Danish Wedding Traditions Explained

So we've had some people ask us whether we had a "Danish" or "American" style wedding and party but really we didn't have either! We tried our best to blend the traditions from each style and ended up with a completly unique and very fun party!  I thought it would be fun to explain some of the danish traditions and show some pictures too.

• Toast Master- Our good friend Jesper agreeded to be our toast master for the evening which means he will be keeping the flow of the reception moving. He will let everyone know when it is time to eat, as well as introducing people who would like to give speeches or songs. Jesper did an AMAZING job and actually went above and beyond by doing the whole thing in BOTH languages and even recapping peoples' speeches in the non-native language (it was a little bit like the Olympics where you hear everything in multiple languages!!), it was great and everyone loved having him as Toast Master!

• Speeches and Songs- one of the traditions that was pretty different for the Americans is the "giving of songs". Basically, people will take the tune of a common song (Like My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean) and change the lyrics to be about the wedding couple. They will bring the lyrics written out for all of the guests to sing along! We had three songs at our wedding and they were all a lot of fun. The one his mom did came with a cute box to hold the song sheets that she made look like a Ham Radio (one of Klaus' hobbies) and had included yarn and knitting needles (one of My hobbies) Helle's song sheets were rolled up into scrolls with a blank heart attached that in the song she explained that people were supposed to sign their name on the heart and hang them on the branches she had put on our table. What's neat about this is that we have kept the branches in water and they are now blooming and look so pretty!

• Kissing Traditions-
  • Clinking on glasses- the Americans will be familiar with this one, however there's a danish twist on it. When the guests clink on glasses the couple is supposed to stand on their chairs to kiss.
  
  
  
  • Stomping on the floor- This takes the tradition one step farther and the couple is supposed to crawl under the table to kiss if the guests stomp on the floor.
  
  
  
  • If the bride leaves the room the female guests at the party will run up to the groom and kiss him! The opposite is done if the groom leaves the room- all of the men will run up to the bride to kiss her!

• Bridal Waltz- This takes place just before midnight and usually replaces the american tradition of the "First Dance", we will actually do both at our party. During the waltz the guests form a circle around the couple clapping and slowly moving in towards the couple. By the end of the dance they surround the couple.

• This is also when the guests take off the grooms shoes to cut the toes off of his socks!! Apparently this has to do with making sure he doesn't go after any other women now that he's a married man! I've also read that its to make sure the first wifely duty of the bride is to fix his socks... but I like the other explanation better!

• At the same time, the bride is having her veil torn into pieces by the women at the party! Apparently this is supposed to bring luck to both the bridal couple as well as the guests who take home a piece of the veil. They are supposed to make a wish for the couple and tie the piece of veil on their car antenna/ bike wheel/ etc and when the veil falls off the wish will come true. As best I can tell, these traditions replace the garter and bouquet toss that is usually done in American weddings (we opted not to do these since we did the bridal waltz).

We had so much fun with all of the traditions and it made for a really fun evening! I hope some of these explanations help a little bit, but really its all good fun just of the danish variety!

XOXO,
Joy

The American Invasion of Denmark (aka Joy and Klaus' Wedding!!)

So much has happened since my last blog post! Mainly, I GOT MARRIED!!!! :) Klaus and I were married on April 6th in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by our amazing family and friends! We both felt incredibly blessed and couldn't have asked for a better day. :)

The week leading up to the wedding was crazy busy but also SO much fun because the Americans arrived!! The weather was chilly but as good as we could have hoped for- NO snow or rain and perfectly blue skies for the majority of their stay in Denmark! :) I think it snowed the day after the wedding but for Denmark that's not too bad :)

Michelle, Paul and Noel were the first to arrive and we spent Monday and Tuesday showing them around Bakken and then Copenhagen.

Walking to Bakken with Michelle

Noel and Paul driving the bumper cars!

Then on Wednesday my parents arrived and we did some more sightseeing around Copenhagen in an attempt to help them beat the jet lag (not sure it totally worked...?) Thursday morning I made a trip to the airport to pick up Kim and showed her around the city a bit too including a stop at Ny Havn for a beer and people watching.

I left Kim at Nørreport and pointed her down Strøget for some shopping and headed back to the airport to pick up CJ and Jess. :) Klaus met us at the airport and we took the tired/hungry travellers back to their hotel to meet up with my parents and took them all to dinner.

Friday morning was spent setting up the reception hall with the Krogsgaards, me and Michelle. I think it turned out really nice even if it was a bit hectic to get it all put together. After lunch the Sheplers arrived in Brede and helped us wrap up the last bit of decorating before heading to the church for the rehearsal.

Talking thru the ceremony and figuring out how to make it work

In all the craziness of the day I FORGOT the rehearsal bouquet!!
But it was a work of art and deserves to be seen!!
Thanks girls!!

Friday evening we all went into Copenhagen for the rehearsal dinner at Madklubben Vesterbro, another adventure (there was a mishap with our reservation so they had to do some quick rearranging of tables to get us all seated) but we had a great time and very good food! :)

 

 

Saturday was the big day!!! :) Everything went very smooth and surprisingly I was not nervous or stressed at ALL. :) I think because I had done so much work ahead of time I was able to relax and trust that the rest of the pieces would fall in place and was able to just enjoy the day. It was PERFECT! :)

Mom helping me get ready

 

Bridesmaids

The Shepler women

There are so many more pictures from the day, but this post is already getting SUPER long, so I think I'll post the rest on facebook once we get them back from the photographer. :)

Sunday morning we had our FULL family over to the apartment for brunch and present opening :) By this point Klaus and I were exhausted and decided to opt out of the Sheplers' adventure to Sweden, which was apparently a good choice as they FROZE! This was the day the weather turned yucky and they got snowed on!

This was also the day that Klaus let me know what was going on with my visa application... There has been a mistake made (things happen.) and he got a letter on THURSDAY that said my application had been denied based on some miscounting of the days I've been in Denmark and what they considered my "first entry date". Thank God Klaus was smart enough to wait until after the wedding to tell me about it because I think I would have had a meltdown if he had told me Thursday or Friday, but unfortunately for him, he had to deal with it on his own for I'm sure what felt like an eternity. :( We have appealed the decision and I have been granted the ability to stay in the country during the appeal process, so no worries there. But unfortunately it takes on average 7 months for the appeal to go thru before they can re-look at the visa application... All this means that we will have to play the waiting game quite a bit longer (probably summer of 2014 before all is said and done...) I am trying to be positive about it and focus on all the things that I can do while I wait. Things that I wouldn't have time for if I had a job or school, but it is a tough time right now and the timing of it is pretty unfortunate. However, I refuse to let it take away from the amazing time I had with my friends and family at our wedding!

Thank you all for the love and support you have given us!
XOXO
Joy

PS- for those keeping track: I made 6 trips to the airport, saw the Little Mermaid 3 times and played tour guide to 8 Americans in just over one week!