A Fall Wedding

Hejsan,

Yesterday was a busy day. We attended both a christening and a wedding (and all for one family). The christening was for the son of our friend's C. and H. It was held at one of the oldest churches in Uppsala (practically next door to the cathedral). It was pretty similar to a Canadian christening, although it was in Swedish :p Here are a few shots from the christening.




The happy family!

After the christening we headed to Värmlands Nation for a fika, which included smörgåstårta and cakes. At this point we had some time to kill as the wedding didn't start until 4:30pm. Most people went home and we decided to walk home as the weather was nice and we wanted to enjoy the fall scenery. B. also wanted to get in a quick nap before the evenings festivities. Here are a few shots from our walk home.

A pathway of leaves

The wedding was held in the Cathedral (which is humongous). There were only about 75-90 people there so we sat in a few seats at the very front by the alter (I think a few tourists sat in on the ceremony too :) ). In Sweden, the bride and groom walk into the wedding together so that everyone knows that they are both coming willingly to marry. They are followed by any attendants they might have. The ceremony was nice (again in Swedish) and some of the passages were easily translatable as they are typical passages from a English ceremony, e.g. Corinthians "Love is...""Kärlek är..." Singing the psalms was a bit trickier as we didn't know the rhythms or the words.

After the service we walked down to another Nation, where we started the evening with a glass of champagne in the library. When the bride and groom entered the building we were all waiting on the staircase and joined them in a toast (and a few hooras). Then it was time to enter into the dining room. The dining room was very beautiful with tall candelabras on the table and red velvet curtains. At every Swedish function we have been to, couples are not allowed to sit together (unless they are engaged), but are generally at the same table. It seemed we were at the English table, although most people speak English so well it wouldn't have mattered. The dinner started with a soup (it was a sit-down meal), then we had a reindeer filet, and this was followed by a cheese plate. Every course was matched with a wine (very posh!). In between the courses, and, in fact, during the courses, the MC would make announcements or invite specific people to come up to speak. There were also a couple of fun games for the couple and their parents to take part in. We also sing songs throughout the meal (the songs are printed in the program). As you can guess, this means that the meal takes quite a long time. In fact we had a 15 minute "leg stretcher" between the main course and the dessert. In total I think the dinner took about 4 hours. We then moved back to the library for the cake and coffee, and then it was time for dancing. They had a four piece jazz band complete with a singer. It was really nice, we got to practice our walt, our foxtrot and our chacha. But by 1am Ben was pretty beat so we took off for home.

Here are some pics from the day (sorry for the length of this post!):








Trevlig måndag,
E.