The Wedding
I’ve never been one of those people who long to get married. To be honest, I didn’t really see the point or the difference. But then, love just inspires you to celebrate it!
We got married in September. In some ways it was a traditional Norwegian farm wedding, in other ways it was unconventional. For us, it was perfect.
First things first: the outfits.
My dress is a folk costume from Snåsa, the region where my father is from. The dress is called a “Frueskodrakt” and is made from wool. The shirt is linen. The silver is designed for the dress, and like the dress - it is decorated with the Fruesko orchid (Cypripedium calceolus). The wedding crown is designed by me to match the silver. It is hand crafted from Stirling silver and will, without a doubt, become an heirloom in our family.
Christian is wearing the folk costume from the region he is from, namely the “Orkdalsbunad”. His costume consists of many different garments: a linen shirt, a silk vest with silver buttons, blue woolen jacket with silver buttons, black woolen nickers, stockings and a variety of ribbons. The knife in Christians belt was my wedding gift to him and is made by my grandfather. My grandfather specialized in making Southern Sami knives from reindeer antlers. Oh, and then there’s the hat! Loving the hat.
And then there’s the horse.
Traditionally the bride would ride to her wedding so naturally I had to do that. The horses name is Sterk Odd, meaning Odd the Strong. He is absolutely gorgeous and very cooperative.
The wedding ceremony was held at a mound behind our farm. The ceremony was Åsatru - conducted by Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost.
We chose to have a heathen wedding ceremony because nature is sacred to us both. Either of us are raised christian - I’m not even baptized - so getting wed in a church would have been really weird. We also wanted a legal ceremony so we didn’t have to go somewhere else before or after to have the paperwork done. If this had been the case, the ceremony would have felt like a theatre performance. Good thing about Bifrost, is that they have been legally marrying couples for over ten years. They are super professional and everything felt right.
Lucky for me one of my oldest friends is a Allgydje - a priestess with the right to marry, so naturally we asked her to marry us.
After the ceremony we danced a traditional Stubbedans (Stabbdannjs).
The rules are simple: The bride and the groom dance on the log until one of them falls off. The one who does not fall down will have more power in the marriage.
Guess who won.
After the Stubbedans a folk band called Ljom played.
Everyone was really in to the music so there are no pictures from the concert. However, I really encourage you to check them out on Spotify.
Fantastic Norwegian folk with beautiful vocals.
The wedding dinner was held at one of our barns - the barn called Galadrihall.
We spent months preparing the barn and with the help of good friends and family we managed to get everything ready.
Traditional food was served, lovely words were spoken, tears of joy were shed and friends danced into the night to the sound of the DJs Maria and Tonje.
The newly wed couple eloped around midnight leaving about 85 happy guests behind.
