THE Wedding! (2)

HURRAY!

YES! I won't keep you wondering any longer. She said Yes! Even though she have had two solid years of evaluating my performance as a husband -> Former Anna Larsson are now Anna Kågesten! We had actually planned to take Sindjö, Annas mums maiden name as our middle name to (ie Anna Sindsjö Kågesten) But Swedish name laws are a bit restrictive to say the least. They may change next year though, so we will see what happens then.

For those of you who are confused by Wedding 1 and Wedding 2, I'll give a quick version of the story once and for all.

Wedding 1: June 06 2013. A secret wedding onboard the East Indiaman Ship replica Götheborg, with 2 friends as witnesses. Later turned into a movie that was released to friends and family a few months later - Surprise!! Sorry Jan and Gunilla for not asking for permission, but I think we got that cleared now... right? The Wedding 1 also had the advantage of granting me a Visa to the US so we could stay together, which may or may not have had something to do with the quick turnaround - 2 weeks between engagement and wedding is pretty good!
(As you might have noticed, if you are sensitive to exclamation marks this might not be the post for you)

Wedding 1 the Movie - breaking the news via youtube to family and friends 2011

Wedding 2: June 08 2013. Slightly more planned (12 months) and a few more guests (110pp). A wedding without bringing your friends and family together is only half a wedding. Wedding 2, which we planned since before the first surprise truly was the missing piece. You can see it as the wedding chapter 1 and chapter 2 that together turned into The Wedding Sequel. Kind of like Lord of the Rings, but that one comes in three parts - I think we are quite happy with two partys. I hope that clears things for you. If not I can simplify it for you by this statement: We undeniably are husband and wife now! Still don't get it? Here are some graphics for you just to make sure:

What happens behind a tree stays behind a tree

You may now...

Fly me to the moon...

Now that we got that squared away... With friends/family so spread out over Sweden/Earth, it was a wicked feeling to have so many gathered - 110 friends online in real life beats the crap out of Facebook.  A 7 day wedding like in the old days would have been more appropriate. Maybe there will be a three part sequel after all, "Return of the King"? To the point, we can't thank everybody enough for making it to our celebration (and to those who tried really hard but didn't make it around the globe), our parents and family who made it all possible, Sune for the ceremony and for getting our wedding picture published in all sort of papers, friends who made performances and helped out and last to fetknopp och grisen (Olle and Pelle) for the wicked toastmaster performance and support. You rock!!! There are about 1 billion pictures from the wedding and the preparations, not to speak about the video material from it all (though, if you have some more, please send us). So I will finish this blogpost with a "few" selected snapshot of that week in Åmål. 

Having fun with late night seating planning, slightly cross eyed

It has to be done! (Jans words about putting the new buoy in the water).
In order to get to the bride I had to prove myself worthy by finding the old buoy
foundation and retrieving the rusty chain off the bottom."it's somewhere out there".
It took me 20 minutes diving in the ice cold water, and half a day to heat up.
(kind of the theme of the week if you look into my last post)

Guests arriving from Germany and USA the day before got to test our champagne,
beer and schnapps (together with Herring and fresh dill potato of course)  to make
sure we were in good shape. They were happy to help. 

Gunilla and Anders at work decorating our venue (the local football club house).
Gunilla had made 100m (300 feet) of streamers by hand for the wedding, it turned out awesome!
(my suggestion of balloons was quickly turned down)

Andrew made it all the way from our house in Hamden to the small village of Åmål. Impressive!
(he is also addicted to scandinavia) Well, Jan quickly put our new asset of cheep foreign labour to work :)  

With the help of youtube and my dad we got the bow tie under control. Team building.

The most important part, the shoes

Stina Sindsjö, a super talented young aspiring photographer took our W photos
(and many on display in this post!)

Floats to keep the rings safe on the water (this time around they actually held some value)

Row, Row, Row... (we were a few fashionable minutes late)

Anders playing and singing  Over the Rainbow as we try and make it ashore. 

The audience... The pressure was on for a seaworthy entry at the dock

No one fell in, so far

Sweet tunes (Båtlåt) by Marina and the boys. 

The best view was where we stood
Annas grandparents Edit and Kjells country house in the background

Fina Fia reading a poem

Ceremony master Sune keeping everything under control, and with Sister Karin
and Brother Daniels support (and the floats as safety) we got the rings on the fingers

Hugging time! 

The lot

Time for some champaign (tack grisen!)

Driving in style (old American vintage cars are very popular on the Swedish country side).
Only detail was that we did not have any break fluid...

Gunilla getting a hug by our fashionable driver that we (Gunilla)
charmed at Åmåls 1950 style rockabilly cafe a few days earlier. 

Olle and Pelle inviting to dinner (and a walk on the red carpet)

Fishnet seating

The party has started

Toastmasters Olle and Pelle handing out yet another Åmål Movie Award!

Chatting and eating away!

Link,  Jonk, Erk o Ollson Stepping up the entertainment (and warming up for our band, The Fertilizers) 

Then there was dancing and dancing and dancing to the rockabilly band Fertilizers who were playing live until the sun went up, then there was some more dancing, then there was this:

A very tired but happy bride in the early morning
supported by her brothers

Wedding done.