During the night they will dream about the men they will marry.

As it will be hard to find seven kinds of wild flowers and nearly impossible to find seven round pole fences in today's London, I think I'll skip this tradition this year. Besides I already know the man I'm going to marry.

Summer Wedding Inspiration

This inspiration Board is from Prima Donna Bride and serves as today's inspiration. I love the feeling this board gives me. I say Yes to everything on the board, although I'd not have everything in the same red checkerboard pattern!

My Dream Venue

If money was not an issue, I would get married at Thorskogs Slott. I absolutely love the setting and have not found a more beautiful wedding venue to date. The beautiful castle is surrounded by English Gardens that includes a pond where wild ducks live. This feels like me and David through and through. David is English and I've lived in England for 5 years. We love to go to the parks and look at all the wild birds. It would be lovely to be able to include these aspects of our lives on our wedding day.Everything about this venue is mind blowingly beautiful.

Thorskogs Slott have a lovely wedding arrangement that you could

buy into. Since money is not an issue in this post, I would. The arrangement is as follows:

Thorskogs Slott have a lovely wedding arrangement that you could

buy into. Since money is not an issue in this post, I would. The arrangement is as follows:

Friday

16.00 The wedding party arrives on friday afternoon and checks into their pre-booked double rooms.

18.30 All the wedding guests get together for a barbecue or a cold buffet. You can sit on the terrace and look out over the English Garden that surrounds the castle or cosy up in the Hunter's Hall filled with with candles and an open fire.

Saturday

8.30-10.00 Breakfast in the Flower Room. The Bride and her maids have plenty of time to get ready for the day in the beautiful room Karin, where hairdressers, make-up artists etc can be booked to come to you at the castle. No need to rush of to appointments all over town.

10.00 The wedding coordinators can arrange pitch and putting competitions in the park for the guests or a quiz walk about the bride and groom through the forest. The walk takes about 20 minutes and can be finished off with a lunch outdoors.

12.00 Alternatively, if the weather allows, there will be savoury sandwiches and wraps served in the park.

14.00 The Ceremony. Can be held at the castle or elsewhere.

15.00 Red carpets are rolled out and the guests arrive. The newlyweds arrives from the ceremony (after all the guests have gathered) in a beautiful Bentley or a horse drawn carriage. The wedding toast, with Champagne and canapés or Strawberries, is served in the bailey. Live music by the castle entrance.

16.00 The food is served in the Orangery . The tables are set with beautiful porcelain, linen cloths, exquisite flower arrangements by the castle's own florist and beautifully sculpted napkins.

21.00 The dinner comes to an end and the wedding party moves in to the saloons where coffee and wedding cake are served.

22.00 The Orangery has been cleared and the dance floor is opened. The first dance takes place followed by dancing and opening of the bar.

01.30 Bar closes and last dance is announced.

01.30 Night snack is served.

02.00 The evening ends, but Nachspiel can be offered in the Hunter's Hall or in the Stable.

Sunday

9.00-10.30 Breakfast. The newlyweds can chose to have a private breakfast in the wedding suite.

12.00 Guests depart

How nice does that sound? A girl can dream can't she? Oh if only we were millionaires...

More Hair inspiration

Here is a hair-do that I found while browsing the wedding forum. The hair jewellery is apparently an Ebay find for £10 and I love it. So beautiful, feminine, big and still simple. Once again I come back to the words Understated Elegance which I want to describe on my wedding day and which I think describes this hairstyle. Soft waves, simple braids and the hair piece that ties it all together makes a very pretty bride. It's not quite what I picture for myself, but it's definitely giving me the right vibes.

Photo taken from: http://www.brollopstorget.se/Forum-1-23/m4007206.html

Papilio Hair Inspiration

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Papilio doesn't only have amazing wedding dresses, but amazing styling as well. I've picked a few of my favourites above. I'm yet to decide how to wear my hair as it depends on how much it will grow out until the wedding and also what kind of wedding dress I will be wearing. This is amazing inspiration for the future!

Royal Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of the Swedish royal wedding.Their wedding was a huge event in Sweden, with much praise for the princess' choice of wedding dress and prince Daniel's speech to the princess during the reception dinner. They have chosen to celebrate their anniversary in private, but I thought it would be nice to look back at their wedding style. I did dedicate a post to the British royal wedding, so I feel obligated to do the same for the Swedish royalties. Two very different royal couples, two beautiful weddings.

The official wedding photo. I love the simplicity of her bouquet.

She had a very long, seemingly detachable, trail. Unsure if I like it or not.

I love the historic tiara and the veil. She looks very graceful and royal.

You can really feel how happy she was just looking at this photo. Such a beautiful princess.

On the Royal balcony. I like the V-shape on the back of her dress. It suited her very well. I like the top half more than the bottom half of the dress. I think it would have been nicer if it fell in a different way. But the entire outfit is well thought through and utterly lovely.

Photos from: Here, here, here, here, here and here.

Green/Purple Wedding Cake

This gorgeous looking cake is in fact not a wedding cake, but a three tiered birthday cake. It was made by Sandra from the Swedish blog Sandras Bak who I think is really talented. The purple lily's are beautifully made with so much detail. The crown petals of the flowers are eatable. Perfect for someone with lime green/purple colour scheme or (if the base was white) for anyone who want a simple but stylish cake.

Papilio

Here are some absolutely gorgeous wedding dresses by Papilio, the designer who made my dream dress. I'd happily wear any of these for my big day. There is something about his designs that is oh-so appealing to me. I also love the styling the 'brides' have been given. Hair and makeup are divine. Anyone have a few thousand pounds spare?

What Are Words

This song and video has me crying my eyes out. Everytime.

The song is sung by Chris Medina. Chris and his girlfriend was engaged to be married when only two months before the big day, his girlfriend got into a terrible car accident and ended up in a coma. She was in a coma for a month and a half while her loved ones was faced with the grief of not knowing if she would ever wake up. The doctor's had little hope. But she did wake up. With severe brain damaged. Her fiance has stuck by her. They never got married. Never got the chance to say their vows. But he has stuck to the words he was about to say to her; Through thick and thin. Through sickness and in health.

The song features the lines "What are words if you if you really don't mean it when you say them" and "What kind of guy would I be if I was to leave you when you need me the most". So beautiful it makes me cry.

I hope with all my heart that me and David will be spared from anything that horrible. But if the unimaginable was to happen, I hope I would be strong enough to do what Chris has done. I think I would. My love for David surpasses anything I have known.

Things can change in the blink of an eye and we often forget how precious life is. So watch this video (the bit when he proposes to his girlfriend is wonderful) and remember how lucky you are.

Winter Wedding

A winter wedding could be amazing. The horse drawn sleigh, the winter coats, the candles in the snow lighting the aisle, hot coco... I can see it all in front of me. It does make me think twice about having a summer wedding. But then there seem to be more thinks that can go wrong in the winter; like lack of flowers and snow storms or no snow at all! You'd also be 'competing' with the holidays. So I think we'll stick with the summer. For now.

YouTube Surprise Wedding Vows

This is a wonderful video. The setting of the wedding ceremony looks totally stunning and I would get married there in the blink of an eye. In front of a gazebo on the top of a mountain, it's like taken from a dream of mine. The rev (named Timothy Mills, according to the video description) seem wonderful and reads the surprise wedding vows/story in such a lovely way. The groom apparently wrote the entire thing the night before/morning of the wedding. He's got some mean writing skills! So emotional and funny at the same time.

I'm the writer in mine and David's relationship. David is one of the funniest people I have every met, but he is not great with speeches or writing things down, and especially not if he's nervous. So I know not to expect any long vows or speeches on our wedding day, even though it would be nice. I love him with all my heart either way, so as long as he remembers to say 'I do' I'll be the happiest woman on earth. However I would really like if we could write our own wedding vows. More for me to get to tell him and our guests how much he means to me than anything else.

Lace Shoes

Lace is ultra feminine and a new love of mine. There are plenty of lace shoes out there for brides to pick from. Here are just a few selections.

By Lily

By Augusta Jones

By Diane Hassall

Gustafsberg

After yesterdays wedding at Gustafsberg I yet again feel that it would be the ultimate venue for our own wedding. There are few places I know that are so beautiful and hold so many memories for me. David was also blown away when we visited it again. We really need to sit down and think through it fast as the two houses that can be booked for weddings are extremely popular and will be booked up a year in advance. Which means that if we want our wedding to take place around this time next year, we are already behind in the planning! But at the moment we have no money to put down for deposits and I'm not sure that we will have any within the next few months. We might just have to not set a date and then take what ever date the venue is available. Hmm... a lot to think about.

My friends got married today!

Today I attended the second wedding of my life. Two of my friends got married today. I've known the woman since I was 6 years old and the man since they became a couple 12 years ago. They are considered family, but unfortunately they live quite far away, so I don't get to see them as often as I wish.

They have been together for 12 years and have a three month old son. They didn't want to make any fuss about their wedding, they simply wanted to get married and that's exactly what happened. We were only six guests at the wedding. My mum and dad (who was their legal witnesses), my sister and me (who took the wedding photos) and David and their three month old baby boy.

They chose to do this for personal reasons and due to very complicated family relationships. I am very honoured to have been a part of their special day.

The ceremony was very simple. We were stood in a beautiful green area next to the sea. Afterwards we went to a cafe and had fresh shrimp sandwiches and coffee. In the evening we went to a restaurant in town and to have the wedding dinner. The bride was wearing a white summer dress, flats and a scarf. The groom was wearing a three piece suit.

The best thing about the day was to see how happy the wedding couple was. Sometimes all you need is love.

Wedding Gift

Today we have bought a wedding present for David's brother and his fiancée who are getting married this August. I don't know them very well and have only met his brother a handful of times and his fiancée ones. Finding a gift could have been a real challenge, but I spotted this book while I was shopping for something else and it just felt right. Its a lovely book named Swedish cookies and desserts by Malin Landqvist. It's ful of amazing photos, anecdotes, Swedish trivia and recipes. I don't know if they like baking, but I know that the wife to be is a devoted 40's fan who has decorated her house and only wears clothes from the era. Hopefully she will enjoy the 'housewifeyness' of this book. I might even get one for myself as I really like the look of it.

Photo from: http://www.swedishness.com/products/swedish-cookies-and-desserts/?lang=eng