Just a beautiful memory

Wow, what a month. It's been bloody hectic after the wedding to say the least! I've been meaning to write about the big day for a while now, but just haven't been able to find the time. Better late/r than never eh... It's all becoming a bit of a blur by now though, here's hoping I can piece together the events in a somewhat accurate manner still.

So yes, I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep before I had to wake up and face the music. After a quick shower and breakfast Susanna and I headed off to the venue to finish off the decorating, while the boys went to get the table balloons filled at a balloon shop. After Annis and the 'catering crew' had arrived and started frantic preparations, it was time for us to check into our honeymoon suite at the hotel. And rather nice it was too! We didn't get to enjoy it for very long though as Sooz and I had a hairdresser's appointment get to. The two and a half hours we spent at the hairdressers was lovely actually, just a very welcomed break from all the panicking. I was very pleased with my hair and make-up, even if we did have a bit of a friendly argument with my hairdresser over whether I should wear a veil or not. In the end I won and got to keep my veil. :D It was only tiny anyways! I figured that since my outfit was so 'non-weddingy', the least I could do was to have a veil so that I would be recognisable as a bride.

Up until this point the weather had been lovely, sunny and summery, but when I stepped out of the hairdressers it was absolutely pissing it down. I couldn't believe it! Everyone kept reminding me about a belief that rain on your wedding day guarantees a happy marriage. I bet that 'saying' was dreamt up by someone who had their wedding ruined by rain!

The next stop was to pick up my bouquet. I had gone with a simple bouquet of small white calla lilies, despite some people saying calla is more of a funeral flower. I was very pleased with the way the bouquet turned out. It was stylish and understated and went with my top perfectly. I'm so glad I stuck to my guns on that one (as well)! :)

We headed back to the hotel to get dressed. This was the point where the focus started to switch a bit for me, it wasn't so much about organising any more, it was about celebrating. Johanna, who was the photographer, stayed and finished helping me dress while Susanna headed off to the venue with the groom and some volunteers to fill up the rest of the balloons (we had gotten a funny mix of helium, which only kept the balloons up for about 7 hours so we had to leave the filling to the last minute!).

Wedding1

It was still raining when we arrived at Påkas with Johanna. This was bad news as we were originally supposed to get married outside. At this point, we still had about an hour to go until the ceremony was supposed to take place, so we were all crossing our fingers for the rain to stop. It sort of did for a while, but then it started again. There was a lot of umm'ng and ahh'ng going on in the last hour leading up to the big moment. About 10 minutes before the registrar woman arrived we made the decision to move the ceremony inside. Most of the guests had arrived at this point and were standing outside wondering what was happening. There was a frantic dash to rearrange some furniture, and balloons, in order to create a plausible space for the ceremony. And then all the guests were ushered inside by Miikka and Susanna.

When we walked up the stairs and into the house with Stu, we were squeezing each other's hands like mad. It was quite a nerve-wracking moment, especially since the logistics of the ceremony had changed so suddenly. The room felt small and full of people. There was an air of awkwardness about the situation, which wasn't alleviated by the stiff accent of the registrar. But we did manage to reply in the 'affirmative', and that moment did feel very special. Miikka forgot to give the other ring and I had to ask him for it, which made people laugh and lifted the atmosphere somewhat.

Afterwards we headed back outside for champagne and the obligatory congratulations and hugs. Stu and I made a little speech saying that this was a very informal affair and how everyone should just eat, drink and enjoy themselves. Somewhere around this point we realised that Stu had forgotten the ice at home and to the amusement of the guests Miikka sped off in his van to get them. Even if he didn't make a Best Man's speech, he certainly did provide the comedy relief for the day. :P From then on it all started running more smoothly. I started finally registering all the people that were there, before it had been just a blur, and ran around hugging people I hadn't seen for a long time. Even the weather decided to pick up (good timing huh), and it didn't rain again all night.

Eventually we headed inside for food. Everyone found their places and the seating plan seemed to be a success, I had even managed to accidentally sit people, who had (unbeknownst to me) known each other as kids, in the same table. That was kind of cool. We got a lot of praise for the decorations, and the bubbles and party poppers turned out to be a real hit, which meant it had been worth it lugging them back from the UK. I have to give it to Annis though, the food was delicious. There was something for everyone and I think most people went for back for seconds. The only shame was that, in the end, Annis didn't have any time to actually join the party. That was always the risk with having a friend do your catering, which is why I didn't want to go down that route to start with. But even so, I am very pleased I did, as the food and attention to detail couldn't have been better.

After the meal we headed outside for some wedding portraits with Johanna. I'm surprised she got such lovely pictures of us since we found it quite difficult to concentrate on looking beautiful while Susanna and Pasi were trying to blow soap bubble at us and Stu's dad was putting us off by trying to capture it all on video. Goes to show that a good photographer can work miracles!

The party really switched into second gear after the (yummy) cake and coffee, when we put the beers and punch out. In fact, both my brothers helped me make the punch, which was lovely. We have never really related on that sort of adult level before, it seems like they have just now suddenly grown up to these... men! That was probably my favourite part of the party actually, just being able to hang out with them a little bit.

I think I might have made the punch somewhat strong as it seemed like all of the sudden most of the wedding party were just completely pissed. I didn't really drink that much myself, as I would have probably fallen asleep right then and there, so it was somewhat amusing watching people getting plastered. We did indeed hook up Singstar at some point (would it be my wedding without karaoke?? :P), but it turned out it was hard for anyone to get a look in as no-one could tear my mother away from it. Oh well, at least she seemed to enjoy herself. :D All in all, I think everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (despite my mother's singing).

Time went into overdrive, and before I knew it, it was time to start getting people transported over to the hotel for the 'after party' at the night club. Miikka organised taxis, while Sooz and I started clearing the tables, as we had to contractually get the venue cleaned by 1am. Originally Stu and I were supposed to head to the hotel with the first of the guests, but since we (or do I mean I?) were so sober we felt like we ought to really help Miikka and Susanna clean. We did get the place into the state we originally found it in by about quarter to one. It was quite surreal sitting outside in the dark waiting for a taxi and realising that it was all behind us now. More than six months of planning and stressing, and it seemed to have gone in a flash. I felt like I'd ran a marathon. When we finally got to our suite, we entertained the thought of going downstairs to the nightclub for about 3 seconds. The combo of a hotel room, chocolate, a bed and a new husband won hands down for me. (However, we did feel slightly old the next day when we learned that Stu's nan had stayed in the night club until 3am...)

Wedding

The next morning we didn't have to check out of the hotel until 2pm. Also, we got a really fancy breakfast in bed. It was blissful to turn a blind eye to the world for that period of time and just stay in bed and reflect on how the day had gone. The wedding was already starting to turn into a beautiful memory and instead our marriage was starting to feel like something concrete, a start to a new phase in our life.

I'll write about our 4-night honeymoon in Rome a little bit later, when I get all the pictures together.