Our Wedding: the Cake(s)

I had big dreams for my wedding cake. It was going to be tiered, we would have different flavors, and obviously I would get it at Strangas, my favorite cake place in the city. Right! Wrong. Reality kicked in and I wrote a bit about it here. As much as I love sweet treats, I just couldn't see us spending so much money on a wedding cake, as delicious as it would have been.

I thought of different options, other wedding cake companies, little cupcake businesses,  making out own cupcakes, but ultimately, we went with buying six different cakes from Andersen Bakery.

I think most people know that when you mention that something is for a wedding, things go up in price. So for us, we went to Andersen Bakery a week before the wedding and ordered one of every flavor of cake they had without mentioning our wedding. We bought a few slices of a few of the cakes to sample before ordering them and they all tasted lovely. We ordered some mousse cakes, some cheesecakes, and a gluten free Gateau Marcel. Andersen's cakes change with the season so it was nice that they used ingredients that were available at that time. We had an elderflower mousse cake which I loved, we also had a cherry cheesecake as well as a mango licorice cake. We cut our cake(s) during the cocktail hour/reception and Olsen +3 took care of setting out all the cakes and cutting and serving it to our guests.

Our cake table was quite simple. We asked my father-in-law to cut some round plates out of some logs that they had up at their summer house to use as cake plates. Like our seating chart, I hand stamped the name of each cake onto a small manila tag and wrote a little description of what the cake was. I also made a very simple cake topper to use on our cutting cake. I bought some pink fimo clay and rolled it out. I cut out three heart shapes with a cookie cutter and baked them. After baking and cooling the little hearts, I hand wrote the first letter or our names onto them with a gold paint pen and glued them onto some white lollipop sticks. And that was it!

We were really happy with the cakes we got for our wedding. People could try different flavors and there was more than enough cake for everyone. The cakes were affordable, they looked pretty, and they tasted great! Maybe if we do a vow renewal 5 or 10 years from now I can get a tiered cake, but for our actual wedding day, the cake table was perfect!

Our Wedding: The Bouquets

I shared a flower inspiration post before my wedding and now I can talk about the flowers that I actually got for our wedding! As I've mentioned before, I really like the wild, loosely put together bouquet look and one of my favorite floral designers to follow is Studio Choo. For my wedding bouquet, and for the bridesmaids' bouquets, I wanted something wild looking that played with a mix of textures. I've also written about my favorite flower shop, De Fire Årstider in Lyngby, and knew I wanted to get my wedding flowers from them.

A few weeks before the wedding we went to ask about how it worked with flowers and everything and the florists at De Fire Årstider told us to come back about two weeks before the wedding so that we could see what was in season. I mean, people at home book their florist months in advance before their wedding because florists can only take so many wedding orders on the same day. So I thought it was pretty crazy going to the florist two weeks before our wedding, but it worked! I also brought some photos and examples of bouquets I liked, and De Fire Årstider took it from there. Besides my bouquet, the bridesmaids' bouquets and the boutonnieres, we also ordered flower crowns for our two flower girls and wrist corsages for our moms. 

I never got a trial bouquet or anything made so the first time I saw the bouquets was on our wedding day. And to be honest, besides the colors and some of the flowers they used, the bouquet I got did not look very much like the wild, loose bouquets I had given them photos of. However, I did really like the bouquets and loved the mix of colors in them. It was just one of those things where you're like "they're not exactly what I wanted, but they're still really nice and at the end of the day, it's not what's the most important!". As I am pretty petite, the bouquet was actually a really good size. It wasn't big and overwhelming and was proportionate to my height and size. 

In some ways, Danish florists are pretty traditional. Whenever I see bouquets in the stores, they are the typical, tightly bound round shaped bouquets, or they are the more traditional but regal looking wedding bouquets with orchids or lillies cascading down the side. Even though I though De Fire Årstider would be better at achieving the loose and wild style I wanted, they didn't exactly deliver. But they are still one of my favorite florists as they have quite a wide selection of flowers to choose from and they do incorporate some of the wilder elements into their bouquets. 

Another florist I contemplated was Blomsterskuret in the city. They have the cutest little shop on Værnedamsvej and also have a wilder look. However, the prices at De Fire Årstider was more in our budget and I am more familiar with them so we went there, even though it is a few kilometers outside of the city. Although the flowers didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned, I really did like the bouquets we had at our wedding. They were pretty, colorful and fun, and complemented the look of the day!

Our Wedding: DIY Seating Chart

We did a few DIY projects for the wedding. All of them were really small and quite simple to do. I made our table numbers, put together our wedding favors, and we made this seating chart. Which I loved! It was simple and fit perfectly with the look of Olsen +3.

To start, we went to Silvan and looked through their scrap wood area. They sell the left over pieces that people have trimmed off and they go for really reasonable prices. I think we paid 30 or 40kr for the piece we used and it was quite big. Initially, I wanted to use chalkboard paint and go for that look, but since the wood we bought was already stained black/gray, I just used it as it was.

We had 9 tables at our wedding and 80 people at our wedding. For each table, I took out my little alphabet stamp set and stamped everyone's name under the table they would sit at and I hand lettered each table number on top of the large manila tags. To hang all of the tags up, we simply nailed a few small nails into the board and the tags were hung!

Our guests were assigned a table number, but they weren't assigned a seat which made coordination a lot easier and saved us a lot of time in set up. With a white paint pen, I hand lettered "find your table" so that our guests would recognize that that was the seating chart. As the guests were on the patio outside during the cocktail hour, we placed the seating chart on a chair right by the door so that guests could see it on their way into the dining area.

So there you have it. Our DIY seating chart! I loved how the finished chart came out and it was super easy and affordable to put together. If you're looking for large manila tags or manila tags in general, I always buy mine at Notre Dame. For paint pens, go to Creas in the city. And again, for scrap wood, check out your local Silvan!

Our Wedding: The Location

We loved the location of our wedding reception. Loved everything about it! We got married in the afternoon at a church in Nørrebro before having everyone move to Olsen +3 in Islands Brygge for the reception.

Finding a location was not really easy. I wanted a raw industrial looking place so I searched and considered everything from art studios to old converted barns. We also had to think about whether or not to find an all-inclusive location or find our own catering and set up the location ourselves. When we found Olsen +3, we knew the place was perfect.

The location was one of our top priorities and so we spent most of our budget on that. Olsen +3 had the raw look we wanted, their food was delicious, the place was central for all of our guests to get to and home from, and their service leading up to and on the day of the wedding was great.

As my family and all of my friends were traveling to Copenhagen for the wedding, we didn't really want them to spend their time in the city running around and setting up the reception. We wanted our families to relax and enjoy the days leading up to the wedding, so going the all-inclusive way was the best choice for us.

For our wedding, Olsen +3 provided a coordinator, we had a tasting before the wedding, and they took care of table decor, all of the food and drinks, from the "cocktail hour", to the three course meal, to the open bar and midnight snack, and they also allowed us to store all of the presents the guests brought until the next day and took care of all the clean up after the party. The location was great because they had outdoor patio space where we had the cocktail hour and cake cutting. Before midnight, we also had the opportunity to have our bridal waltz outdoors. And although we almost maxed out the venue, after the staff moved some tables and chairs, a nice little dance floor opened inside the building.

Because the space had the industrial look, and they provided the table flowers, we basically didn't decorate the location. We put up some large gold balloons that spelled LOVE, we had a guestbook table featuring family photos, and I put up our table numbers and seating chart and that was about all we did in terms of decorations in there. (I'll do another post on some of the things I DIY'ed!)

We loved every minute of our reception and am so glad we had our reception and party there! Olsen +3 is also getting really popular as they had basically booked out every weekend for weddings last summer and I'm sure this one will be the same! So if you're interested in having your wedding or party there, get on it!

Olsen +3
Njalsgade 19D
2300 Copenhagen S
hej@olsen3.dk

Our Wedding: The Photography

I'm back on the wedding posts! It might take me 'til our first anniversary to get all these posts done but thanks for hanging in there with me!

From the get-go, I knew that I was willing to spend a significant amount of money on photography for our wedding. The photos are really some of the only things you'll have to remember your wedding day afterwards so why not invest in it?

Just like wedding dresses, there are so many different photographers and style of photography to choose from. There aren't many photographers that I've come across here in Copenhagen whose style I liked or wanted for my photos. I met Amanda Thomsen a few years ago and have been following her since. I really like the feel of her photos. She has an eye for details and her photos really tell a story. Unfortunately, she wasn't available for our wedding so then I was sort of at a loss. There weren't any other photographers in the city that I really liked, I found one in Stockholm that I did like but her fees were way over our budget.

Fortunately, I have a friend in Vancouver who is a wedding photographer! We invited my friend Josh from Joshes Photography over to Copenhagen to shoot our wedding. I've known Josh for a long time and have had my photos taken by him on a few occasions over the years and it has been so fun to watch his style grow and evolve. I really love his current work, especially with his own personal lifestyle photography. I love the light and softness in his photos and his ability to capture and evoke emotion in them. So we flew Josh over from Vancouver for a week so that he could see a bit of Copenhagen and shoot our wedding and seriously, one of our best decisions! Our families love the photos! I think my in-laws were a little skeptical about spending such a significant amount of money on hiring a photographer, but I think they now understand why! Josh really did an awesome job on our wedding, especially as he was all on his own, without a second shooter or anything! He captured all the right shots, captured everyone's expressions and emotions throughout the day, and he worked all day from morning until past midnight. Seriously, if you want me to get you in touch with him, just let me know! He is willing to travel and he might be in Denmark again sometime late spring!

It was also great having Josh take our photos because the husband had already knew him and that might have helped him relax in front of the camera. We also did a little engagement shoot before the wedding so we also got a little practice there. And Josh also took some really lovely photos of our rehearsal dinner which are so special to have and look back on. Posing for the photos still felt weird at times, especially when you're in it and holding the same gaze or spot, but when you look at the finished photos, they look so natural! Amazing, how do those photographers do it?

Photography is expensive, especially when they come to weddings. But again, work within your budget, know what style you want, and I'm sure you will find someone who will take photos for you that you will love! And I really can't emphasize it enough, invest in a good photographer! These photos will be yours for a long time and you should love them and be happy with them years down the road. That's my biggest piece of wedding advice!

What was your biggest wedding investment? Were you happy with your wedding photos? Did you get a professional photographer? Was it worth it?

P.S. If you are in Copenhagen, my friends Tina and Jack from Stella and Jack Studios are back in town and I would definitely recommend you to check them out if you are looking for photographers as well!

P.P.S. We took our engagement photos out by Refshaleøen and our wedding portraits were taken at Det Biovidenskabelige Fakultets Have in Frederiksberg and at Botanisk Have in Copenhagen.

Our Wedding: the Dress

I wrote about my dress shopping experience earlier this year and now here's the reveal! After visiting several stores in Copenhagen and doing a little bit of online shopping, I found my dress at Lucca here in the city. Tina mentioned that she had gone past the store so I went on their website and made an appointment. Having gone through their website front and back, I knew I had to try this one dress. And well, that was the dress I ended up buying!

I love this Jenny Packham design but I was not willing to spend such a large sum of money on my dress. The Hany dress from Lucca had a similar look to the Jenny Packham dress but had a fuller skirt which I didn't mind. When you know it's the right dress you just know. I didn't have any crying moments because I was really practical about the whole dress shopping experience, but I just knew that this was the one. I was very open to different types of dresses and different styles, but everything paled in comparison to this Hany dress. Plus the staff at Lucca were great and their prices were in my price range. My mother-in-law and friend S had been to the other wedding dress shops with me and everyone loved this dress so it confirmed that this was the one! I literally went back to the store and bought it the next day!

I love the light beading on the sleeves and the front of the dress. I also love the dramatic deep back on the dress. We got married on a really hot July summer day so I was really glad that my dress wasn't made of heavy materials. The dress is made out of chiffon so it was relatively light and easy to move around in.

Because there was already beading on the dress, I decided to skip wearing a necklace and went with danglier earrings. My parents also gave me a beautiful diamond bracelet as a wedding gift which I also wore on our wedding day. At the church ceremony and for a few photos afterwards, I wore a simple fingertip length veil.

And that's the story of my dress!

Honeymoon in Sitges

Early Monday morning after our wedding on July 19th we took off for our honeymoon in Sitges. Originally, the husband and I had wanted to go to Santorini in Greece. We did not book things early enough so the flight and hotel prices had really gone up. I met with Tina for coffee in May and she suggested a few places we could look into and Sitges was one of them. I am so happy we took her advice because we absolutely loved Sitges.

Sitges is a beach town just a 45 minute or so train ride from Barcelona. We were there for 6 days and spent two days in Barcelona. We booked our flights and hotel through Expedia and stayed at Hotel Avenida Sofia & Spa just across the street from the beach. Although there are many hotels in Sitges, the town did not feel overly touristy. There were tourists, but there were also many Spanish tourists so it felt like a place Spaniards go as well.

The beaches went on and on. If one was too crowded we would just walk down to the next one. Our hotel had a rooftop pool so we spent the mornings there before making our way to the beach after lunch.

The food there was amazing. There were tapas and pintxos and there was seafood. So. Much. Seafood. Basically my dream come true. We had mussels, razor clams, calamari, and of course paella, which I ate 3 nights out of 6. Crazy? Maybe. But I say it eat while you can! For our restaurant recommendations we turned to Trip Advisor. And we were really impressed at how accurate the ratings were. The best meals (and paella!) we had on the trip was at La Marinada and at Restaurant Sitges Bon Estar (plus they had really wonderful service). If you are thinking of going to La Marinada or Bon Estar later in the week, definitely make a reservation. We tried to just walk into Bon Estar on Friday evening and they didn't have any open tables and made a reservation for the next night. While we were eating at Bon Estar, we noticed that all the tables had a reserved sign on it, the food and staff were really wonderful so I can understand why!

Sunshine, the beach, and amazing food. What more could we have asked for? It was so nice to just relax and spend time on our own after having guests and running around the week leading up to the wedding. After being in Spain for almost a week, we came back to Copenhagen to see my family again before they flew home and then spent the rest of the week/weekend at my in-laws' summerhouse.

Did you go on a honeymoon right after your wedding? And where did you go?

We Got Married!

I've been away from here for the last two weeks or so but for a very good reason. The fiance and I, now husband, got married on Saturday, July 19th. It truly was the most amazing day and it was everything we had hoped for and more! We then took off early Monday morning for Sitges in Spain and spent 6 days there (with 2 day trips to Barcelona in between). We are back in Copenhagen now for a few days to spend some more time with my family before enjoying the last of our summer vacation at the summerhouse. I'll be back with more regular posts soon!

Photo from my friend C!