The Great Catching Up Part 2

I figure that I have kept you all (yes the many millions of you) waiting long enough!  I just have to muster up the energy to post and this morning I seem to have woken up with it.

The wedding day, as I'm sure most wedding days are, was a bit hectic and pretty much a blur.  The first thing on our plates was for my mom and I to meet up with my good friends M and W so they could keep us girly company while we got our hair and makeup done.  I decided to go with M's hairdresser, and she did not disappoint!

After the hair and makeup we picked up my bouquet, J's bouttoniere and I also ordered smaller corsages for both my mom and J's mom.  It's apparently very rare to order corsages for the mothers here in Sweden, so they didn't at all turn out like those giant American style mother-of-the-bride corsages.  I was happy about that, though!  We headed back to J's parents' house, got dressed for the big day, then commenced a photo shoot!  We did not hire any professional photographer as everything happened rather quickly, but we also have the good fortune of knowing a couple of friends who are quite wonderful at photography and have their own awesome cameras with all the attachments.

Before you knew it, it was time to head to the renovated bygdegård where J's brother and fiancee operate their catering/show business.  At 18.00 (6pm) is when the mingle began, so J and I had to wait in his brother's house until 18.30 (6:30pm) to sneak over to the main building for the ceremony.  That was the only nervewracking time for me.  I just couldn't stand the waiting!  I'm not at all one to be the spotlight or center of attention, so it was driving me a little bonkers to sit there waiting to be the center of attention walking down the aisle and all that jazz.  I just wanted that part to be overwith!

When the time came, however, it was absolutely magical.  Everyone who set up the wedding for us (thank you thank you! to J's mom, dad, siblings and all the rest who helped!) had surprised us with bubbles as we walked into the area where we were having the ceremony done.  As it was evening and dark outside, the place was lit up with wonderful mood lighting, and with the bubbles it was instantly magical.  The ceremony we chose to do once in English and again in Swedish so that everyone attending would surely be able to understand.  Even then, it only took about 10 minutes tops.

Long story short, the meal commenced and then some show tunes by J's brother and fiancee and of course some speeches ensued.  J even surprised everyone (including me) with singing to me "Your Song" by Elton John!  It was a perfect day and night.  As stated before, the only thing that could have been better was if more of my family and friends from home were there.  Here is just a tiny, tiny taste of the whole experience.

There you have it!  I think each photo explains itself.  The night ended with just a few of us left (it was, after all, a Wednesday evening).  J and I headed to our hotel by the lakeshore and that was that!

The next day followed with meeting back up with J's family and my mom at J's parents' house (I should now say my parents-in-law), opening wedding gifts, running around Tibro collecting discs and cards loaded with wedding pictures, and finally heading home to Gothenburg.  By the time we got home we were tired out!

The last 3 days of my mom's visit were nothing super exciting the way the whole first bit was with being in Stockholm and preparing for a wedding and all.  We showed her around Gothenburg, took her shopping in the lovely Haga area, and even took her on a ferry ride from Klippan all the way to the other end at the Lipstick building.  She really enjoyed it!  Early Monday morning I took her to Landvetter and we said our goodbyes.  It was rather a whirlwind and went by so quickly!

As far as my life since...well that will have to continue in another episode of The Great Catching Up.  A sneak preview - it's not all that exciting, just life back to usual!