Our traditional and personal wedding ceremony

I could never picture getting married anywhere but in a church. I had only been in Skodje church once, for one of my cousins confirmations. But when we decided to have our reception at Nedreskodje Gard, the choice was easy. The church is a 10 minute stroll away from the barn, it is quite small, and it looks really pretty too.

Here is a peak into our wedding ceremony, complete with soundtrack:

This sounds cheesy, but the moment the church doors opened and I started walking towards Mike must be the most emotional I have ever experienced. Seeing him for a couple of hours for photos earlier in the day didn´t take anything away from making it special. I was smiling and crying, and just so incredibly happy! I was not very nervous, but unusually emotional during the whole service - and grateful to have a handkerchief at hand.

Our processional was "Bruremarsj" by Jan Magne Førde. I have always loved this song, and the fact that the composer is from my hometown makes it even better. My dear friend Erika joined the organ player for this song, as well as for the hymns we sang.

We had readings by a couple of our sisters from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 and Colossians 3:12-19, and a paragraph on marriage and being in love from "Mere Christianity" by C.S Lewis. All our parents were also involved in a prayer of blessing.

We had been wearing our rings during the whole engagement and had planned to take them off before the ceremony and give them to my dad who was our officiant. As I sit there in church I see Mike carefully take his ring off and hand it to his best man, and I realize I am still wearing mine too! Just a few minutes later it was time to say our "Yes", and the next thing up was the ring ceremony, so we remembered just in time. It all happened very fast, and suddenly we were married!

During the speech we held hands and smiled. It was slightly surreal to think that we were married for real,  that this was not another rehearsal. I must admit I can not remember much of what was said, though I thought it was great in the moment. Luckily it is all recorded on video (a last minute decision), and if we are lucky I might be able to get a hold of the manuscript too. 

The big surprise of the day came at the end of our ceremony. My dad walked out from behind the altar, my cousin Sondre started to play the guitar, and suddenly my dad burst into song! He had seen an untraditional blessing on youtube and decided he wanted to sing it for us. Everyone was so surprised, and there was a LOT of laughter.

Finally, we walked down the aisle as man and wife, while "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" by Edvard Grieg was played. We hugged everyone, kissed on the stairs and since the skies were bright blue we walked to our reception and into marriage serenaded by a pretty violinist.

All pictures by the talented Irene Lovund Photography