The Story of our Norwegian Wedding
I feel privileged to get to experience the bliss of wedding twice. That means double the stress, double planning and double the fun! I found a new hobby...wedding planning. I love details and this would very good venture for me to enter. I always wished to earn my living from something I enjoy. Wedding twice, but life once, so why not enjoy it instead of spending routine days on tasks you dread. Even with two weddings, it still doesn't feel enough therefore why not get paid to do other people’s wedding. I feel excited already by the thought.
Let's go to the merry part. The story of me and my groom, a story of a wedding without an aisle, an engagement party after the wedding rites, a handful of dates to pick a wedding anniversary and more untraditional what nots...
A MERRY MIX OF CULTURE
Living in Norway, born in Philippines and married to a kurdish Iraqi...man have I got an identity crisis! It's fun, but at the same time one gets confused. My poor future children are already labeled multi-lingual. I am slowly learning to speak the kurdish language. It has come to the point that they can't talk secrets in kurdish in front of me. Anyway, I did get a privilege of dual wedding...cool fringe benefit. I am sure you hear more about my culture quests in my later blogs, if any...?!
THE PLANNING PART-NORWAY
After hundred of phone calls, referrals and webpages viewed it finally accumulated to a magical wedding on September 3, 2005. I would rewind and play it again if it was possible. Despite the stress of accomodating 500 guests, I would do it all over again. My mate says the same. I am glad all my efforts paid off, seeing him happy and content with the event, is worth all the blood, sweat and tears.
Here are the ingredients to our wedding;
The theme
The color theme was formed from my gown, rather the contrast of it; dark red and purple hues with a blackish flavor. I can’t say that I really have a favorite color, but my favorite dish is aubergine, hence purple. No, but seriously, purple is a mix of red and blue, the coldest and the hottest color, which I feel reflects our varieties. The main theme which is middle eastern comes from my grooms cultural background. I love marrakesh, and the middle eastern theme is perfect to this. It’s weird though how it ended to be such a feminine, sophisticated and colorful, when I am usually a contemporary person in style.
The wedding rings; Matus Jewellery
Another supplier from the Philippines. The internet works wonder. First of all, we found the design in the internet, and we found the supplier as well in the internet in a seperate page.
Having a custom made ring, I feared we wouldn't get the exact result we imagined, but when we received the ring we were awed by the marvellous craftmanship. Nothing is imposiible for this couple. They deliver your expectations with excellent service. Hail to the Pinoy!
The tiara and earrings: Arts & Crafts and a shop I can't remember the name of
Arts & Crafts is an accesories shop established by two Norwegians who lived and got inspiration from the Philippines. I bought a diadem from the same place reminding me of a vein to match the strap, but later I felt it looked more like a greek laurel. So after walking a round in the busy summer streets of Oslo, I found the perfect one to coordinate with the middle-eastern theme of the wedding. But I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of those earrings. I was supposed to put them on when it broke. Our buddy Alex being such a big sweetheart had to run to the store, and exchange them. First branch, they were out of stuck. Further down in another branch they gave him a new pair. Imagine what happened, when I took them on, they broke again. I was freaking out, thinking what will I wear now. Luckily my sister in law came up with a solution. My piece of advice, get quality merchandise!
My gown and several accesories, Bizzis suit and flowergirl: Palmos Wedding Events and Services
The cousin of my bestfriend Amor, Ollie Palmos, and her husband kuya Jorge opened their shop a little before our february vaccation. Luckily for me, I saved some money from not buying in the expensive country of Norway, and beside the result created a lot of smiles for me. The design was created from several inspirations and combinations of gown I have researched from magazine and other sources, my idea of a garden wedding and a one sided strap imitating a vein to match with it. After frequent correspondence with mrs. Palmos on the design, I finally got the gown I can dream about, and it was perfect! My jaws are still soar from smiling...
They also provided us with the veil, my shoes, my grooms complete attire and one of the flowergirls' (Bizzi's niece) gown and bag.
Bizzi's suit was inspired from a design of Carlo Pignatelli's Ceremonia series which Bizzi found in a magazine in a bridal shop. He took a picture with his cellphone of the image, and voilla the Palmos team transformed it to a creation we could be satisfied of.
Photographer: Studiovest (Won the title Best wedding photographer of 2003)Article in Norwegian about his award
A funny bald guy. My decision between the several supplier was determined according to lowest price of the top photographers. Being the "cheapest", they didn't lack quality or service.
He is a genius behind his killer camera. His presence made me relax with his good mood and humor. Notice him in one of his creative works on the image on the right. Using money on a good photographer is really worth it. That's the residue of the one day affair.
Videographer: AV Media
A videographer in Norway is actually not my priority, but winding up with a bad video on our engagement party, I felt I needed one to take care of the videography, considering the rest of my "crew" was too busy. Good decision, cause at the end of the day, I found my own videocamera and still camera unused in a forgotten corner. Phew, man am I smart!?
The ride: care of Reverdie Pineda and his wife Jingle Pineda;
A Chrysler 300C, a headturner. Wayne, my bro-in-law drove the car
, and man did he get attention in the street. Exterior and interior wise this car rocks. The polished black surface is a contrast to our milky white attires. Thanks for letting us borrow this car.
The bridal boquet and corsage; Passiflora
Having searched several bridal webpages, I wound up find
ing the supplier from an extra magazine attached to another magazine. The shop is rustic with an exciting selection, an old fashioned shabby chic shop with modern creations. When I visitted the place and looked at their sample album I discovered that this was the supplier of Norwegians' prince in his wedding. The boquet was composed of colors from my color theme. Red-black Baccara roses, Aubergine calla lillies, veins and branches with a matt green color and purple hydrangeas. Accesorized with golden thread and white pearls this teardrop shaped cascade boquet became just as I had visualized this and even better. Bizzis corsage was taken from the flowers of the bride boquet. Alex, our unofficial best man, picked up the flowers, and in the end he insisted not to get paid, and gave it as his gift.
The flowergirls
The flowergirls are Nuveen, the little bride, Bizzis niece.
Let's go to the merry part. The story of me and my groom, a story of a wedding without an aisle, an engagement party after the wedding rites, a handful of dates to pick a wedding anniversary and more untraditional what nots...
A MERRY MIX OF CULTURE
Living in Norway, born in Philippines and married to a kurdish Iraqi...man have I got an identity crisis! It's fun, but at the same time one gets confused. My poor future children are already labeled multi-lingual. I am slowly learning to speak the kurdish language. It has come to the point that they can't talk secrets in kurdish in front of me. Anyway, I did get a privilege of dual wedding...cool fringe benefit. I am sure you hear more about my culture quests in my later blogs, if any...?!
THE PLANNING PART-NORWAY
After hundred of phone calls, referrals and webpages viewed it finally accumulated to a magical wedding on September 3, 2005. I would rewind and play it again if it was possible. Despite the stress of accomodating 500 guests, I would do it all over again. My mate says the same. I am glad all my efforts paid off, seeing him happy and content with the event, is worth all the blood, sweat and tears.
Here are the ingredients to our wedding;
The theme
The color theme was formed from my gown, rather the contrast of it; dark red and purple hues with a blackish flavor. I can’t say that I really have a favorite color, but my favorite dish is aubergine, hence purple. No, but seriously, purple is a mix of red and blue, the coldest and the hottest color, which I feel reflects our varieties. The main theme which is middle eastern comes from my grooms cultural background. I love marrakesh, and the middle eastern theme is perfect to this. It’s weird though how it ended to be such a feminine, sophisticated and colorful, when I am usually a contemporary person in style.
The wedding rings; Matus Jewellery
Another supplier from the Philippines. The internet works wonder. First of all, we found the design in the internet, and we found the supplier as well in the internet in a seperate page.Having a custom made ring, I feared we wouldn't get the exact result we imagined, but when we received the ring we were awed by the marvellous craftmanship. Nothing is imposiible for this couple. They deliver your expectations with excellent service. Hail to the Pinoy!
The tiara and earrings: Arts & Crafts and a shop I can't remember the name of
Arts & Crafts is an accesories shop established by two Norwegians who lived and got inspiration from the Philippines. I bought a diadem from the same place reminding me of a vein to match the strap, but later I felt it looked more like a greek laurel. So after walking a round in the busy summer streets of Oslo, I found the perfect one to coordinate with the middle-eastern theme of the wedding. But I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of those earrings. I was supposed to put them on when it broke. Our buddy Alex being such a big sweetheart had to run to the store, and exchange them. First branch, they were out of stuck. Further down in another branch they gave him a new pair. Imagine what happened, when I took them on, they broke again. I was freaking out, thinking what will I wear now. Luckily my sister in law came up with a solution. My piece of advice, get quality merchandise!
My gown and several accesories, Bizzis suit and flowergirl: Palmos Wedding Events and Services
The cousin of my bestfriend Amor, Ollie Palmos, and her husband kuya Jorge opened their shop a little before our february vaccation. Luckily for me, I saved some money from not buying in the expensive country of Norway, and beside the result created a lot of smiles for me. The design was created from several inspirations and combinations of gown I have researched from magazine and other sources, my idea of a garden wedding and a one sided strap imitating a vein to match with it. After frequent correspondence with mrs. Palmos on the design, I finally got the gown I can dream about, and it was perfect! My jaws are still soar from smiling...They also provided us with the veil, my shoes, my grooms complete attire and one of the flowergirls' (Bizzi's niece) gown and bag.
Bizzi's suit was inspired from a design of Carlo Pignatelli's Ceremonia series which Bizzi found in a magazine in a bridal shop. He took a picture with his cellphone of the image, and voilla the Palmos team transformed it to a creation we could be satisfied of.
Photographer: Studiovest (Won the title Best wedding photographer of 2003)Article in Norwegian about his award
A funny bald guy. My decision between the several supplier was determined according to lowest price of the top photographers. Being the "cheapest", they didn't lack quality or service.He is a genius behind his killer camera. His presence made me relax with his good mood and humor. Notice him in one of his creative works on the image on the right. Using money on a good photographer is really worth it. That's the residue of the one day affair.
Videographer: AV Media
A videographer in Norway is actually not my priority, but winding up with a bad video on our engagement party, I felt I needed one to take care of the videography, considering the rest of my "crew" was too busy. Good decision, cause at the end of the day, I found my own videocamera and still camera unused in a forgotten corner. Phew, man am I smart!?
The ride: care of Reverdie Pineda and his wife Jingle Pineda;
A Chrysler 300C, a headturner. Wayne, my bro-in-law drove the car
, and man did he get attention in the street. Exterior and interior wise this car rocks. The polished black surface is a contrast to our milky white attires. Thanks for letting us borrow this car. The bridal boquet and corsage; Passiflora
Having searched several bridal webpages, I wound up find
ing the supplier from an extra magazine attached to another magazine. The shop is rustic with an exciting selection, an old fashioned shabby chic shop with modern creations. When I visitted the place and looked at their sample album I discovered that this was the supplier of Norwegians' prince in his wedding. The boquet was composed of colors from my color theme. Red-black Baccara roses, Aubergine calla lillies, veins and branches with a matt green color and purple hydrangeas. Accesorized with golden thread and white pearls this teardrop shaped cascade boquet became just as I had visualized this and even better. Bizzis corsage was taken from the flowers of the bride boquet. Alex, our unofficial best man, picked up the flowers, and in the end he insisted not to get paid, and gave it as his gift.The flowergirls
The flowergirls are Nuveen, the little bride, Bizzis niece.
Two of them is the daughers of two of our friends. The girl with the big smile made us laugh so much. She's hillarious.
They enjoyed the pictorial so much, and they didn't want to leave my
side. According to them, they never experienced anything like this before. Carrying my gown was a blast for them.The baskets are designed by myself. Bought plain weaved basket and sprayed it with red spraypaint and glued on some dangling golden linen and stuff for the middle-eastern theme. Then I bought flowers to conform with the theme, dark colors in purples and reds; cerise celosias, lisanthius, dark red roses and calla lillies. My sister arranged the flowers.
The Cake; Pierre from the renowned Ekebergrestauranten
A french cakespecialist created my cake. He was recommended by our good 
friend Roberto. We had caketasting and drafting of design weeks before the wedding. I fell in love with his previous works and the taste from the sample cake. The flavor was passionfruit mousse with cococonut bun. Composed almost like a cheesecake, yummy. It was a hit among the guest. It tasted and look good.
we forgot the the fork, we had to feed each other mano mano. Something unusual, but a nice twist. The knife set was bought in Bryllupsbutikken.
The food; thanx to Bizzis family
The menu was rice from my favorite budget indian restaurant with beef stroganoff courtesy of Bizzis Norwegian bro-in law, Einar. Meatballs wrapped in rice, a kurdish dish. Lebanese salad tabouleh, ordinary salad and greek yoghurt salad tzatsiki.A confirmation of our multicultural background. All of this, except for the rice, made by Bizzis family. Made for 500 people, no wonder they were worn out after the wedding..
Fruits and veggies from Roberto, a big help! He also lend us his van to transport the food.
Hair and makeup; Helat, Bizzis sister from Cancam salons
A big favor! Hair and makeup is big bucks here, so her expertise was a great relief. She was second place in Norwegian championship of hair and make up styling. She borrowed a Cancam salon in another branch than hers. Prior to the wedding I researched several style I would prefer. In the end I found the make up and hair I wished in an Indian magazine in a foreign fabric shop. I was so thrilled she managed to copy the style.
The venue: Håndverkeren kurs & konferansesenter
Living in Norway, and expecting 500 guests is big problem. For the norwegians a big venue has a capacity of maximum 60 persons. And another thing is to find one vaccant 2 months before the wedding in a high peak wedding season. Another thing I had to consider, was the availability of a guest on a a particular date. Finding a date and a venue, is painstaking, believe me.Decorations and details
The decorations was the fun part planning. Making it all mesh, and making it
seem like your located in Marrakesh wasa thrill. We struggled finding centrepieces, but it turned out ok.
The party
We were welcomed with heart shaped rice bought in Bryllupsbutikken and indian like sounds, a tradition that is typical them. Their parties are loud, lots of dancing, live music and full of celebrations. As we were led to our seats, people continued yelling and dancing and waving their "hankies" In a kurdish wedding, they honor the couple by letting them sit most of the time, except when they dance with the crowd, and the couple gets everything handed in a silver platter. The first thing they did when we sat was an old tradition of puttin a boy in our lap from the nearest family, and the couple has to give money to that boy, who happened to be Bizzis nephew, Vara,
The sound system was provided by an albanian workaholic who almost have a monopoly market of sound sytem to kurdish wedding. The musicians name is Dilshad Zaxoli, a kurdish well known singer who sang both kurdish and arabic songs to the people's delight.
Other highlights were our solo slow dance and cakecutting and toasting ceremony. Before we cut the cake, someone dances with the utensils and gets offered money from the couple. They play hard to geet, and refuse to give it until they get a sum they are satisfied with. In the end, the couple gets back the money. It's just for show. It all finished three am.
Hotel accomodation; Hotel Stefan
After a tiresome affair, we finally got our well deserved rest in a hotel just a stonethrow away. We walked in the weekend streets of Oslo among partylions from the nightlife scene dressed in wedding attire three in the morning..
This is the end of the Norwegian part. The next chapter starts on February 18 as we enter to another memorable day. I haven't yet resumed my wedding planning as we still have a hangover from the previous one. Half of it is finished anyway, and the important suppliers are already booked, but I do not want to reveal so much. There must be some elements of surprise considering our attires and rings is already exposed.
On a final note, I have a short summary of the events that unfolded here, as well as some more tips and experiences from the Norwegian wedding encounter.
The garter
What is a wedding without a blooper. On our way to the pictorial session prior to the reception, my garter fell off. Some bypassers pointed at it, and said "look, there goes her thing". The mention of the word thing made me feel that something taboo had happened, like it was too emberassing to even mention "garter". It's not like my pants dropped, but anyway that's my blooper for me to remember and laugh about through the years.
The nerves
It's true that there is lots of tensions, stress, blues, jitters and temper in connection to the wedding. Especially one week before. It's almost like a soap opera intensified. So much emotions stirring up. It's worth it though how crazyu that may sound. This is the sort of pain one would endure to come to experience the wedding extacy. As the saying goes, No Pain, No Gain.
The Knot
A powerful wedding planning tool, the knot provides so much help in the planning process. It's an american based website and is the highest ranking of its kind. It was even featured in one episode of "the apprentice". Actually, one must be based in US to become a member,but that didn't stop me from joining. Here you can browse among the thousands of gowns and get ideas, and even use their handy guest list tool and budget tool..
Left side proof
A muslim tradition I wish to share with you is that the rings are worn on the left finger. The explanation is actually very simple; it's closer to the heart.
Chronological?
Being an overly organized person, I still wonder to this day, how come my wedding rites came before the engagement party. Don't ask me, it's a long story!!! The muslim wedding rite is performed somewhat similar to a civil wedding, far from what I envisioned. Some months later, on March 12, we had our engagement party with the "closest" people. 150 persons turned up. It was a joyous day with cake cutting, and giving out of gold jewelries from the coming grooms family to the coming bride. My dad was present, which I felt was one of the highlights, living so far away from us. After the engagement party, the next event is the celebration one day prior to the wedding, the henna night. Henna is the dye and coloring agent used in henna tattoo. They call it that because the coming bride and groom gets henna on their fingers as a symbol of unity, and all the other family members and relatives has to dip their hand to the henna as well. It's a small affair, and I mean it this time. But still there is live music and dancing like in the other events. And if that red dye stays in your finger and irritates you, don't worry, it's supposed to be like that, it's to show the guest in the wedding the day after that you had a henna night and is united. Then ofcourse the wedding followed, and the next step will be the civil wedding so that we get our wedding official and on paper. The wedding adventure stops with the wedding in the Philippines this coming February. So now you see my dilemma with establishing an anniversary date. That's why I didn't engrave the date in our rings. Just so you know it, it's September 3 so far. (Pictures of the henna night will be posted later, the same goes for engagement party).
As a final note for now, to all you who are about to be wed, congratulations, there are great days ahead.
posted by Angie @ 1:35 PM
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Hi, got here through w@w and I was smiling when I read your wedding story :) What a charming story! You guys seemed to have so much fun! Am sure you'll have a blast at your Philippine wedding :) Congratulations to you both :)
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