Wedding Chapel Now & Then

Something that I really wanted to do while visiting Sweden, was to stop by our Wedding Chapel to show the little kids where mommy and daddy got married. As Cassie was 4 years old at the time, it was especially nice to be able to take Benjamin and Isabella there when they are 4 years old too. They have seen plenty of pictures and even seen the DVD from our wedding, but still they didn't really understand that this was where it happened.

When my brother and my sister-in-law came to pick us up, I asked if we could stop by there on the way out of town, and we did. It was a chilly and windy day, and not at all warm, and the rain was lingering in the air, so very different from the day I last was here, where we had a great sunny summer day.

Walking up to the Chapel, we actually saw that there was a wedding party taking pictures outside, and when we walked closer, they walked in and started to take pictures inside the Chapel, before their ceremony was about to start. So, we couldn't go inside, and we didn't want to wait for about an hour or so, as we needed to get back on the road, but it was nice to at least be able to get some pictures from outside the Chapel.

It felt very special thinking about that last time I stood outside these doors, I had just married the love of my life and we walked out with little Cassie on our side greeting family and friends. Lovely memories!! Now, Cassie is almost as tall as me and instead of one four year old by my side, I now had two!!

This is outside the Chapel where we had our Champagne toast 

and drinks before our photo session started.

There is also a nice option to have an outdoor wedding just here by the water. I thought that this was such a wonderful place, but I didn't dare to take the risk of booking the wedding outside, in case of the weather. Another reason to why I decided to have the wedding inside in the Chapel instead of outside, was because I really wanted to have live music, and that was not an option outside. Looking at it now, I wish that we at least would have taken some pictures here on our day, but somehow, that was not done, and still, I'm very happy with the wedding pictures that our photographer took with us outside.

Before we got back into the car, we let the kids play a little. It was really chilly and windy, so we soon decided to leave. It was so much warmer and nicer weather when we were here last time, August 26th, 2006:

Anniversary!

Happy 7th Anniversary Alskling!

There isn't so much to say about this day, that I haven't already said many times before..If you have missed our wedding and want to read up on it, please go in under my category wedding, and you'll find several posts there. 

Something that says it all though, is a video clip of the song that we chose to have in the chapel during our wedding, sung right after the exchanging of the rings and the vows. The words were very true already then, and even if not all days in these seven years have been sweet, nothing has changed what comes to those feelings. 

"Come What May"

From the movie "Moulin Rouge"

performed by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.

 

"In good times and in bad times"...Chris - I will love you, until my dying day!

Anniversary Date!

Last night, we went out for dinner. Chris had surprised me with booking a babysitter (the same one we used another time from his work) and was originally being able to take the Sunday off, but things changed in the last minute so he still had to work. He did manage to get off earlier than normal so he was home here at around 5.30pm to take a quick shower, pick up pizza for the kids and then when the babysitter came we were off.

We went to a nice restaurant down town, that had got lots of good reviews and it was very nice. The atmosphere was nice, tablecloths and cloth napkins, real glass etc, which isn't always the case even in "better" restaurants here I find sometimes.

We had a nice meal, a good talk and a good time. Being a Sunday night when everyone needed to get up early the next morning, we didn't stay out very long. We were back home around 9pm and the kids were all still up. Getting ready for bed though, and when the baby sitter left, we put the kids to bed. Everything had worked very well, much thanks to Cassie, that is their rock and security when they are with new people. She also knows where everything is and understands what they want and mean, which isn't always that easy to get out of a 2 year old.

The kids fell asleep pretty early thank good, because we were both tired. Chris had been up since 4am and I had been up with the kids and not getting much sleep the night before either so it was an early night. Luckily the kids slept pretty good, had to get up a few times, but not nearly as many as some nights where I hardly get any sleep at all.

It was very nice to get out, we should do it more often, that's for sure. The pictures didn't come out very well in the dark restaurant corner, and when you turn the image around taking on yourself, the flash doesn't even kick in, so the quality was very poor. That's why I this time choose to do something different with the pictures to get the most out of the quality, and in sepia and a little softener, they did come out much better!

Happy Anniversary!

Today it's our 6th Anniversary! Time flies...There is so many memories that comes back to me on this special day. Many happy ones. Instead of repeating myself from last year, when I wrote a lot about our wedding, I refer you to read the entries I wrote then.

If you would like to read about and see pictures from our wedding, you can read here, here, and here .

This year, to recognize our 6 years, I choose to post 6 special photos from a very special sunset not long ago. I guess you all can guess where it was taken, even if the sun had already set too much to get clear pictures from the background. I have many other ones to share with you on another day from there.

I choose these pictures as they are very suitable in this entry, romantic, special and filled with love.

Still, I can't write an anniversary entry without at least one picture from our wedding, so here it comes:

Happy 6th Anniversary Alskling! Love you always and forever!

They Got Married!

Picture borrowed from my sisters Facebook page, 

the only picture that they have published/made official so far from the wedding.

So, does anyone remember what I wrote last month? Otherwise you can quickly read here, what I didn't want to happen in Vegas..

But did they listen? Haha, NO, as they wrote on Facebook when they announced it to the world:

"Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.....

we got married July 30, 2012."

They didn't tell us anything, even if I had hinted a few questions and even said something like, well what if there is a big proposal coming up? Grand Canyon would certainly be a great romantic place to propose...no no, I know nothing about anything like that, she said.. Well, considering that they were planning to, they were certainly practicing their poker faces for Vegas with us, that's for sure! 

Well, they at least didn't go to a drive through, but actually to a nice chapel with a really good (not just do you take..., sign here...kind of wedding) ceremony. They got it all on DVD and also very many beautiful pictures from their day as a memory. It was great to take part at least over the DVD and watch it together. They really had luck when it came to the photographer, I mean, they couldn't possibly know how the pictures would turn out, it could have been a disaster and an unrepairable one too as you only do it once. But the pictures came out truly beautiful, and they got over 200 of them, so it will be hard to choose some favorites. My sister looks like a movie star - so beautiful!! I would show you a few, but I promised my sister and brother in law, only to write and post pictures of what we had done together - so their pictures are truly theirs and not for the world to see. But, as the picture above is "official", I hope she doesn't mind about this one?!!

The details of their day are theirs to share with the people they want to share it with, but it was really nice and they seemed very happy about how everything had turned out, and that is the absolutely most important thing, even if I of course would have loved to be there...

What we got to share with them and what I can share with you though, is the wedding celebration that we made for them here at home. They came back from Vegas late August 1, and told me the next morning. Chris was working and came home late that night, but on the Friday, we set out to organize and set up a special dinner to celebrate their wedding. 

Chris outdid himself again, as always, and made a wonderful meal on the grill and we had nice wine to drink. I found a really nice white wine, a real good Chardonnay, and as I'm not a very frequent wine drinker anymore, it was more luck than expertize that it turned out to be a good fit for the meal. My sister preferred white wine, so white we had. The guys were having beer, actually Chris had his later as he took off after dinner to get our surprise, the dessert. As we didn't have much notice to get this organized, I had ordered a wedding cake the same afternoon when we went shopping for the evening. Chris would be able to pick it up around 7pm. 

The evening was wonderful, it was emotional and we were happy to see that they were so happy and it was truly a celebration of love more than a celebration of welcoming someone into the family. It's not really needed to welcome someone that has been a part of the family anyway, without wedding ring, for the last 14 (??) years! 

We are very happy for you and wish you all the best in the world - lots of happiness and lots of love!!

Congratulations Cecilia & Andreas!!

Here are the photos from the evening - enjoy!

With little notice, the decorations were sparse. I dug out the rose pedals from our wedding to at least have something pretty and wedding inspired on the table.

Grilled Filet Mignon topped with

Grilled lemon/garlic dusted Lobster tails and Scampi

 served with

Pan roasted Potatoes sprinkled with

Fresh Rosemary and a dash of Lemon juice

served with

Grilled Asparagus with salt/pepper and a hint of Balsamic Vinegar

served with

Bearnaise Sauce

The little ones had already had their dinner, but were playing with some cards and stayed at the table with us which was nice. If I had let them "run loose" there soon would have been drama going on and not so nice and enjoyable dinner for us all, or at least a lot of interruption. They always seem to find things to argue/fight about when we are busy or wanting to enjoy a meal on our own. This way, we all had a nice dinner!

Mr. & Mrs. ? A decision on the last name is still to be announced!

The wedding cake

As they didn't have a cake on their wedding day, I ordered one for them. With the little notice that the lady at the bakery had, it turned out over expectation! I was very happy about the look, and it actually tasted good too. Here in the US, as I've stated before, cakes are normally not filled or not so good as they could be, so I made sure to tell her what I wanted. White frosting, all around (no bare sides as sometimes is the case..), white chocolate mixed into the frosting, white chocolate and raspberry filling and the names and the date decorated with some typical wedding accessories.

NO, not until now, looking at the pictures of the cake, I realize that they put the wrong date on the cake!! HAHA, no one of us noticed that night, at least nobody said anything!! The date was obviously not August 30th as we haven't even had that date yet! They got married on July 30, 2012.

Funny, probably because we asked them to write the date in a "typical Swedish way" (??) and maybe therefore she messed up? Sorry you two for not checking better!! Clearly a mistake that I hope that you can laugh about!

The happy couple with the cake

Cutting of the cake

The cutting of the cake made for some laughter around the table. We tried to surprise them with the cake and we had to get it out of the box and onto the table pretty fast, so pardon the cutting board as the cake platter. A silver cake cutter wasn't found quickly enough (our little kids have the tendency to clear out the kitchen drawers all the time and very rare things end up where they were put in the first place) so a kitchen knife had to do the job. There were some stalling in cutting as I was filming and taking pictures at the same time.

Finally a piece was cut and tasted...

without the typical "smearing the cake in the other person's face" part.

Like I said earlier and as I told the two, they didn't give us a lot of time to look for a wedding gift, but I did find something that I thought was pretty special. Something with a meaning, something that THEY have to put some thought into.

We gave them identical books with the title "What I love about you", where you are  supposed to fill out all these pages about the first memories together and the most special things about the other person etc etc. I thought it would be special for them to fill it all out and then exchange the books and give it to each other as a memory. Therefore, they would always have it written down, what the person answered about the other one when they got married.

As they already have spent almost 15 years together as a couple, there are many memories and they have lived through a lot, so I'm sure that the books will be filled with many special thoughts. After so many years, it's maybe needed to refresh the memories on all the romantic things a little?

To finish off the evening, we took them outside to set off the fireworks before the little ones had to go to bed. Well, as fireworks are prohibited here in Arizona, we did the best we could and brought out the sparklers. The kids loved them, and I do think that Cissi & Andreas understood the gesture - even if the fireworks were to the smaller side...

....but the biggest and brightest sparklers that evening, was to see the love shining in their eyes and the happiness that was written all over their faces!

And then they lived happily ever after.....

THE END

Leap Year and Proposal!

Last day of February, this month seem to have just dissolved into air, even if we did get an extra day this year! Leap year! Apparently the saying goes that this is the day when it's alright for the woman to propose to the man. Not that it wouldn't be anyway in a modern relationship.

I think that even if most women see themselves equal to their men in many ways and in some ways and countries more than others, I personally think that many women still would like it to be the man who proposes. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think it's very romantic when the man surprises the woman with a proposal down on one knee after a very well planned date/occasion. Not just popping the ring out of the pocket, it has to be some romance over the whole thing. It will be something that you would remember for the rest of your life right?

My man didn't go down on one knee. When we decided to get married, there was no ring and not even a kiss to "seal the deal". He wasn't even in the same room, not even in the same town, in the same country or even the same continent for that matter. He was in California and I was in Sweden and we decided to get married over the phone...how romantic was that?

Well, he has made up for it many times after that, and I got to choose my own ring over the webpages and when we finally got to see each other again in Summer of 2006 after a year apart, it was only a week before our wedding in Sweden. So my engagement ring was only "alone" on my ring finger for a week, before the wedding band joined it!

Well, our love story is romantic enough, so it doesn't really matter that the actual proposal wasn't like out of a movie. When we celebrate 25 years of marriage, he'll put another ring on my finger he has said, maybe he then goes down on one knee??

Actually, he did go down on one knee after the wedding for the picture- then both rings were already on my finger. Does that still count?

Now I'm super curious about all of you who reads my blog, if you are married, how was your proposal??? Please share!!

Wedding reception

After the ceremony, we went out to take lots of pictures, both private and professional. That took a while, and then everyone was happy to walk down to the reception. We had a great party, during dinner many of our friends and family held tearful speeches and said so many wonderful words about us. It was very intimate and we also had time to talk to people and to dance and have a lot of fun. First dance and cake of course, followed by midnight snack. Everyone was in a great mood and it was a party all night long.

Except that some of the people couldn't be there that we really wanted to have with us that day, I couldn't have asked for anything more. It was absolutely wonderful - a day forever cherished in my heart - the day I married the love of my life!