The do's and I dont's (Part 2)

Party Party Party. On to Part 2 of my wedding experience. (Part 1)

 I am regretting not having someone record at our wedding, because it was such a fun night. Especially the dancing at around 1am, when everyone had enough to drink to not care one bit about anything. I am talking about our 50+ year olds that we got to dance to soulja boy. HAHA oh what a sight. And Aleksanders uncle.  If you knew the man you would have died from laughter to have seen him cranking that soulja boy on the dance floor….in case you don’t know the song, I recommend you YouTube it. The superman part was the best part, we were going back and forth that room like mops. Im smiling just writing this because the image in my head is too funny! But let me take a breather and start from the beginning.

Our plan was to have the guests arrive at the party location and wait while Aleksander and I took our pictures.  There was a nice sitting area, and they were served fruit and champagne. 

When we arrived an hour or so after, we were greeted with champagne and everyone said welcome and gave us a toast. We then walked in to the main hall and our gifts were already opened.

It is Norwegian custom that while the couple is out taking pictures, the guests open all the gifts and display them around and set them on the designated gift table. We later got a list saying who got us what. I personally do not like this custom at all. The joy in opening a gift and seeing the recipient opening it is the best part. I wasnt the only one bummed by this, as I had several guests quite bothered that Aleksander and I wouldn’t open our gifts personally. I will make sure that when my kids get married I ask them what they want….if they want the guests to open them or if they want to open them themselves. I was sad but I didn’t let it ruin my day, nothing could have ruined it for me. Either way the gifts were lovely and of course mostly for me. Muahahaha. Since we got a lot of kitchen things and money on the side, Aleksander jokingly asked if he can have the money and buy himself a guitar since I got all the kitchen stuff. HAHA, poor guy. I definitely was more excited about my crock pot and pans than he was.

The rest of the evening was pretty normal compared to most weddings (speeches and toasts, I made them take a shot of tequila for the end of my speech)...except for the fact that I had 13 cakes.....I am not kidding. It is normal for guests to make and bring  more cake. I had my main wedding cake which my dear friend and maid of honor Jenna baked for me, but I also had 12 others. Including one made out of marsipan rings, called kransekake. Its pretty much a hollow pyramid with approx. 16 rings. The custom with the kransekake is, its set in front of the couple and while theyre eyes are blindfolded, they both hold a spatula and sort of stab at the cake, well not really stab but more like point at it... then wherever theyre pointing at, they count to see how many kids they will have counting from the top to wherever the spatula is pointing at....Underneath you will see a picture of us trying to get no kids....but they made us do it again and we got seven, but I somehow lost 3 kids and was left with 4. The rings that represent our kids are left together and the couple is supposed to keep it as a memory. There are people who still have theirs from 20+ years ago. The rest of the kransekake is then taken to the kitchen to be broken apart for the guests to eat with coffee.

Something else that was different was that there are song packets and everyone sings different little fun songs throughout the night. There was a welcome song, a coffee song, a song that my mother in law wrote her self to the melody of "Those were the days", a song where it involved people to get up according to the lyrics (for example: All of those who snore at night, stand up....do a little turn... and sit back down), and a thank you for the food song and some other ones... It's different and I have never seen that done anywhere else but at Norwegian parties. I like it, it involves the guests more.

As is custom in almost all weddings, there was a father daughter dance and the couples first dance. My dad and I danced to a Mexican song called "El privilegio de amar"(The privilege to love), by Mijares and Lucero. My dad sang along to the song even though he didnt know all of the lyrics and cried. Hes such a big baby, and its him that I get my big babyness from. So we were both crying and he even made some of my guests cry. Aleksander and I danced to "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers. It really was our first official dance. Sure we've been to parties and danced but we've never danced a couples song/slow song. 

After that the dancing started and didn't end till maybe 2:30. Even after the DJ left, we hooked up my phone and played more music and danced a bit more.
I was sooooo tired when the night ended....all those movies that show the newlyweds so energetic to go back to a hotel room and have more fun are liars....I went straight to bed while Aleksander went to the bathroom and that's the last thing I remember. I didn't even notice when he came to bed....that's how romantic it was, haha.

I was proud with all my planning and how the night played out and ever so thankful for everyone who helped. It was one of the best days/nights of my life.

Tables set up with utensils and cups. The center piece was to be filled with water and have floating candles.

Set up with utensils and cups.

The main table, still incomplete.

Main table from the front.

My place. The baggie on the left has a magnet and candy from Mexico. And in the center there is a song packet.

The main entrance with the guest book.

Where the champagne and fruit for the cocktail waiting time was to be served.

Sitting area right outside the main hall.

Gift table

Me before...

Me after!

Aleksander and our niece, who was also my flower girl, Nora!

Cutting the kransekake and finding out how many kids were going to have...we obviously want 0 right now lol.

I somehow lost 3 kids.

Our guests!

Holla for the ladies!

Our guests watching a slideshow that my dad made for me.

He had to scrape off some frosting from the cake and try it.

Our beautiful wedding cake made by my friend Jenna. The doll is not part of the cake, she was just in the background.

Yummy cheesecake!!

Marsipan cake

My friend and maid of honor, Jenna! Om nom nom!

Nora!! I love this picture of her!

Father daughter dance!

Our first dance!

The I do's and I don'ts (Part 1)

I am married! Again! Yup Aleksander and I had our renewal of vows on June 16, 2012 in a place called Herdla, Askøy. This is the main reason why I neglected my blog for so long. The preparations, family visiting, and the recovering of it afterwards, but I am back now!
As a sort of re-cap of everything: Aleksander and I got married on December 9, 2011 with only his parents and sister (and her husband) present. It was a rushed and spontaneous wedding. NO, I was not pregnant. There were issues with my visa and with the renewal process and I was given wrong information by the police station in Bergen. I was told I could not file for family immigration from Norway, that I would have to go back to the states and apply from there and then wait the 3-4 month application process. That was not an option. So our only solution was to get married before my visa expired. Afterwards we found out that they were mistaken and I could have filed from Norway and wait until June to have gotten married. But no harm done, I was married to the man of my dreams sooner than I wanted, which is not bad at all!
We decided to stick to our plans and continue planning for our June wedding in the old church and barn reception. White dress and all. June 16th, is a date I will never forget! It was an amazing night.
Amazing and different. It wasn't a typical American wedding, nor was it a typical Norwegian wedding, and it most definitely wasn't a typical Mexican wedding.
 The ceremony itself was pretty much the same, bride walks down the aisle with dad, dad gives daughter to groom, blessing, songs, more blessings, more beautiful songs and then we walk back down the aisle together! My sister in law and brother in law played the ceremony music (they're professional musicians. She plays the trombone and he plays the trumpet). My sister in law played this one beautiful piece that made me start crying at the altar. Thank God our backs were to the audience!
Afterwards we took pictures outside and then went with the photographer to his studio. Funny enough there was some viking re-enactment going right outside his studio and the photographer, who knew them, asked if two of them could come in for some funny pics with us. Great idea!!

Aleksander waiting at the altar.

My dad, Mariano, walking me down the aisle.

From left to right: My father in law, mother in law, Aleksander, me and my dad.

L to R: Brother in law and Aleks best man, Alek, me, my good friend Jenna and maid of honor

My bouquet.

Daddy and me.

Viking creeping up on the bride!

She stole my flowers! Oh vikings!!

That is the end of part 1. Part 2 will come when I collect the reception pictures from everyone's cameras and from the cds that I have yet to rip onto my computer.