Jenny i England gift! Laaangt (och pa engelska) med bilder!
Nu har jag varit gift i over en manad och antligen fatt tid att skriva om min helt fantastiska brollopsdag! Jag skrev dock om dagen pa engelska for att alsklingen ocksa skulle forsta och att vi bada kan lasa det om nagra ar och minnas det ljuvliga brollopet och allt omkring... 
Jag har lagt in nagra bilder pa var hemsida, men inte sa manga. daveandjenny.bravehost.com/photos.html
Vi vantar fortfarande pa fotografens bilder, vi har bestallt 36 (!) i album samt 80 smakopior osv. Deras storsta order nagonsin tydligen! Men vi kunde bara inte bestamma oss nar vi sag kontaktkopiorna!
Hall i hatten, har kommer brollopsberattelsen (och den ar lang):
Where do I start? Maybe by saying that I have never felt happier in my life! What an incredible, fantastic and totally wonderful experience getting married is! I highly recommend it (as Princess Diana said)
Since we live in England, we travelled to Gotland 6 days before the wedding and had a very intense week there. I went to the hairdresser and tried on the style and make up, we got leaflets about Gotland for our guests at the Tourist Information, we ordered the flowers, bought champagne, met the priest, went to the church, spoke to the serving girl, checked out the boat, folded programs, bought presents and met people at the airport. To mention but a few things! We had great help from all my family, especially Mum who has been such a star through out this.
On the Wednesday, people started arriving, so we collected Sofia (best friend and bridesmaid) from the airport, then went to Snack and dropped off some welcome gifts in the cottages that our guests were renting, 8 cottages (45 people) all in all (we left some beer & wine for everyone), then drove our rental car to the airport and met more family coming over from England. On the Thursday my friends were helping us loads and we were also busy collecting family and friends at the airport, before partying with everyone in Visby. It was a GREAT night, although we got extremely drunk. And I had forgetten how expensive it is in Sweden to get drunk!
The next morning I was sooo hung-over! We did manage to go see the photographer and drop off everything at Wisby Hotel, even though I thought I would collapse or throw up again, or both. We also went shopping for things for the BBQ before going to the airport to collect friends from the US (we started getting a bit bored with Visby airport at this stage...)
My friend Jakob had suggested that all our guests would play a football match between Sweden and England, which was a great suggestion and everyone was up for it. It was also great for everyone to get to know each other! We started up the BBQ just as my friends from Lund arrieved and it was like a scene out of a movie when they hugged me and screamed "You are getting married tomorrow!". Me and Sofia then went to pick up the last Americans arriving at the airport as David had been drinking whilst playing football (of course). Everyone was gathering at our cottage and seemed to have a great, relaxed time and also enjoyed the beautiful sunset. I had a great time talking to everyone, and didn't feel stressed at all. I didn't drink anything but water though! People stayed until 11.30, after that me and Sofia did a facial mask and she helped me with my nails. It was after 1 am before I went to bed, and David came home at 1.30 (he had been out with some friends in Visby for his "last night of freedom" but he was sober). The last thing I saw outside the cottage before I went to bed was a black cat.
I woke up at 5.40 am by my self and felt excited and happy. I got up, and the first thing I saw outside was that black cat again. Wonder what kind of omen that was? The sky looked hopeful, gray but also blue. It has been forecast for rain all day, so I was quite nervous about that. I started getting ready, woke Sofia up and had a quick breakfast. David also woke up and by 07.30 we were ready to leave. We drove into Visby and returned the car to the car hire place. There, my Auntie Christina was waiting for us with my wedding dress, and took she David to Wisby hotel (to meet bestman Fid) and me and Sofia to the hairdresser. At 8 am, I started the transformation to become a Princess!
With rollers in my hair I was sipping champagne and felt fantastic. At about 9 am, Sofia realised she had left the lyrics for the songs in the rental car that we had returned. Woops, great. She called Christina, who went and got them for us (for that we are forever grateful!). It didn't make me nervous, neither did the call I got from Davids brother John wondering what paragraph of the bible he was supposed to read in church. He didn't even have an English bible with him (!) but somehow he got a hold of one before the ceremony (and it was beautiful, he read in English and my sister in Swedish) I felt extremely laid back! My sister sent me a text saying "Enjoy every moment" and I did.
The transformation to a Princess was done by 11.25 when Roger the Limo driver picked me and Sofia up. About 100 people had gathered on the street outside when I stepped into the limo (as it had to wait 10 minutes for us since we werent ready)We drove to Wisby Hotel where we had to wait for 15 minutes for David and Fid. It turned out they had been in the underwear, still ironing their shirts, when Roger rang to tell them we were there. They both looked great through, David eyes looked incredibly blue in his gorgeous outfit. The love I saw in his eyes when he looked at me was incredible. We were so happy!
We had a CD with our favourite love songs for the limo but first we played the radio for a bit, which started with the song "Heaven knows I'm miserable now", which made us all laugh. We drank champagne and had a great 45 minute journey to the church in Frojel. When we got there, a young photographer was waiting for us and we started taking photos (On the Tuesday, I had rung the photographer just to hear he was actually on the sick. They sent two young girls instead but as long as the photos come out great, I don't care) The guests arrived 20 minutes early so we had to go hide behind the ruin by the church, but it was OK as we took even more photos and had a great time. Sofia and Fid did a fantastic job keeping everyone occupied and they were probably more nervous than we were. I felt sooo calm and just excited, not the least bit nervous! I was just having such a great time and I felt so beautiful.
David and Fid went in to the church first and waited for us at the front. When the church bells started to ring, I entered the church. What a feeling! Everyone I love and care about was there in church, all smiling (but some looked more compassionate and was crying) and the flashes from all cameras almost made me blind. At the end of the aisle, David waited for me and his hand was warm and safe when we walked up to the altar together.
The whole ceremony was beautiful. I was really concentrating on being there in the moment, I heard every word the priest said, every word Sofia sang had a meaning and I meant every vow we exchanged. She sang three songs, "Annies Song", "From this moment" och "Karleken forde oss samman". Her voice is amazing! Everything went just so smooth and I felt so proud of her when I heard her sing the beautiful songs. I had been expecting to cry but I was too happy to cry! During the last song, "Karleken forde oss samman" I did have tears in my eyes, but we both managed to keep it together very well.
Walking out down the aisle together was just magic! Our faces on the photos are just beaming. After all the hugs we went over to the refreshments by the old ruin. The marquees we had had such a problem with getting and putting up had all blown down, but it didn't matter. People were soon drinking champagne, having sandwiches and pizza-buns and mingling, while we took loads of photos. Sofia and Fid made us a picknick for the limo which was SO appreciated as we hadn't had a chance to eat anything.
After getting into the limo (and the guest went into the bus we had hired for them), we then went off for our special surprise: the boat! We had hired a boat to sail out of the harbour with a sign saying "Just Married" on it, which was a surprise to all our guests. It looked great and it felt sooo cool sailing off, waving to everyone. Some people actually thought we had sailed to the party afterwards! (it would have taken 4 hours however) We only went out for a short distance, waved to the guests and then went back into the limo that took us to Wisby hotel. Everyone was mingling in their Wintergarden when Fid introduced us as "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, Mr & Mrs Grieves!" and that was a fantastic feeling!
Exactly on time, 17.50, we went up to Spegelsalen where we greeted everyone with a handshake and welcomed them to the dinner. It looked sooo impressive with the crystal chandeler and floating candles with confetti, and handpicked ivy.
The first speech was Mum's, who read us a lovely speech with a rhyme, and had printed off translations for everyone in English as well. She said that King David put his hands on rays from the sun, and that David did that too, and that I was that sunshine. It made me cry, of course!
We then had the starter (Toast Baltic) and white wine, before it was time for Fid's bestman speech, which was very funny and quite embarrassing (like it should be). We then had the main course (Grilled sirloin of beef and roasted potatoe wedges in a brandy sauce) and red wine and then it was time for my sister Lena's speech. She had also a translation, plus a fantastic song which was brilliant! After some more speeches, I said a short thank you to all guests and to David for letting me have a dream wedding. Then David had his speech, in Swedish first (which everyone really appreciated since he doesn't know much Swedish and had taken the help of my sister to translate the whole speech) and then in English. We then handed out the presents we had bought for our Mums and for other people who had helped out, to say thank you. We then finished of the dinner by singing "Grieves summer night" (from the movie Grease) with David's lyrics and everyone loved it. And then the real party began!
We had our first dance ("Heaven") with a power point projection on the wall with images from our child hood and until we met (if you cant dance that well, get a distraction on the wall!) and it went down very well, and our chocolate mousse wedding cake tasted like a dream. I had SUCH a great time! I had a perfect level of drunkenness and just loved walking around talking to everyone, dancing and head banging to "The final countdown". Both the dances and the karaokee was also a hit and people really enjoyed themselves until 1 pm, when we served hot dogs and turned the music off as the hotel couldn't play music any longer. I was really surprised and happy to see that everyone was still there then! They still didn't want to leave (neither did we!) and it wasn't until 3 am when we waved off the last guests in the reception of the hotel. It felt GREAT walking around the corridor in my gorgeous white dress at 3 am, we were still high on adrenaline and didn't feel tired at all. When we got to our mini suit, we found a bottle of champagne and fruit courtesy of the hotel, and spent 30 minutes reading through the guestbook, both crying and laughing at the lovely things people had written. It was just soooo romantic! We fell asleep the happiest we have ever felt!
The next morning we woke up before 9 am to give each other the morning gifts. I got gorgeous diamond and white gold earrings and David got a watch. We met Lena & family by breakfast and then enjoyed a swim in the pool with them.. We checked out and settled the bill before going to Snack in a taxi with Fid. We met up the the Americans and went back to Visby in a taxi to check out the medieval market. It is a fantastic experience and everyone loved it. In the evening, we went out for a meal with 20 of our guests and it at the end of the night, it was great sitting down at O'Learys with Fid and Sofia and talking through the day. We found out about loads of things that hadn't gone to plan but that we never noticed, like the piano not working in church until the very last minute, and other little mishaps. To us, the day had been perfect!
The next 3 days of our stay on Gotland was filled with sightseeing with the Americans, and saying goodbye to everyone. It does feel sad that it is all over now, but I think I had too much fun to be really sad over anything. What an incredible feeling to marry, I wish I could do it over and over again! But it is one of the best days of your life because of the reason that it only happens once I guess.
We got back to Newcastle despite a leaking plane and a 6 hour delay in Amesterdam. 9 hours later, all UK airports would come to a standstill because the terrorist threat, but we had travelled on the right day. We were sooo thankful it hadn't happened the week before, because we would never had made it with our 37 flying guests!
Shattered but happy, stressed but delirious... so many emotions are going through us now. The last 3 weeks before the wedding, I hadn't once sat down just to watch TV with a cup of coffee, instead I was constantly on the go. I now realise why people go on honeymoons straight after the wedding! But we still have ours to look forward too! We are off to Las Vegas and Hawaii for three weeks in November. The weekend after we got back to England we travelled to Scotland for a mini-break around Loch Lomand ,and and it was SO cosy just to relax, enjoy each other and talk, talk, talk about our fantastic experience.
A lot of people commented on the amount of work we had done planning everything, but I don't regret a second. It went so well BECAUSE it was planned that way: nothing happens by chance. We had both planned each detail and it definitely paid off. On the day, I was able to totally relax and switch off and just enjoy it.
It feels fabolous being Mrs Greives! We had a dream wedding and this is the start of a fantastic life together! Long live marriage, long live love!
