COUNTRYSIDE WEDDING

How did you two meet?

Martin and me met a Tuesday night, late October, in ”Andy’s sports bar” in Oslo. I had been at a Muse concert with some friends, and he was out with a buddy. Martin was very eager and gave all the cliché compliments about my hair, my perfume, all at once! I thought I would never fall for these sleazy compliments…but hey; I guess I did! Already the day after he texted me, we met again and things went fast… before Christmas he was my boyfriend.  And we have been together for almost 12 years now! We have enjoyed life before kids; having the opportunity to travel when we want, eat fancy dinner late at night, drink champagne for breakfast and live life. We now have two beautiful kids together: Jacob, 5 and Sonja, 3. Three years ago we bought our own house in suburbia. Life is good! 

In 2018 we went to Rome for a romantic trip to celebrate 10 years together and decided to eat at a fancy restaurant, like the old days. And here is where it happened; he went down on his knee, with this beautiful diamond ring, proposed, asking me to be his wife. Even though I knew it would happen one day, because we have always talked about getting married at some point, I was shocked and surprised and actually forgot to answer him! So the poor guy had to remind me to answer the question, and of course I said “yes”! Still shocked about him going down on his knee on this very fancy Michelin restaurant…. Brave pal!!

The dress and the look

Being in my mid thirties, I have seen many friends getting married, I have seen many types of weddings, and I have seen all kinds of dresses. First of all, both Martin and myself agreed the wedding should be laid-back. So I wanted a laid-back dress, not something that would make me look like a “cupcake”. And for some reason I have always loved short dresses. I started googling “short wedding dress”. It took some time, but suddenly Indiebride popped up and I took a look at their website. And there it was; The Gabrielle Dress! I looked at it once, and once more, the day after, and kept on admiring the dress whenever thinking about the wedding and what to wear. I tried to find similar dresses in Norwegian wedding dress stores. But the more dresses I looked at the more determined I was; The Gabrielle dress was my wedding dress. It was something about the simplicity, but still the details on the sleeves. The shape and line of the dress and the idea that it would suit our wedding idea of something simple and fun.

So I sent Miina an email asking how I could realise my dream of wearing this dress without going to London for a fitting; and the response made me certain that this actually would go just fine. And it did! The dress arrived, and it was stunning, the fabric was so delicate and the lace details I had only seen on pictures were even more beautiful than I could ever imagine. And with some adjustments at a local seamstress, the dress sat and looked perfect on me! I felt so beautiful!

Accessories

I have always been in love with shoes! And for me the shoes were almost as important as the dress. For many years I have dreamt about owning a pair of Valentino Rockstuds! And since the dress didn`t overturn the budget, I went all in and bought the shoes (lucky for me they were 40 % off). And also, wearing a short dress, I just had to have a pair of stunning shoes. The Valentinos made my day! The rivets on these shoes looked so cool to the dress! I loved it!

My last accessory and detail was a beautiful flower garland my mother made! Being a June bride, it was the perfect detail, and my mother did a splendid job on it. And with the flowers in my hair I thought a long braid would match the look perfectly. So I contacted Annicken Lorentzen at Gullsaken, who had done my hair once before and that I knew would make a beautiful braid and put all her effort in it. She also did my makeup, and I was so happy with how she managed to do it just like I wanted; a bit dramatic and more like an elegant party makeup than the natural sweet bride look. She nailed it!

The groom's outfit

We put “Sommerlig pent” as the dress code on the invitations. This is like smart casual, with a summer tone. Again, to give a clear understanding of the wedding not being stiff, but more laid-back. So to keep Martin in the same category we skipped the bow tie and he wore a blue Boss suit, a white shirt and white sneakers. I matched his white sneakers after dinner, on the dance floor. In fact, we all matched; Jacob wore the same white sneakers as his dad, and Sonja had a pair of pink shoes with rivets, matching her mother. I loved this detail!

Venue

We went to Geiteberg kulturbruk to have a look at the Venue and to talk to Guri and Kjetil, who live there and run the whole place. We fell in love with everything in it! There was no point in looking at other venues. It was perfect! Guri and Kjetil have made the whole barn into this romantic, rustic, delicate, countryside venue. The cowshed is refurbished into this delicate local saving some of the old details, like an old drinking bowl on the wall. The actual bar is placed inside a silo, and the whole upper barn is empty and can be decorated just like you wish. And I guess the deal-breaker for choosing the venue was Guri and Kjetil; wonderful people, helping out with everything. They give advice when asked, nothing is too difficult and it felt like it was important for them that we had “our “ wedding and that our wishes went through. Of course the beautiful nature and surroundings also made it the perfect venue. 

But when it was raining on our wedding day, and the ceremony we had planned outside had to be moved inside; the most important thing is to be surrounded by people who make things happen for you. We checked the forecast every hour the day before, and in the morning on the actual day we decided to keep the ceremony inside and it was reorganised and delivered just like nothing had changed! When I arrived to the venue the storage room was beautifully decorated with flowers that my mother and me picked the day before, the flowers I ordered and pillows I had bought and it looked like we had planned an inside ceremony all along! With 80 people, it was crowded in the room, but it didn’t matter. It looked perfect! 

Decor

The surroundings and the venue in itself were mind blowing, so I used the effect of flowers. The day before the wedding, my mother and me walked and drove around the countryside near the venue and collected wild flowers. In June you find them everywhere! We spent the whole day picking flowers and the end result was amazing! We filled buckets with flowers and placed them near the entrances and they were so decorative! I also bought some decorations to be put near the ceremony. Geiteberg, the venue, had this arch to be married under and I ordered two flower decorations from local florist, Ski Blomsterforretning, to decorate it. The florist also made my beautiful bouquet made of Lily of the Valley, one of my favourite flowers. 

The upper barn, where we had dinner and the party was decorated with a lot of lights, white curtains and old items like apple crates, glass jars, old lathers, an old washboard and so on. I also placed an old Persian carpet near the entrance and a chandelier made of a wagon wheel and glass jars decorated the ceiling. I rented the decorations from a friend of a friend and the whole venue looked so cool in the end. One extra small detail was the table decorations. Martin is a tinsmith so he had these flowerpots made from copper gutters made in his workshop.I filled them with pebbles, small plants and cacti to give them a personal touch.

Food and cake

After the ceremony the guests had champagne and waffles! Perfect match! For dinner we had tapas, and before they went home they got a hot dog!  Simple and good. And actually we skipped the cake completely. There is something about eating a cake, often late at night because of the dinner, I don’t fancy eating a cake. And also it makes people sit down, with their plate and their coffee, getting tired. We wanted people to dance all night long! We gave our guests sugar, but instead of a cake we had a candy buffet with lots and lots of different candy. And as a replacement to the cake lovers, we had 3 large pyramids with macaroons, with all kinds of flavours! So, they could have their tiny “cake”, in their hand, whilst moving towards the dance floor. 

Entertainment

A very good friend of mine, and one of our guests, Anna, sang at the ceremony. It was as lovely as her. She sang “Thinking out loud” by Ed Sheeran and “Utan Dine Andetag” by Kent. We had a pianist to accompany her, and he also played for one hour after the ceremony together with his contrabass friend. Then during dinner and after dinner we had a DJ, colleague of mine, Dr. Alex Papple (scientist by day, DJ by night). I was a great success and he kept the dance floor full the whole night!

Photography

Pictures from the day were one of the most important things! In the end the day goes by so fast, and the pictures are what you have left, together with the memories. We decided to have the photographer there the whole day, for 12 hours. I told him to be my second pair of eyes. I wanted him to take pictures of the faces, the reactions and the happenings, things that I missed! The whole day is overwhelming, so I am so glad I had Åsmund Holien Mo there to capture the moments for us. He did such a marvellous job and sent the whole day in da capo back!

Apart from saying "yes" to your husband, what was your favourite moment of your wedding?

My kids! I knew they would be the ones to make me cry. And when I saw them at my arrival, I was blown away! They were so sweet, so lovely…and so funny. My son came straight towards me when I arrived, and said:” Mom! I’m wearing a belt! And It’s so cool!...and later dad said I can have a waffle!”. My daughter just kept on dancing around in her tulle skirt, so happy with her dress (like her mother!). Also Jacob had the task of giving us the rings, and I will never forget when he finally was allowed to step forward and hand over the rings. He was so proud and so eager! Having the opportunity to give my kids the memory of mom and dad getting married was so nice and I am so glad we included them. 

What advice would you give to brides still planning their wedding?

It’s a cliché, but remember: it’s your day! Nobody else’s! Do it the way you want and don’t care about what others think and want. One minor suggestion that worked for us perfectly; we had a speech session before dinner. All speeches were held some time after the ceremony and before dinner. And then also having the DJ playing during dinner which made the dinner laid-back; people mingled across tables, they talked loud, they took a break whenever they wanted, they came up to us and gave us a hug and the whole setting was loose and fun! I really recommend it! And also, if you want people to dance; hire a DJ or a band and have a talk with them before the big day. Let them know what kind of music you prefer. You know your guests the best!
 
 

- Kristine -