Ahh, spring time in Sweden, sounds luscious doesn’t it? I love to occasionally feature beautiful destination wedding to show my UK readers how brides in other countries are styling their lovely weddings. Today, we’re taking a trip to Sweden. Did you know that it’s tradition for the bride and groom to enter the wedding ceremony together in Sweden?
Will and Mia tied the knot on 19 May 2012 at Katrinetorps landeri in Malmö, Sweden, and these images were submitted by their photographer Sandra Åberg who is a big fan of Love My Dress – as is bride Mia…
“We wanted a Spring wedding full of rustic and homemade touches, lush greens and pinks and pretty blossoms and birch. We enjoyed mixing the vintage with the homemade and DIY’ing many elements of our day…”
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Sandra Åberg
Mia styled her hair with that pretty braid herself…
“We wanted the invites, ceremony programmes and thank you cards to reflect the style and feeling of the day so we ordered Alethea and Ruth stationery, via Minted…”
“Will returned in March from having spent two months in Australia and he gave me these beautiful Tiffany pearl earrings which I wore on the wedding day. I decided against other accessories as I wanted the dress and bouquet to be the focal points.
I had an idea that I wanted the flowers, both for the bridal party and for the tables to look wild as if they had just been picked from a meadow. I asked Hanna our Florist for peonies as these are my favourites. I also asked for Sweet William (for Will!) and Wax flowers (as they a native Australian flower as a nod to Will being from Australia). As my background is Italian, I asked for Rosemary as well as it reminds me of Italian summers!”
“In Sweden, the tradition is not for the bride to be given away, rather the couple walk down the aisle together. In Sweden, the idea of the couple entering (the church) together symbolises that the man and the woman are entering the marriage of their own free will. So, we made our own version of this, as Will was waiting by the ‘altar’, he walked up the aisle and met me at the top as I came in and then we walked down together…”
“A tailor in Malmö called Julia Omelius made my dress. I wanted something vintage or vintage inspired, simple with a three quarter length sleeve and v-neck and I really like the idea of lace.
This combination proved quite difficult to find at traditional wedding dress boutiques as most dresses are sleeveless… I then found the prefect dress by a designer that I love but could not afford, so I decided to have something similar made for me.
I love the fact that the dress is simple but it really reflects me. The ribbon around the waist is from a small haberdashery in Copenhagen and I knew as soon as I saw it I had to incorporate it with the dress somehow. I also used the same ribbon for the bouquet…”
“We met in Melbourne in 2005 through mutual friends when I was on exchange from University in Sweden. Will had been in Australia for a month and had just returned in May 2011. It was a beautiful Spring day and I took him out to Slottsträdgården (a fabulous park in Malmö) for a picnic.
Will asked what we had planned for the remainder of the day and I said that we have nothing planned whatsoever. Free as birds. “OK…”, he said, “…in that case, do you want to marry me?” Somewhat taken back, I asked three times if he was joking… Luckily, he wasn’t and we chose to get married a year later…”
“We wanted something rustic and pretty close to town, where we could have both the ceremony and reception, with great food and stunning locations and Katrinetorps landeri in Malmö ticked all the boxes! We also knew straight from the beginning that we wanted something special, but not over the top. As we wanted the ‘theme’ to be rustic – birch – spring, we just went from there.
We started collecting as soon as we got engaged! I got some of the bunting at a flea market here in Malmö, and some Will brought back lanterns from Australia. Will made the sticks with glass bottles and ribbon for the ceremony chairs, and he together with a friend made the birch candle holders/table number holders…”
“I love simple flowers for the centre of wedding tables and we collected various vases, candle holders, glass containers and much more, which we used for this. We wanted simple but elegant, and it was important that our guests could speak to each other; not being dwarfed by huge flower arrangements!
My parents had organised the wonderful combined hearts made out of lush green leaves, which hung behind us during the dinner as a surprise..”
“The wonderful Sandra Åberg was our photographer – she made the day so much fun! I do not love being photographed, but Sandra (and Perry!) made it relaxing and we almost forgot to get to the reception on time!”
“I arrived to the ceremony in a yellow and white VW Combi Van Westphalia – a absolutely beautiful surprise Will had arranged for me!”
“We chose dark chocolate and stracciatella with a passion fruit filling. We did not want a sugar paste covering the cake, but something more natural, so we got a butter cream which made the cake simple with a twist and we were very happy with the end result. The gorgeous wood peg doll cake toppers made to look like us are from a company called Knottingwood on Etsy…”
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
“Do your research! Plan everything in detail – I organised this like a work project and LOVED every minute of it. Make sure you “work” with people you can trust, and go with your gut feeling on this one. Check, check and double check everything!”
Congrats to Mia and Will on their lovely Swedish Springtime wedding. And thank you too Sandra Åberg for sharing these lovely photographs.
Those of you reading this today, which are your favourite elements of this wedding, and whilst we’re at it, have any of you ever been to Sweden? It’s somewhere I have long wanted to visit….
Lots of love everyone,
Annabel
Photographer – Sandra Åberg
Venue – Katrinetorps landeri in Malmö, Sweden
Brides dress – made by a local seamstress
Grooms Suit – Anthony Squires, Eton Shirt, Paul Smith Tie
Bridesmaids dresses – Warehouse
Flowers – Hanna Grindal from Bara Blommor in Malmö.
Hair and make-up Artist – Rebecka Karlsson at hair salon Larsson & Lange, Malmö
Stationery – Alethea and Ruth, via Minted
Caketoppers – Knottingwood on Etsy
Cake – Ultimate Cake from Malmö.