We went to a wedding in Denmark!
It's been a long time since I posted here. I'm the one with the engagement ring that looks like the Cookie Monster, and the suggestion that my two uncles who are priests arm-wrestle for who gets to perform the ceremony.
This post, however is not about my wedding, but my cousin's wedding in Copenhagen in May. I was just waiting to get hold of some pictures before posting about it.
It was a beautiful wedding! Both uncles co-officiated, so John and I got to see them in action. Actually, I've seen them in action before, but this was John's first time. It was also John's first time at a Catholic wedding. The bride was not Catholic, and neither were her family nor most of her friends, so it was a first-time Catholic wedding for a lot of people. It went really well, though. My uncles are pretty liberal and very inclusive, and they took the time to explain things as it went along. There was also a very detailed program, in both English and Danish, so everyone could follow. Most of the ceremony was in English (most Danes are pretty fluent in English, especially in Copenhagen), but they had one of the readings, one of the hymns, and every alternate Prayer of the Faithful in Danish. The program got a lot of positive feedback.
After the ceremony they had a fairly informal reception in the church basement, with coffee and wine and, of course, Danishes! I didn't know this before, but in Scandinavia, weddings are considered public and anyone can come to the ceremony and the reception, and they have a party later in the evening (which is equivalent to the North American "reception"), which is invitation-only.
The party was in the main hall of a library, which was very very cool and completely in tune with the bride and groom's personalities. They broke out all sorts of Danish wedding traditions which make no sense to the uninitiated! To make the couple kiss, the guests tapped their knives on their plates. Later the guests all started drumming their feet on the floor, which meant the couple had to get under the table and kiss. And since that clearly wasn't enough, the guests then started tapping their glasses with their knives, which meant the couple had to stand on their chairs and kiss!
We sang at least three songs composed especially for the occasion by various friends and relatives. They handed out sheets with the words, and the tunes were those of other songs. My favourite was the one written by the bride's 86 year old grandfather to the tune of God Save the Queen. (The authors of these songs were very excited about being able to use a combination of English and Danish, because this allowed for a lot more rhymes!)
The highlight of the evening, at least to this humble non-Dane, was the bit where all the groom's male friends flipped him up sideways, took off his shoes and cut off the tops of his socks! Please see below for photographic evidence, because I realise no-one will believe me otherwise. The best man had kept a pair of scissors on hand for this purpose. It seems the origin of this tradition is for a new bride to begin her married life by darning her husband's socks. (Modern Danish brides begin their married lives by throwing out their husand's socks).
The other picture below is of their cake, which was delicious. At most weddings I'm usually really full by the time the cake is cut, and only eat some to be polite, but I really enjoyed this cake! The icing was marzipan! I love marzipan! And the fillings were mango cream for one layer, and champagne cream for the other. I included this picture to show how simple it was, and how pretty. I'm rather sold on the idea of a fairly simple looking cake for my own wedding.
Whee! Weddings are awesome!
This post, however is not about my wedding, but my cousin's wedding in Copenhagen in May. I was just waiting to get hold of some pictures before posting about it.
It was a beautiful wedding! Both uncles co-officiated, so John and I got to see them in action. Actually, I've seen them in action before, but this was John's first time. It was also John's first time at a Catholic wedding. The bride was not Catholic, and neither were her family nor most of her friends, so it was a first-time Catholic wedding for a lot of people. It went really well, though. My uncles are pretty liberal and very inclusive, and they took the time to explain things as it went along. There was also a very detailed program, in both English and Danish, so everyone could follow. Most of the ceremony was in English (most Danes are pretty fluent in English, especially in Copenhagen), but they had one of the readings, one of the hymns, and every alternate Prayer of the Faithful in Danish. The program got a lot of positive feedback.
After the ceremony they had a fairly informal reception in the church basement, with coffee and wine and, of course, Danishes! I didn't know this before, but in Scandinavia, weddings are considered public and anyone can come to the ceremony and the reception, and they have a party later in the evening (which is equivalent to the North American "reception"), which is invitation-only.
The party was in the main hall of a library, which was very very cool and completely in tune with the bride and groom's personalities. They broke out all sorts of Danish wedding traditions which make no sense to the uninitiated! To make the couple kiss, the guests tapped their knives on their plates. Later the guests all started drumming their feet on the floor, which meant the couple had to get under the table and kiss. And since that clearly wasn't enough, the guests then started tapping their glasses with their knives, which meant the couple had to stand on their chairs and kiss!
We sang at least three songs composed especially for the occasion by various friends and relatives. They handed out sheets with the words, and the tunes were those of other songs. My favourite was the one written by the bride's 86 year old grandfather to the tune of God Save the Queen. (The authors of these songs were very excited about being able to use a combination of English and Danish, because this allowed for a lot more rhymes!)
The highlight of the evening, at least to this humble non-Dane, was the bit where all the groom's male friends flipped him up sideways, took off his shoes and cut off the tops of his socks! Please see below for photographic evidence, because I realise no-one will believe me otherwise. The best man had kept a pair of scissors on hand for this purpose. It seems the origin of this tradition is for a new bride to begin her married life by darning her husband's socks. (Modern Danish brides begin their married lives by throwing out their husand's socks).
The other picture below is of their cake, which was delicious. At most weddings I'm usually really full by the time the cake is cut, and only eat some to be polite, but I really enjoyed this cake! The icing was marzipan! I love marzipan! And the fillings were mango cream for one layer, and champagne cream for the other. I included this picture to show how simple it was, and how pretty. I'm rather sold on the idea of a fairly simple looking cake for my own wedding.
Whee! Weddings are awesome!