Wednesday 4 December 2013

131019 Marie and Søren's wedding~♥

I'm a person who likes to help people. I like to feel needed and useful, and when Marie asked me to do the flowers for their wedding, I felt not only that, but also extremely honoured and touched.

especially since I've never done a flower-anything in my life. okay, not entirely true, but to be honest, I don't really consider it a big accomplishment to stick cut-off flowers and whatnot into a vase. that really doesn't require much of anything remotely skillful.
but I have watched carefully when ordering bouquets at the shop, so I felt quite confident I would be able to do it. it looked easy



so before I said yes, Marie and I had a talk about what their expectations were and what my level of floral arrangements would probably amount to. but she was more than confident in my.. I dunno, artsy skills in general? so a yes, it was.

we talked types of flowers and colours, but that was it. they were doing a fall-coloured/gold theme, and she would like one of the flowers for the bouquet to be those..."flaming" roses, and one of the flowers for the tables to be a fall coloured Dahlia. if I could find them. she really wasn't fussy about it at all. as long as the colours matched, that was the most important thing.
and I wouldn't have to do much of anything. she would buy the flowers, I just had to help arrange/tie them.

cos of the surgery and recovery, I didn't really have time or energy to stress too much about it, but I actually also didn't feel freaked out about it which surprised me a lot. I was really excited about it, but I wasn't stressed.
in my head I had planned to just buy a small random bunch of roses at the supermarket for five bucks to have something to practice the feel of tying a bouquet with, but other than that, I was planning on having the actual thing be make it or break it time.

but a week before we happened to be at a market in Copenhagen and they had the most big fat gorgeous bright pink roses and these little white filler flowers (not these (cr), but sorta, and I just knew I had to buy and try with these, and if nothing else I would get a beautiful bouquet out of it.
so we went to hubs' work (it was Saturday and no one was there) and I sat and tied a smaller version of the bouquet in there, and it turned out so good!
I wanted to show Marie to get her opinion so we swung by on our way home, but they weren't in so in the end I left the bouquet there for her to see when they got back.
she was happy so I was happy.

I told her they had all the flowers she wanted at the market, and if she wanted, I could take on the flower shopping, too. she was even happier! there were a lot of details to as D-day approached, so she was happy to be relieved of some of the stuff on one of their many to-do lists.

the wedding was on Saturday, but in the end I had to do all the shopping on Thursday cos we were gonna meet with Marie and Søren and their parents, and spend all Friday (well, hubs had to go to work first, but he came over after) at the place of the wedding party, setting up and decorating and getting everything ready for the big day. plus I was gonna use a lot of the flowers for the vases for the tables, and it would take too much time to go shopping Friday morning.
especially since Woollim decided to put up tickets for Infinite concerts that Friday morning, so I was already going to be running late because of that, but that's a whole nother story.

the flowers held up well, and we got the place decorated so well, and Marie and Søren were really happy with the result. we used a lot of leaves and branches and berries and stuff from the garden cos woods-y fall theme, and after a quick pizza we managed to be home by 9pm so we could all get a good night's sleep before the big day.

D-Day.

I had calculated with 3 hours to be able to do it leisurely, and it turned out to be pretty accurate timing.
hubs helped prepare the flowers, and in doing so we discovered that one of the bunches of flaming roses had gotten that..I dunno what it is exactly, but it's this rotting-from-the-inside of the bud itself, so you don't see it if you only glance at them or just look at them from up top, but the entire head of the rose comes off when you touch it.
fortunately the time schedule permitted for hubs to go out and search for new or other ones in our local grocery stores without it creating a panic. I knew they would have roses so it was just a matter of what colour.

he was able to find some flaming ones and once we had everything laid out, it actually didn't take that long to put the bouquets together.

5 different kinds of roses, a white elongated filler flower, cute daisies, and a light-green mini flowered thing, kinda like baby's breath, but not, cos I think...that's been done.
I did have one stalk of baby's breath for the kiddies' bouquets, but for Marie's I wanted something more original.


I made boutonnieres for Søren, his best man, and Marie's dad. and a few extras in case they broke while they were trying to fumble them on with the safety pins.
aren't they pretty?! I had never seen this tied before (it's really rare for Danes to be this decorated), but after a quick glance at youtube, there really wasn't much to this either.


as I said, I did feel fairly confident I would be able to do this, but I have to say I was surprised at how beautiful it turned out. cos it's freaking gorgeous!


before I did the pink test bouquet we had planned to do a white silk ribbon on the handle, but for the tester I just used this wide, glossy, regular plastic gift wrapping ribbon, and it worked so well that we just decided to do that.
it looked really neat, and it was a lot easier to work with and to tie the end up than silk ribbon would've been.


a large one for Marie, and two smaller ones for Nora and Max.


I got dropped at their house with the bouquet for Marie, while hubs drove on to the church with the boutonnieres and kiddy bouquets.

the other girls were there, too, and while she didn't have bridesmaids we all seem to match in a weird way anyway lol
ps. this is the most dressed up we have ever been in the 30+ years we've known each other! we're definitely a sweats kinda gang, and even our formal wear is usually very informal.


meanwhile at the church. Søren and his best man Anders.


the bells started chiming as we arrived, and Marie was undecided on whether she wanted to cry or throw up at this point.


the ceremony was really nice. not too religious, not too I-talk-like-I-know-you-really-well-when-we-just-met-ish from the minister, and he even added a little humour.

the highlight, though - besides the actual ceremony, of course - was when Søren's sister with quivering voice and accompanied only by a guitar, sang Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are". 
the entire church was a mess at this point, people were sobbing, and I was once again wondering why I had chosen a day like this to wear eyeliner when I otherwise never do. 

I've heard the song lots of times before, but I don't think I've ever really listened to the lyrics, but it's a perfect love song, and it was a perfect choice for the occasion.








with all the girls outside the place they were having the party. 


Marie picked, pressed and gold sprayed all the leaves for the place settings.


one of their old friends is a chef, and he catered the wedding. he was there as a guest on the day, and just had a chef buddy in the kitchen, but the day before, while we were setting up, he was in the kitchen, preparing everything, and while we went home at around 8:30pm he stayed until, like, 2am or something.

starter was a fishy terrine with lobster, picked herbs, and tarragon dressing.

main was venison, oven roasted root veggies, Pommes Anna, and mushroom/chanterelle sauce.
fortunately there were second servings

dessert was Gateau Marcel with.. was it a white chocolate mousse on top, lime sorbet, and fresh berries. the tarragon leaves fit the cake and mousse surprisingly well.

the party was one of the best parties I've ever been to. good mood, good food, good company, and people seemed really determined to have a ball.
as I said, I was barely out of my post-op period so I didn't expect to last long, but in the end we stayed until.. idk 3:30, I think, cos we just didn't wanna leave.

in DK weddings it's tradition if you observe those, that when the guests tap their flatware on their plate, the bride and groom have to stand on their chair and kiss for as long as the guests keep tapping.


and when the guests stomp their feet, they have to kiss "under" the table.


and when the groom exists the room for bathroom breaks and whatnot, that's an opportunity for the male guests to go and kiss the bride, and vice versa when the bride leaves the room.
so every time they did that, there was a steady line of people moving around the room, and even babies came to kiss them, it was so cute.


another thing that made this party so great was all the different features? online dictionaries want me to believe, that's what it's called but it sounds weird to me. but, you know, speeches and songs and different types of sketches and stuff.
from we sat down and for the next, I dunno, 4 hours or so, there was a constant stream of "interruptions" from the two toastmasters. yes, they needed two to keep track of everyone who wanted to have a moment during the party!





no, he didn't drive home.


it was a really amazing day, and I'm hounored I got to play a special role ❤

note: pics watermarked with the two hearts are from the photographer they hired. rest are mine.

2 comments:

  1. Marie and Soren's wedding is very attractive. Each and every little detail is adorable. I will need to remember these ideas to arrange a grand wedding reception party. At one of the local NYC venues we will be marrying soon so I was just wondering if you have some more ideas for food.

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    1. I'm sorry, but I don't think so.. This menu was put together based on the taste of the couple and what would be possible to pull off for the chef in that kitchen. But to me, the food is also a very personal part, so in my opinion, the menu should be set to the couple's taste (and budget, probably).

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