Wedding Pictures!

We got the pictures that Peter took at our wedding. Here are a few:

Outside the church, the newly weds!

At the reception

Sophia on a swing, love this pic!

Cutting the cake, so happy. CAKE!

Someone is saying that we can't eat it straight away. What!?

My cake..??

Wedding dance, I will post a video of this as well!

Haha!

James sister Kristina and her daughters

4 Months Ago...



Best day of my life



Love

Gifts

We have been given so many beautiful gifts, this was given to us by my brother and his family. Thank you!

Love

In the background you can see the guest book that Kristina got us. "There is a butterfly on it, but only a little one so I hope it's ok", she said. Haha!

It's perfect, and we smiled until our cheeks hurt when reading all the lovely messages a few days after the wedding.

A Book About Us

How can we ever thank Jens and Christin enough? Well we probably can't, but thank you again, thank you so much!!!

Look at what they sent us:

A personalised wedding book with the pictures they took! We love it!!

Presents!

Thank you everyone for your amazing presents! We are overwhelmed by all the nice things we have been given.

Today my uncle had been here and dropped off a present, how nice is this?

Kärlek (love)

We Are Famous

Thank you Jens & Christin!

Jens and Christin, how can we thank you enough?

You were a part of the whole day, from when Christin did my make up and Jens took pictures when we were getting ready until we got back to the hotel!
Thank you for doing that, thank you for staying on in church and taking more pictures, getting us water, holding our umbrellas, touching up my make up, taking pictures. Thank you for waiting outside our hotel when we got back to get a pictures of us coming back!

Thank you for coming all then way from Gotland to be such a big part of our big day! Thank you for the gorgeous gifts you brought over from Gotland, we love them!

And thank you for taking hundreds of pictures of the whole day, we can't wait to see them when we get back!

Christin, from her facebook

Thank you Mum and Dad!!

Really, most of all, thank you to my parents! There isn't even enough room in this blog for everything I want to thank you for, for everything you have given me through my whole life.

But basically, thank you for always being there for me, and for making me who I am today. I am so happy!

Thank you for everything you did with and around the wedding, you have been a part from the very start and without you they day wouldn't have been nowhere near as amazing as it was!

We are both truly grateful and I love you so much!

 Mamma

Pappa

Thank you Geoff & Sandra!

Thank you to James' parents for all the help with the wedding! Thank you for coming over early and helping out in the madness of the week before. Thank you for the decorations you sent over, as well as for the drinks you shipped!

Thank you for your lovely speeches, and thank you for the wonderful, home made presents that Sandra made!


Beautiful gift!

Also, thank you a thousand times over for this amazing trip, which we are enjoying as this scheduled post is being posted!!

Sandra with all the girls

Geoff with the boys

Thank You Kevin & Kristina

A massive big thank you to the best Host Couple we could have ever wished for, Kevin and Kristina! Everybody loved you guys, and you were on top of everything so we could just relax and enjoy the day.

You made such an effort, even learned the first bit of your welcome speach in Swedish, well done!! As soon as we needed anything or had any questions we just looked up and there you were.

The staff we had hired turned to you for any questions they had, and everything went perfectly.

Kevin & Kristina at our wedding

We can't thank you enough, you did a brilliant job!

Thank You My Friends

There are so many people I want to thank that made our wedding to the happiest day of my life.

But I want to start before the wedding, with thanking Emmi and Elina, who offered to plan my hen do.

Me on my hen do

Thank you for planning a whole day for me, thank you for picking me up, driving me home, and contacting my other friends to plan this together with them.

Thank you also to Emma, Alina and Monika who helped planning this, I am so glad you were all there to celebrate with me!

Emmi, me and Elina

Wedding Pictures

Yesterday we got some wedding pictures sent over from the photographer.

He sent them over on a normal paper for us to look through and decide which ones to order and which one to use to post in the paper.

They look really good, but it is so hard to decide on which ones to choose. I want them all!

The Swans

I am so proud to be a part of this family!

And Then It Rained...

When we got out of the church we were greeted by the sun! We said hello to everyone, got a hundred hugs and kind words. The photographer took a few pictures, and just as he was taking a pictures of us with all the guests it started raining again.

 Before the rain

 
Within minutes it was pouring down, and Kevin and Kristina started their roles as a host couple by getting everyone on the coach that we had hired to take them back to the reception. Then we had some pictures taken in the church, before we went out to the horse drawn carriage that was taking us back to the reception.

The horses were so beautiful, I took a 30 second time out cuddling with one of them, and felt the stress ease off. That was actually the most stressful part of the day, when we were trying to stay dry, take pictures and look happy at the same time. Bloody rain!

Then we got on the carriage, which luckily had a roof, and made our way back to my parent's garden, where the reception was to be held.

Everyone greeted us, huddled together underneath the marquee that we had put the to keep the welcome drinks underneath.

Emma & Alina

A bit of rain couldn't ruin the feeling of having just married my James!

As it was raining we quickly made our way into the big marquee that we had all decorated on the Thursday....

The Ceremony

As I walked into church with Annika I was greeted by my dad, Lily and Sophia. They all looked lovely!

 Sophia & Lily

I was given my bouquet which looked amazing, and the vicar came out to greet us.

- When it's time to start walking, count to ten before you start, she said, and then disappeared. I sat down and told Lily and Sophia how lovely they looked, and told them that I would be walking right behind them.

Then the bells started ringing. I looked at my dad. Was this when we started walking? He didn't know, I asked Annika. "No, wait for the music to start" she said. Oh yeah. Then the music started!! We went with the Mendelssohn Wedding March. It sounded so powerful, perfect! Then we started walking.

Going into see everyone I just felt so happy! Oh look there is Mia! Oh her dad is here! My work mates! Ah there is Alina, they look lovely! I smiled at everyone who smiled back at me, gave a little wave, a nod. So happy! So much love!

Then my smile broadened when I saw James standing up there with Barry next to him. My Jamesi! I had missed him and was so happy to see him. I wasn't nervous then, just so happy and a bit overwhelmed.

My dad sat down, and I quickly gave Annika my bouquet so I could hold James' hand with both of mine. She looked a bit confused at first because I wasn't supposed to have given her the bouquet until later, but the vicar just smiled a "it doesn't matter" smile.

Then she started talking. I don't remember much of what she said, but I do remember her saying this:

- If you remember anything of what I tell you, remember this: Always respect each other. Don't try to change the other. Let James be James and Charlotta be Charlotta, and you will get far.

Kristina did a reading about how love is the greatest of everything, and read it perfectly.

Then James' mum read a poem, which was so lovely that it made us tear up. I remember the first line clearly - Today you married your best friend.

I actually don't remember the order of everything, but I recall Barry giving the rings to the vicar, and she blessed them. James put mine on, I struggled to put his on and had to use both hands. Happy. He is mine!

Then Emma sang our song. She walked up there and looked at us with a smile and tears in her eyes, singing beautifully just for us. At this point most people in church cried, but I didn't see anything apart from Emma, and James.

We said our vows, looked into each other's eyes. Smiling. Then it was all over. We turned around smiling at everyone, and started making our way out. We were married.

Mr and Mrs Swan!

It's Like Raaiiiiaaain On Your Wedding Day

When we were at the hair dressers it started raining, loads. We walked quickly back to Annika's when we were finished, trying not to let the rain ruin our newly done hair.

Christin and Jens came with us, and we had some tea and sandwiches before Christin finished the last bit of my make up, then we got changed. Wow how amazing to put everything together, hair, make up and dress. It looked lovely! I kept looking out, and it kept raining. Come on!

Then Börje came and picked us up, and when we were driving (slowly as we were early) towards the church the rain stopped. Börje said I must be nervous as he had never known me to be so quiet! I was ok actually, you are so focused on the next step that you don't have time to be nervous. But when we had to stop and sit in the car for a bit and wait as we were early I did feel the butterflies in my belly (eww butterflies, make that little humming birds!).

Then it started raining again (come oooon!) and by the time we got to church it was pouring down. Luckily I had bought a nice white umbrella, and we quickly made our was from the car into the church...

Under my umbrella

I will take you through the rest of the day in some other post scheduled in intervals in the coming few days.

I Love Facebook!

Say what you like about Facebook, but there is no better place to share your experiences quickly, with a lot of people.

All the pictures, messages and comments I have received after the wedding make me relive the day over and over. Thank you all for posting such lovely words and pictures!

A Bit Of A Scare

On the Thursday before the wedding we had a rehearsal in church. I think the vicar was a bit overwhelmed when we turned up, five Swedes and about ten Englishmen!

We said hello to the vicar, and she asked us for the wedding permit that she had asked us to bring. The only problem was neither me nor James could recall her asking us for it, so we just looked stupidly at each other.

- We don't have it.

She then looked slightly worried and asked us if we had applied for one. We quickly explained that we did have the permit at home, and she said "that's good, otherwise we would have had to do a fake ceremony!".
My god, imagine that! Getting "married" in front of everyone, but walk away not actually being married at all, my worst nightmare! We decided that as the Friday was a bank holiday we would drop it off in her letterbox in her office and she would pick it up on the Saturday.

In the evening, Kristina, Kevin and the girls rode back home with me whilst Sandra, Geoff, Barry and Hannah stayed on for a bit with James, decorating the marquee.

Kevin and Kristina put the girls to bed, and I went straight into our office to get the paperwork, as I knew exactly where I had put it. It was not there. It was not there!! What?

I made my self breathe sloooowly, and started looking through all the bit of paper in our office. Kevin and Kristina came upstairs and started to help me look. I remember Kevin kept repeating "don't panic, we will find it, don't panic" as I was trying to take his advice.

- Why don't you call James, Kristina said.
- I will, I said, but I am putting it off as I am so worried he won't know where it is!

After we had looked through everything in the office I had to give up and call James. Trying not to sound panicked I asked if he knew where the permit was.

- I have no idea, he said. I don't think I have ever seen it.

Right. Don't panic, we wouldn't have thrown it away now would we. And even if we had, we would still have a wedding and then sort the legal bits out afterwards, it is ok (not it's not, no it's not, no it's not!!!!!).

As I was desperately sorting through some papers in the front room, Kristina calls me.

- Is this it?

I walked over there slowly, looked at the paper for about 2 minutes before giving her a massive, shaky, hug.

- Oh my god, oh my god, thank you thank you thank you!

How Kristina was able to find a permit, in Swedish, among out receipts (!) I don't know! But I am so grateful!


I got my man!

Looking Back

Oh I love this picture!


Me and Emma